One well known but very rare threadless insulator has the embossing S. McKEE & CO. Another of this CD 131 style is identical except for being unembossed. Both are usually light aqua in color, and they have a "button" mold seam on the dome. The best area for finding them appears to be along the alignment of the first transcontinental telegraph line and along the U. P. R. R. through Wyoming and eastern Utah. (See March 1969 Crown Jewels.)

The unembossed one in my collection is in shiny mint condition and has a large olive color streak through it. The original whittled pin it is on has burlap wrapped over its top with sulphur packed in it. When jammed into the threadless hole, the sulphur and burlap spread out. After the sulphur hardened, the insulator would not easily come off the pin, as the pin hole is smaller at its bottom. The Mulford & Biddle and W. Brookfield threadless that I've examined do not have this type of hole, but my U. S. Tel. Co. does.

Albert C. Revi, in his book American Pressed Glass and Figure Bottles, gives some information about S. McKee & Company. It was at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1834 that Samuel and James McKee established a window glass and bottle factory. In 1836 the name changed to S. McKee & Co. A new factory was built in 1840, and it was still operating in 1866 with three furnaces. The brothers Frederick and Stewart also associated in glassmaking ventures, and in 1889 the four brothers moved to Jeanette, Pennsylvania, to join The National Glass Company. In 1903 they reformed McKee Glass Company which is still in operation as a division of Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Company.

Just noted under a list of designs and patents for glassware in the book by Revi: "August 15, 1854 William Brooke Glass mold for telegraph hooks & insulators." Also found: "January 5, 1869 Homer Brooke - Mold for glass bottles", "August 10, 1869 Homer Brooke Glass Mold", "July 11, 1871 Aries P. Brooke Glass press".

Marvin Collins 
2460 Cherry Court 
Eureka, Ca. 95501