EACH NEW DISCOVERY HAS ITS OWN STORY

INSULATORS ON CASTLE DUTY IN FRANCE

Let me introduce two new CD's, 625 and 626, which belong to John Underwood of Wauchula, Florida. These were sent to me for shadow profiles and photographs, then on to Woody for CD assignment so they could be added to the Second Revision of GLASS INSULATORS FROM OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA, soon to be published. John had this fascinating tale to tell about these beautiful insulators.

"These insulators were brought to me from France by one of my foreign banking clients. This individual owns a 17th century castle located approximately 40 miles south of Paris. As a child, he remembers that during the Nazi invasion of France, Hermann Goering took over the castle as a secret headquarters for the Gestapo. It was also his residence during this campaign.

The power line to the castle was installed during this occupation. I wonder why such a high voltage line was established on this site.

My client stated that these poles were removed 15-20 years ago. Many were piled up behind a barn on his estate to be used as fencing for his sheep herd. Only five insulators remained with the poles. Of these five, two were CD 625's and three were CD 626's. Sadly, one of each style was severely broken, but happily, I was able to trade with John for the one remaining 626 in beautiful yellow green.

6-5/8" X 4-1/2"
CD 625 ISOREX / 310

4-1/2" X 4-1/2"
CD 626
FOLEMBRAY / No. 1306

NEW FRIEND FROM "DOWN UNDER" AIDS RESEARCH "UP FRONT"

Fairly recently, I began corresponding with Mike Hornabrook, a sheep and wool farmer who lives in the town of Casterton, right on the state border between Victoria and South Australia. Mike, 59, says "I have been picking up or pulling down telephone insulators all my life, and fairly surreptitiously until the last few years. We (he and his wife Gil) began generating our own 32 volt home power and light in 1947 and the State Grid connected this area about 1967, so electric power insulators have never interested me -- nasty, bitey stuff, even fatal! With the rapid disappearance of overhead phone lines over the last 30 or so years, insulator gathering is just about done. But I keep trying, concentrating on Australian telephone and telegraph insulators of glass and porcelain. I have also gathered a few from New Zealand." Judging from the photos Mike has sent, he has quite a large collection of some mighty fine insulators and we have made some good trades. He was most anxious to acquire some good insulator reference books and I was happy to have the insulators he sent. 

Since Mike is in a position to do some research on local insulator manufacturers, he has put together some information on SUNSHINE POTTERIES near Melbourne and will pass that on to me for sharing with you sometime in the near future. In the meantime, he was able to identify a marking that both Bernie Warren and I had wondered about for a long time. Are you reading, Bernie?? 

The letters WP followed by a date of '51 appear as a dark blue underglaze ink stamp on the crown tops of a U-1145 and a U-1160 in Mike's collection. He also has a second U-1145 marked similarly, but with only the letter W, and this one has a date of '52, probably when the P was dropped. Two independent but reliable sources have told Mike that these markings identify the insulators as products of the WELLAND POTTERIES, which operated in the Adelaide, South Australia area. However, for some reason, their insulator products were inferior and consistently failed Post Master General (TELECOM) tests and so the company stopped making insulators. Mike feels that possibly these two styles were the only ones produced by WELLAND POTTERIES. At the moment, I have no other dates or information on the history or present status of this company, but we'll be waiting to hear whatever else he can tell us.

Mike did send a photo of his insulators, but I was not sure it would print well, so have included one here showing both styles from my own collection. The only one that bears the mark of WELLAND is the U-1160 on the left. The U-1145 to the right is there merely for identification, darn it!

U-1160 on the left; U-1145 on the right.

WP followed by 51, a dark blue underglaze
 ink stamp on the crown top of a U-1160.

TREASURES FROM LATVIA, USSR

Dwayne Zimmermann of Topeka, Kansas, has acquired a couple of interesting U-1710's from Russia and wrote to tell me about them. Here is a copy of his letter:

"My son studied at Riga University early this year and brought two porcelain insulators back for my collection. He was in Riga, Latvia (Soviet Union) from 2/4/91 to 6/6/91 as part of a Baltic Studies Program from Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas.

He had shinnied up an old pole and managed to work off a small porcelain insulator and dropped it to the ground. As he watched, from the pole, the insulator started to roll down a slope towards a nearby river. As you already figured out it proceeded to roll into the river and he couldn't retrieve it.

The two insulators he brought home were found in Riga, Latvia in a rail yard."

U-1710 (above) is stamped, green ink, white porcelain. It measures 4- 7/16" by 3" base diameter. It is marked above the wire groove as follows:	U-1710 (above) is a white porcelain stamped above the wire groove, incuse. The top doesn't sit straight, 4-3/8" tall on one side and 4-1/8" tall on the other side with a 2- 15/16" base diameter.

I did eventually borrow these and had the pleasure (you heard right) of being allowed to clean them. While I cannot attribute either of these markings to a particular manufacturer or user, it was a good opportunity to copy them and take photos of the insulators for future reference and hopefully one of my contacts in Europe can give us some help. Maybe someone out there in readerdom knows the answer? Many thanks to John, Mike and Dwayne for sharing!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: A letter has been located in a museum in the Northwest, establishing the date and origin of M-2150, the "Mysterious Eaved Insulator", also known as the KOOTENAY WHITE (see my column April 1990 CROWN JEWELS). The full report is not yet in, but I have been asked by the collector who will eventually write that account to tell you this much, and this much only,.....for now. The insulator dates from about 1901 and it originated in Germany. Watch for further details!