MAC's Believe It Or Not!

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", February 1987, page 19

It was the first Wednesday after Labor Day (1981) and the kids were back in school, so Mrs. Mac headed for Jamie's Flea Market in nearby Amherst, Ohio. There were a lot of transient dealers set up. A good day to find some new items. Believe It or Not, on the first table she stopped to survey there were two dirty pieces of glass. One was obviously a Hemingray-42 (damaged) for $5. Now, there's a bargain! Next to it was a clear glass piece that was really weird!! Now, my wife has been eating and sleeping insulators for a decade, and you will not believe what she did next. She dismissed this curiosity as something that couldn't be an insulator and moved on to the next table. For over an hour she looked at bargains, such as masking tape, duct tape, socket wrench sets, and tube socks!! Finally, she decided to return to the first table and ask some questions about the strange piece of glass. Both the pieces were still there. The Hemingray-42 and the "other thing." She asked the dealer if he knew what it was. Of course! One of those telephone `conductor' things." Did he know where he got it? "In a bucket of junk...can't remember where or when. Had it a while." The piece has threads and she still didn't believe it! She put it back down and walked 30 yards to where Claire Reindle of Wakeman, Ohio had a table set up with insulators, bottles and etc. "Do you happen to have and insulator pin, Claire? Can I borrow it for a minute? " Back to the first table one more time. She picked up the glass object and screwed it onto the insulator pin. Overwhelming feelings of being a "cinderella" overcame my wife. She finally conceded that it must be an insulator. As a good Scotsman, I have trained her well. Looking at the $5 price tag on the piece, she asked the dealer if he would take "LESS." No deal. So, out came $5 and Carol went back to show Claire that her insulator pin had convinced her to make a purchase.

As soon as she got home, she picked up the phone to call our resident insulator patent expert, Ray Klingensmith. "Ray, have you ever heard of an insulator with the name TWIGGS embossed on it?" Ray was silent and then asked for a description. Mrs. Mac described it and Ray said the name was "familiar,” but not to rule out that it might be a "toilet part" or the "top of a large coffee urn!" Ray promised to check his listing of patents he had researched and give her a call. Within ten minutes the phone was ringing. It was Ray, and "it" was an insulator. "I don't have the patent in front of me, but I will go into Cleveland this next week and see what I can find. I'll bring it out to you and take some pictures of the TWIGGS insulator."

LATER THE SAME DAY...

Mrs. Mac placed a long distance call to me at the O'Hare Hilton in Chicago where I was staying while on a business trip. She relayed the story to me and described the way the insulator looked. She said, "Take out a piece of paper...draw the bottom of a CD 206 Castle and remove the drip points and turrets. Now, draw a hockey puck sitting on top of the `castle.' O.K., put an upside-down keyhole into the `hockey puck' leading from one side straight through the diameter of the puck. Looking down at the insulator you will see a rectangular opening which leads into the keyhole slot. On one side of the rectangular opening on the top surface it is embossed: `W.R. TWIGGS.' On the other side it is embossed `PAT. AUG 29 1905.'" We finished our conversation and I returned to the nap which Mrs. Mac had interrupted with the phone call. When I awakened I thought that I had been dreaming an incredible Believe It or Not story. Not until I looked at the night stand next to the bed did I realize that the small pad of O'Hare Hilton note paper had a drawing on it. Believe It or Not! 

Here is the drawing made on the O'Hare Hilton note pad

and the actual CD 141.7 Twiggs Patent.