Porcelain Insulator News
by Elton Gish, NIA #41
Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", February 1987, page 29
Dear Elton,
My grandfather was born and lived in New Lexington so when I finally started doing some
genealogical research in the New Lexington Tribune, I naturally was on the lookout
for any mention of the New
Lexington High Voltage Porcelain Company. The microfilm can be ordered through
interlibrary loan but it cost me $8 to do so and I only had a few weeks to read several years
worth of newsprint. So far, I have covered the period from January, 1904 to April 1,
1904 and January 1, 1905 to June 16, 1905.
I tried to photocopy the articles but the copy did not turn out
satisfactorily. First, the print is very small. Secondly, it came out reversed
-- white print on black -- which is not very easy to reproduce in Crown
Jewels.
Third, it is very faint and appears to be smudged. I decided to copy the
articles by hand. Following are the bits and pieces that I found:
From the March 9, 1905 New Lexington Tribune p. 1:
PORCELAIN PLANT WILL START
Will Be Running in Full Blast By Monday --
Many
Men Working Now
The New Lexington High Voltage Porcelain plant will be running in full blast
by Monday. W. H. Lowry of Victor, New York will assume the duties of
superintendent, and the works will be run to their utmost capacity.
Mr. Lowry thoroughly understands the business and
has had
years of experience in the clay industry. That the enterprise will be successful
under his management, there is not a doubt.
This will be good news to New Lexington people as well as to the stockholders
of the company, and it will mean much to the future welfare of the town.
From the April 6, 1905 New Lexington Tribune:
The New Lexington High Voltage Porcelain Company has been reorganized with
the following officers at the head of the institution: Judge M. A. Donahue,
President; Joseph Weiland, Vice President; T. J. Weiland, Secretary and
Treasurer; A. Bingardner, General Manager. With these successful business men in
charge, the company ought and no doubt will succeed in making the venture pay
good dividends.
On the same page:
H. W. Brown left this week for New Lexington, where he has accepted a
position with the Porcelain Works, as head burner. Mr. Brown is an expert in his
line and has had years of experience in his work. -- Roseville Review.
Also on the same page:
A. Bringardner, general manager for the New Lexington High Voltage Porcelain
Co., was down from Junction City Thursday.
Richard Soller
NIA $2958
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Dear Richard,
I appreciate your researching the history of New Lexington. This is boring
stuff for some collectors, but very interesting to me and those collecting the
early classic porcelain insulators.
As you probably know from reading Jack Tod's book Porcelain Insulators Guide
Book for Collectors -- 2nd edition, there is very little known about New Lexington.
It is very interesting why the company waited until March 1905 to start
production when they had incorporated a full two years earlier in March 1903.
Were they raising funds to buy equipment, land and etc. during that two year
period? Another interesting point is the superintendent, W. H. Lowry of Victor,
New York. He must have been from the Locke plant in Victor.
All of the information that your sent is filling a rather large gap in their
history and I hope that your continued research will turn up even more. Thanks
again for your extra effort for the hobby.
Elton
Dear Elton,
I found an unusual insulator of which I cannot find any information in any of
my books. I have enclosed two photos (could not reproduce here) of the
insulator. There are four indentations in the base where I was told some type of
clip held it down.
The base has an internal recessed area (inverted cone) with vertical parallel
(corrugated) grooves. The top has a flat wire groove with four unglazed
projections. It has a black glaze and is 3" wide at the base and 3"
high. Could you please tell me what it was used for?
Tim Robinson
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Dear Tim,
Your insulator is indeed a collectable insulator. But what makes it so
interesting is that we have never yet found out exactly what its use was!
It has been written up several times years ago in Crown Jewels, and it has
always been shown in Gerald Brown's books -- page 54 of Collectible
Porcelain Insulators, 3rd
edition.
As far as I know, we have no information on who manufactured this item, who
sold it, or whether or not it was a special patented item. I did recently see
one of these in the Milholland collection in Washington state. I took several
pictures of it for detail but the photo store ruined that roll which also had
views of the Milholland insulator museum and a good view of Mt. Rainier as the
plane flew over the crater. The Milholland unit had a copper wire clip attached
to the four projections in the wire groove on the top. I relied too much on the
photos to recall exactly what that looked like.
Maybe one of the readers will have an idea as to how this insulator was used.
Elton
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