Research Division

Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", February 1972, page 19

Dear Editor,
I have an insulator that is not found in any of my books. It is a triple petticoat, saddle groove, power insulator.
The front embossing reads:

HEMINGRAY

PATENTED MAY 2 1893

The rear embossing reads:

HIGH VOLTAGE

TRIPLE PETTICOAT

No 4

It is blue green with with dimensions. sharp drip points. Below is a drawing

I would like to know the value of this insulator. If you or any of your readers could tell me this I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you,
Grant Roberts
6818 Garth ~d. S.E.
Huntsville, Alabama 35802

Dear Editor,

I have several H.G. Co. signals with Patent May 2 1893 on the front and petticoat on the back. However, one has a curious design on the back.

The lines of the design are slightly raised. I have been un-able to obtain any information on this design. Can you help me out.
Sincerely,
Gary Turner
P.O. Box 25
Warren, Ore. 97053

Dear Dora,

I thought your readers might be interested in an insulator I bought in an antique store in St. Louis. It is a CD 272 NO NAME, aqua. No one I've asked about this insulator knows anything of it, and I cannot find it listed in any book.

I would really appreciate hearing from you or anyone having one of these insulators or knowing anything about It.

Sincerely,
David Gray
408 Wyncrest Dr.
Manchester, Missouri 63011

Dear Editor,
Received my Dec. issue and am still pleased with this book.

I am a collector of signal type Brookfields. I have several with embossing on dome, and some with or without inner skirt. I realize that there are many varieties. My question is how do I tell the age of these different types and embossing. I have Tibbetts' Vol. #1, #2, #3 and Schroeder's "800 Insulators" to use as reference. I need to know if other books can give me more information on dating these insulators? I would appreciate your help.

I hope to enter my collection in the Southern California Exposition at Del Mar, California, in June-July.
Thank you,
Maury G. Tasem
519 Verdin Street
El Cajon, California 92021

I thought I heard rumors some time ago about a book to be published on old Brookfields?? What happened? We really need one.

Your Editor

I have received numerous letters concerning my October, 1971 article on the bar or dash marked insulaters.

Most of the letters have agreed with my conviction that they are all Hemingray units. One disagreement, stating at least a few, are K.C.G.W. units. One unit belongs to Jack Snyder of Toledo, Ohio. He owns a short beehive with a bar on each side and believes it to be made by K.C.G.W., due to its shortness in size. Snyder also owns a CD 124, embossed F-I B-i, a new shape.

Robert Nobbe of Conneraville, Indiana, owns a few of the mentioned CD 106's and CD 145's. Nobbe is convinced that these units were produced by Hemingray, due to the "H" on the dome of the CD 145's.

A note from Mrs. Isaac Blevins of Castle Bock, Washington, said that all of the CD 210 Postal units with drip points, that she has seen, have had the vertical dash. I have seen a few which had drip points without the dash at a bottle show in Indianapolis last year. Mrs. Blevins also wanted to know the color of my CD 210 Postal. It is a Hemingray aqua green, not the deep blue green used in Brookfield products of the same time. Also a few Brookfields I have noticed have bits of particles and other foreign matter in the glass.

A new, but not too uncommon, shape has been reported by L. B. Winfield of Memphis, Tennessee, Kelly Bridges of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Bay's Bock Shop in Drummond, Montana. It is a CD 151, embossed F- I B-I , without drip points, in aqua. Dimensions are 4" x 3-7/16", with 5/16" dashes.

Bridges reports his CD 151 unit is embossed F- I, B-i ~, that's with each dash accompanied by a small "8". He also owns a beehive with a small "8" next to the dash.

With all these shapes similar to known Hemingrays, I will stick to my guns" and say that they are of Hemingray manufacture, until someone comes up with a catalog from some
company which shows the embossing on the units that reads F-~ B-I.

Keep the cards and letters coming in. I would like to know if there are any other shapes not previously mentioned. I would also like to thank L. B. "Pat" Winfield for mailing me a CD 210 Postal with the dash and sharp drip points. I appreciate all the response I have received.

Good Collecting,
Paul F. Mohrs
Fairbanks Hall 312
Terre Haute, Indiana 47809

Dear Dora,

Well, I have two possibles, one a story of what kind of insulators were used on the trans-continental railroad, and a question about a CD 121 SCA that is identical to the Am. Tel. & Tel. , but it isn't embossed.

On some AT&T's, if you look very closely, you can see a grid pattern on the glass--very small and very unnoticeable -- about 1/loath of an inch square. I suppose it was the material the mold was made of, or the way it was made. But it can only be found on almost unweathered AT&T's and this unembossed type like mine. One can assume this must be by the same company as the AT&T's. It is a deeper SCA than any AM. TEL & TEL'S I have ever seen, but not near royal purple. So I figured it was a sample order (earliest), and after this it was standardized and embossed.

Any ideas?

Today I was looking through a book called Railroads--In the Days of Steam, and in this book are printed many Civil War pictures and many pictures from the Trans-continental railroad. Enclosed are two sketches. Below is pictured the first type of insulator used, consisting of two rams horns (type unknown) in opposite ends of the bottom of the crossarm, and the crossarm was secured by two bolts. This was an 1865 picture.

This sketch, from an 1869 picture, shows a pole with two crossarms with rams horns and four large undistinguishable types, probably In the CD 126 area.

Keep up the great work.
Sincerely,
Chris Hedges
K.C., MO.

Dear Dora,

I am enclosing a drawing of two two-piece "thingamagigs" which I picked up at a flea market for a quarter each. They are white ceramic and have no visible way to stay together. A bottle digger had them, and he didn't know what they were. I failed to ask how old the bottles were he dug. I would appreciate any information.

I enjoy your magazine, but all the different insulators people have found are giving me a complex. I started off hoping to have one insulator from each company. Now I see that's impossible. 

I wish you would find out if there's a binder company that would sell them to Crown Jewels. The two I have for Relic Magazine are so convenient.

Sincerely,
Imogene Peele
514 McLeod
Selma, Alabama 36701

In photo #1 are two large pony type insulators, one in aqua, and one in SCA. These I call the Hemingray first, as they are identical to the insulator in Gary Cranfill's book two, page 39. The two insulators in this photo have no embossing.

However, there is one that has the Dec. 19, 1871 patent date, but I am still trying to capture it at present. I have placed three beehive CD 145 insulators in the photo to give an idea of the size of these pony type insulators. The first beehive on the left is a Brookfield mold line over the dome type. The beehive in the center is a Calif. , and the last one is an American Insulator Co. beehive. The lines in this photo are one inch apart. At present the SCA pony is the only one known to have been found. These two Insulators are of a three piece mold design with the mold line going to a point just above the wire groove, and they have the flat collar type thread start. The glass in these two insulators is thick and quite crude.

As for photo #2. The first item (A) is what I believe to be one of the rarest trolley type insulators that I know of. The bottom is comp. type dingo insulating material, having an inner skirt.

The top is solid bronze. The embossing is upside down, reading G.E. Co. PATENTED JUNE 5-94. It has four prongs sticking up on the saddle top on each side. In the photo one is in front of the other, making it look like only three. Item ~ is what we call an unembossed Edison, 4" wide x 4-3/4" tall, and has two Inner skirts. Not real rare, but a fairly good insulator. Item "C" is all comp. and does not have an inner skirt. It Is embossed on the bottom G.E. Co. PAT. #'s? Some gone. It is also embossed M.P. and more #'s.

Will send more interesting items in my next letter--like a copy of Mr. Morse's first telegram with all the dots and dashes, etc., and Mr. Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone. Also what happened to Mr. Tillotson's place of business. That's about it for now.

Best regards,
Frank R. Jones
The Cottontown "Pole Cat"

Although the picture isn't too clear, we thought our readers, especially lineman, would enjoy this little newspaper clipping.