A Dinosaur's View of Collecting

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", March 1998, page 30

For a number of years now, this hobby has been involved in a period of unrest, and ongoing exchanges of accusations, innuendo and occasional assaults on personal character.

Thirty five years in this hobby have passed for me, and certain opinions have evolved concerning this hobby. I would like to share these with you at this time.

Becoming involved in collecting is simple enough. You may find an insulator or purchase one from a sales table because of an interesting shape or color. Next, you may acquire more of these items until you have a collection, large or small. Then either comes a time when you develop a desire to acquire more knowledge about your insulators. You now have become a researcher.

As you may have noticed, some of the people that have been involved in this hobby for a long time, have been supplying information to fellow collectors through this publication and other sources. The primary reason for this, I believe, is because they are historians first, collectors second. I feel that they are doing this hobby a great service.

A hobby, like water, will seek its own level. It will become what it is without any outside influence. Without the people who seek out and find the insulators and the people who market them, there would be very little to collect.

As far as escalating prices of insulators in concerned, there are certain items because of rarity or desirability that will become extremely valuable. Some will decline. It is up to the individual to carefully research his or her investment not unlike the stock market.

For the collectors without the financial means to purchase the more expensive items for their collections, it is important to appreciate what they have and not to be overly concerned with escalating values of certain extremely rare items. Appreciation and cost are not on the same level. Most collectors will prefer their favorite insulators to some obscure art work with a huge price tag.

An example of this was brought to mind at an insulator show about twenty years ago. A prospective customer was shopping at a table of insulators, including, among others, a cobalt EC&M and a wood block ramshorn. Despite the obvious cost difference between the two, a statement from the dealer made the ramshorn insulator the choice.

He stated that this insulator was used on the original transcontinental telegraph and that all the news of the Civil War era went through its suspension hook. The historical value of this plain appearing insulator was too much to resist!

For those of us involved in researching and finding insulators not previously seen, I think that these finds of historical items should be celebrated, not brought under suspicion without cause. It is exceedingly difficult as the years go by to find these artifacts due to the expansion of construction over these sites.

Any of the people who have found rare insulators have had mixed emotions. There is elation when you discover the insulator, but there is also a melancholy brought on by the fact that it can never be found again. A number of years ago, Shel Silverstein wrote a poem concerning a treasure hunter and his quest. Its last stanza goes as follows:

"And there it was, under an old and twisted bough. It's mine, mine at last! What do I search for now?"

Enjoy your hobby, protect it as best you can.

Ronald Souza, Western Telegraph Research