This story will start with an explanation of how I happened to acquire the Insulator, as this is usually a question much asked when associated with an insulator of this magnitude. I received in the mail a list of insulators for sale from a man in Illinois who had some fine insulators which I needed. I called him on the phone in hopes of acquiring them for my collection. During our conversation he mentioned this threadless insulator he had that I might be interested in. He read me the embossing that was on the base of the insulator, and described its color. I, of course, had not heard of this insulator before so recognized it as a rare insulator and offered him a respectable amount for it, and a couple of weeks later was astounded with the shear beauty of it when it arrived in the mail. Since acquiring the insulator I have been in contact with some of the leading collectors of Canada and have come up with the following information concerning the insulator.

The Foster Brothers Glass Works of St. John C. E. (Quebec) operated between 1855 and 1875. It was started by three brothers from the U.S. In 1878 they sold to the Yuile Bros. and in 1880 they moved to Montreal. In 1891 the company became the Diamond Glass Go. and eventually the Dominion Glass Co. of the present day.

Documentations show that Foster Bros. had two hand operated insulator presses for the making of Telegraph Insulators. Although we knew that Foster Brothers made insulators, so far we have never heard of any being marked, or in the olive amber black glass.

The embossing on the base rim of the insulator reads:

FOSTER BROTHERS ST. JOHN C.E. 1858

The "N" in John is backwards and the second 8 upside down. The C.E. stands for Canada East. Before Confederation in 1867 Quebec was Canada East and Ontario was Canada West, so anything that is found with the C.E. or C.W. mark we know to be a hundred years old or more.

To assist the collector of Canadian insulators in the United States, I will include the following information:

There are two great railroad systems in Canada -- The Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National Railways. The Canadian Pacific is Canada's pioneer trans-continental railway.

The Grand Trunk System and the Grand Trunk Pacific are part of the National Railway System. There are a number of local and branch lines in the Provinces. To name a few:

1. Temiscaming and Northern Ontario Ry.
2. Government Transcontinental
3. Inter Colonial Ry.
4. Trans Continental Ry.
5. Prince Edward Island Ry.
6. The Crow's Nest Pass Kettle Valley Line

Insulators have been found embossed from the following railroads

#1. T&N.0.R.
#4. T.C.R.

as well as Canadian Pacific Ry. Co.; C.P.R.; G.T.P.; G.T.P. Tel. Co. and C.N.R.

There are many other fine insulators showing up in Canada, and I'm sure that before long there will be some fine books written on them with much more information.

For those advanced collectors that feel they have most of the available insulators from Canada, I will include a couple of the more recent to come to light -

Threadless - "McMicking" Victoria B.C. 75
N.W.B.I.T. - New Westminster & Burrard Inlet Telephone Co.