Insulators from Poland 

I have been wanting to write about Polish insulators for ever so long. Actually, I went to Poland in 1977 with a student group; but since we were only in that country for about a week and my chaperone duties had to claim first priority, I was only able to come home with a large porcelain shackle insulator which I bought at an electrical shop. Other than that I mostly looked up at the insulators on the poles and was very frustrated because there did not seem to be any way to get my hands on them or obtain any information in just those few short days. But there were miles and miles of beautiful glass insulators everywhere. A bus ride through the countryside, non stop, was torture! I left some money and my U.S. address with our guide, who promised to find some and send them to me. But he never did; or at least if he tried, they never reached me. 

Then Brent Burger (Redmond, Washington) wrote to me and said, "I have a bit of good news! I will be going to Poland with my friend Marcus this September. Do you have any suggestions on how to obtain insulators there and how to get them out of the country without smuggling them? I don't want to pose any problem to his family who invited me, and with whom I will be staying in Warsaw. We will also take a tour to Krakow and the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. I will see what I can come up with on insulator markings." 

All I could do was tell him what didn't work, and wish him luck, hoping, of course, that if he had success finding insulators, there would be duplicates! He was to stay two weeks and had the advantage of knowing someone local, so he stood a good chance. 

When he returned, he wrote, "just got back a few days ago and between Marcus and I we brought back about 50 insulators. Some are real weirdies! We have about 25-35 different styles and markings. We took plenty of pictures over there of poles and related items. I will get some to you when they are developed." These he did send, but they are not included here because he asked me to return them. Between Brent and Marcus they also had several boxes of insulators shipped home to be divided up later. But in spite of their success, they were still in agony over some they had to leave behind -- two power insulators still in use that were a dark cornflower blue (sigh), a large "flappity-back" that stood 14" high and too big to consider bringing home, and several other styles of porcelain and glass insulators that were just impossible to reach without getting arrested, and as he said, "easy as they were to pick, in Communist Country they do bad things to thieves. I almost cried as I left those behind." Incidentally, "flappity-back" is not a bird, but Brent's nickname for a certain style of power insulator. 

The good news was that he had come up with a huge amount of information on the various markings found on these insulators, particularly those used for phone and radio. The family he stayed with had put him in touch with a lineman who, through an interpreter, was able to help out here. Most of the information Brent passed on to me came by way of letters. He had this so well lined up I will be able to quote parts of those letters, but first a couple of pictures of the insulators he will be referring to --

Brent says: "The numbers 1, 2 or 3 indicate Size. 'IT' means IZOLATORY TELEFONICZNE or telephone insulator. The 'S' stands for the material used. 'SZKTO' means glass in Polish."

Now look at the next picture. These are porcelain, the same style and a touch larger than their glass counterparts, but not much. They are also used for long distance telephone and telephone distribution. Luckily I have all three styles to show you.

As you look at the picture above (and again from left to right) the following underglaze ink markings are to be found on these three insulators:

Here again the numbers 1, 2 and 3 indicate size, and 'IT' stands for IZOLATORY TELEFONICZNE. The 'P' in this case is simply PORCELANA (Polish for porcelain). Brent lined it up this way:

Another style of glass insulator he found is like CD 179. It was used for power distribution. The embossing on this one follows below. 

"He says, " 'CENA' means 'price' in Polish, and we were told by our lineman friend that these with the 'CENA 4.80' marking were brand spankin' new out of the box and that indeed was the price! 4.80 means 4 ZLOTYCH and 80 GROSCHEN. (That was about 15 cents in 1977, but I'm not sure what the equivalent would be in 1981 -- less if anything! M.A.) 

"The '95' seems to indicate size again, or perhaps model number? The 'S' is for SCKTO, but what does 'N' mean? (My guess is something to do with electricity or power. M.A.) We also have some smaller items in this same style." The following picture shows this one to the far right, in a pale green color. Though smaller than the NS-95 it is included under CD 179. The embossing follows. 

"These marked NS-80 were the very newest type of glass power distribution insulators. The 95's I mentioned before had never seen use, but were the older style. The 80's were now put up in their place. I'm not sure, but they may no longer make the 95 and instead make the smaller 80??" 

Following are pictures of some other styles of power insulators Brent found in Poland. The porcelain "flappity back" is pictured below with its incuse marking shown on the page following. It was used for high voltage power.

The following three are all power distribution types. The large spool or shackle insulator at the left is the one I brought home from Poland -- the only one! The one in the center came from Brent, and the insulator on the right is from Don Fiene (Knoxville, Tennessee). The markings follow, looking from left to right.

Brent sent some rough sketches of small porcelain eggs and knob types used as radio insulators in Poland, as well as sketches of some larger (5" -- 6" tall) glass insulators. I have asked him to bring these to the National Show in Sacramento in July, so I can get a better look at them, take pictures and check measurements. These I will try to include in a future article. 

All of the insulators from Poland are truly great finds, especially since they come from a Communist Country -- not something you just run across every day! Brent, you did us a real favor by sharing all this information with us. Thanks!