Porcelain Insulator News
by Jack H. Tod
Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", May 1978, page 22
Dear Jack: I recently acquired a porcelain insulator and cannot match it with
any in your Porcelain Insulators Guide Book. It is a two-piece, cemented
insulator, top-rest firing surface and a reddish-brown glaze. It has a Locke
marking as I've sketched.
I would appreciate any information you could give me
on this insulator and an approximate value.
Don Rosentrater
513 E Broadway,
Ritzville, WA 99169
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Dear Don:
Your insulator looks like a Locke #408A, and it would have been common in its heydays (Ca
1910-1925). The marking on yours is from the 1922-1928
period. Some may still be in use in outlying areas where RFI isn't a problem,
but most have probably gone to the city dumps.
I'd say the trade value on these
(with the legible Locke marking) would be $5 to $10, all depending on whether
you find someone who either has a casual interest in it or really wants it for
his collection.
This style isn't in my book because the book is limited to unipart pin types (arbitrarily defined as those made and fired all in one part
and not cemented together) and excludes the cemented multipart styles. The
Universal Style Chart was created to assist collectors in the advertising,
cataloging and mail trading of the most widely collected styles -- that is,
unipart pin types. There are many hundreds of different multiparts ranging to
very large size and, except for certain early classics, these are not actively
mail traded. Those who do correspond about multiparts usually get along pretty
well with simple sketches or snapshots of the specimens. It just isn't in the
cards for anyone to spend several years time and thousands of dollars to create
a Style Chart for the multiparts and publish it in a gigantic volume to
facilitate an occasional mail trade of a multipart specimen.
Jack
I suppose that this was a promotional advertising item.
Gerald Brown -- collection |
Probably used as an advertising promotional item by the VICTOR
Company.
Gerald Brown -- collection |
Gerald Brown (Two Buttes, Colo.) sent this information on two coffee
mugs he has in his collection. Both markings are attributed to Victor
Insulators, Inc., Victor, N.Y. (1935-1953).
When I was touring the Victor plant in 1971, we came upon one room where the
sole activity appeared to be the manufacture of these mugs and other "Swiss
Navy" items. There were several carts and crates of the mugs with the
VICTOR marking and also quantities of identical ones with an underglaze I-T-E
marking on the side.
The latter were for Victor Insulators Division, I-T-E Imperial Corp.
(1953-1977). Aside from possible use as giveaway advertisers, these were also
the coffee mugs used in the plant cafeteria. After downing my coffee, I was
allowed to keep the mug as a souvenir.
Since I-T-E and Gould, Inc. merged in 1977 to become Gould, Inc., Insulators
Div., I suppose they'll send someone to the back room in spare moments to crank
out a new supply of coffee mugs with the Gould logo on them to replace the
obsolete I-T-E mugs.
Although the insulator manufacturers used all forms of advertisers, many are
porcelain items made in their factories -- mostly ash trays, but also coffee
mugs, paper weights, miniature insulators etc.
Jack
Dear Jack:
My neighbor was digging in his yard about a week ago and found this.
It's white, and the lettering in the marking appears gray or silver. The
lettering seems to be on top of the glaze.
The 7 could possibly be a 9 or even a 1. The second 8 could be a 9 or a 3.
And the 5 might be a 9 instead. That's a lot of possibilities but what I give as
my first choice for the date in the faint marking.
I'm not even sure if it's an insulator. I've talked to friends, and they
suggest it could be a drawer knob or a chest knob, but I haven't the faintest
idea. I'd be interested in anything you could tell me about it (hopefully what
it is), its age, rarity, manufacture, value, etc.
Robert Lloyd
4740 Brawley Ct,
St Louis, MO 63128
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Dear Robert:
Nope, not an insulator or drawer knob. Keep guessing; you're not even
"warm". This is a bottle stopper, and we ran the answer on these in
the Sept 1976 CJ, page 33.
This is patent 491,113 of Feb 7, 1893, Karl Hutter, New York, NY. The groove
is for a rubber grommet which seals in the neck of the bottle, and the
heart-shaped hole is to accommodate a bail wire system which holds the stopper
in place.
I long ago had some similar stoppers with a patent date only, and after I
looked it up to find out what they were, I've since seen them in place in
bottles in show exhibits. I suggest your neighbor check with bottle club acquaintances
to see if it might be a goody with this marking.
Incidentally, all patent dates are Tuesdays, and that may help one to unravel
the partially legible dates at times. My latest book ("Electrical
Porcelain") has tables which show the dates of all Tuesdays from 1836 thru
the year 2000 for that purpose. For example, you can instantly read off that Feb
7 was a Tuesday in 1882, 1888, 1893, 1899, etc. Likewise other possible Tuesdays
for your number guessing would be 2-3-85, 2-5-89 and 2-3-95. If even half the
date numerals are readable, you can usually determine the fall patent date from
the Tuesdays tables in the book.
I've taken the time to explain this, since this problem comes up so often.
Once you can determine the correct patent date on the specimen, it takes only a
few minutes to look up the patent in the Official Patent Gazettes at any library
which has them.
Jack
It was announced in a February press release that Harvey Hubbell Inc. had
agreed in principle to acquire Ohio Brass Company for about $54 million in cash
or Hubbell stock.
Although this is essentially a merger operation, it was stated that Ohio
Brass would be operated by the present management as a subsidiary of Hubbell. At
this time, I do not know if the Ohio Brass trademark (logo) will continue to be
used on the insulators if the merger is effected. We will keep you posted on
later information regarding this.
Brad Dahlquist (So. Fork, Colo.) got this Locke multipart recently.
It's about 6" by 6" size, cemented two-piece, mottled light to reddish
brown glaze, top rest, cemented-in iron thimble with machine threads.
Brad wanted info on the marking date and its possible trade value. The Locke
marking with the insulator symbol containing their trademark VICTOR was used
from about 1908 up to 1922 when the trademark was changed to LOCKE. The marking
comes in a large size (16mm tall) and a smaller size (10mm tall). Brads is the
larger size, and this one was used during the earlier part of the 1908-1922 time
span.
I consider it unusual that both parts of this multi bear the marking,
since most are marked only on the top skirt. A guess at the trade value would be
in the $10 range because of the early vintage and nice markings.
Brad also acquired a Locke 77 Hi-Top with white glaze and hadn't ever heard
of a white Hi-Top before. Well, these are unusual in anything but brown or
modern "sky" glaze, but they do exist in white, green and cobalt blue
(possibly yellow). If you're ever driving the roads around Socorro, N.M., look
up at the crossarms on the primary feeder lines -- pretty Westinghouse Hi-Tops
with white glaze and mottled brown, radio-treated tops. Nice!
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