LETTERS

I noticed Rod Wing's letter in the April issue regarding the 1851 Goodyear patent ramshorn. I believe this insulator dates from several years later.

I have a copy of U. S. Patent #21,492 issued on September 14, 1858 to Moses G. Farmer and John M. Batchelder. This patent refers to a rubber covered hook ramshorn which was mounted in a wood block. In the text of the patent is the following statement:

"About three inches in length of the upper part of the hook is covered with hard india-rubber, commonly known as "vulcanite" or "hard compound," being the invention of Nelson Goodyear, Letters Patent having been issued to him for the same 6th day of May, A.D. 1851."

The patent goes on to describe the process for bonding the rubber to the hook and mounting the whole affair in a wood block. The single claim of the patent states:

"What we claim is--

The iron wire-supporter or hook, in combination with a screw-insulator mode of hard india-rubber and attached to the hook or shank in the manner herein described."

I believe then that the 1851 date refers only to the rubber material - the insulator using it dates circa 1858. Similar ones were still being sold by Tillotson in the 1880's.

In a less elaborate form, iron hooks were used somewhat earlier probably in 1848 or 49. Amos Kendall is the inventor of the iron hook in its earliest form.