A couple months ago I was told by a Louisville flea-market dealer that the insulators embossed with stars had been manufactured in New Albany, Indiana (a small city just north of Louisville across the Ohio River). Since there was, in fact, a Star Glass Works in New Albany in the 19th century, and since this company did, in fact, make insulators (according to records in the Indiana History room of the New Albany Public Library), I consider the mystery of the origin of the star-embossed insulators to be herewith solved (probably: see last paragraph).

Responding to Le Geisler's letter in the December, 1970, issue of Insulators, I can offer the following summary of the basic history of the glass works, though I have not so far discovered any specific production figures on insulators. According to History of the Ohio Falls Cities and Their Counties (Cleveland, L. A. Williams & Co., 1882), pp. 222-224, the first glass company in Indiana was established in 1865 in New Albany by John B. Ford (John B. Ford & Co. ). Ford was well known locally, already owned a fleet of river boats; but his glass company was not a success. He set up business again in 1867 as the New Albany Glass Works (at the foot of 11th St. on the Ohio River), and this time prospered. However, in 1870 or 1871 (probably) he ran into competition in New Albany from Washington C. DePauw, who had figured out how to make good plate glass. It is DePauw who actually founded what was known as the Star Glass Works; the sources I've consulted don't give the exact year, but there is no question that the commercial importance of the company dates from 1872 when DePauw bought Ford's extensive manufactory stretching now from 10th to 13th St. along the river. Whether Ford's New Albany Works was actually failing at this time is not clear; at some point in his life Ford married DePauw's sister, so the relation between the two companies would seem to be more one of cooperation than competition. In any case, Ford went on east and plunged again into the glass business. We all know him today as the third name in Libby-Owens-Ford.

Judging from contemporary (though somewhat biased) accounts, DePauw's Star Glass Works was the best known and most prosperous glass company in the midwest in the seventies and eighties, famous everywhere for its high quality plate glass. The company also made fruit jars, door stops, paper weights, mirrors, insulators and doubtless many other glass articles. It was sometimes referred to as the Star Plate-Glass Works, and one source calls it DePauw's American Plate-Glass Works; but it was evidently always listed in the New Albany City Directory as the Star Glass Works. Toward the end of the century the company declined, unable to meet competition from more modern glass companies in the northern part of the state. It went out of business in 1899 or 1900. (The city directory lists no glass companies for 1900 or after.)

Though the evidence does seem strong that the Star Glass Works made the starred insulators, proof of this won't be final until such an insulator is dug up at the company site (now occupied by a flood wall) or an old company catalog picturing such an insulator is found. Meanwhile, N. R. Woodward states in his 1969 Report p. 42 that the starred insulators were made for G. E. "during the early 1900's". If his dates are absolutely and provably correct, then the above history is interesting (since the company did make insulators , after all)--but irrelevant to the mystery of the origin of the embossed star.

Donald M. Fiene

P. S. After doing library research on the Star Glass Co., I have investigated the area where the company had been located- -along the flood wall between 9th and 13th Streets in New Albany, Indiana. I discovered, first of all, that several of the original buildings, dating back to the 1870's, are still in existence --renovated and in use by small manufacturing concerns. The owners of these companies (and their plant foremen) cooperated in looking up old records and in allowing me to look around. Unfortunately, I found no star-embossed insulators, nor could I discover anyone who had ever seen any of these on the premises. There were several Hemingray 60 insulators (aqua) mounted on metal brackets on a rear outside wall of one of the buildings --but doubtless these had been installed after the glass company had gone out of business in 1900 or so. Following this investigation, I searched the steep river bank on the far side of the flood wall and found great quantities of glass fragments and slag in an area about 200 feet long and extending right down to the water's edge and below it (about opposite to where 11th St. would be). I picked up numerous weathered fragments of plate glass; many broken lumps of melt and slag ranging in color from light green to dark green (and various browns and yellows); several fragments of old fruit jars, some bearing a patent date of 1867 (though none bearing the name of the company or any star embossing); and several pieces of insulators. One of the insulator fragments had an H G Co. embossing; though none of the other fragments bore markings, one was large enough to be absolutely identifiable as a Hemingray 40; one had round drip points, with a radius of curvature equal to that of a Hemingray 19 or 20; and three were almost certainly pieces of the common Am. Tel. & Tel. toll--with that characteristic light blue-green cloudy color due to weathering, (All of these latter pieces were large enough to verify that none were from the easily identifiable star "keg". ) Additional close searching of the river-bank surface failed to turn up any more insulator fragments.

Doubtless, some of the fragments I found were deposited in recent years and had nothing to do with Star Glass; but it is possible that the company did make a few insulators for American Tel. & Tel. Regardless, the origin of the star-embossed insulators still has not been proved. And now, sadly--since I happened to find all these other types of insulators first, even if I did find a fragment with a star on it, that one fragment would not really constitute adequate proof that it was made where I found it.

Meanwhile, it has suddenly got very cold around here and the first snow has fallen. I'm going to lay off amateur archeology until after the spring floods. Perhaps the river will expose more glass, and I'll do some digging besides. If I find a lot of insulators with stars on them, then I think we'll have the answer to our problem. Unfortunately, I'm not hopeful of this. What we need for final proof is an old Star Glass Co. (or DePauw Co.) catalog. One of these could turn up anywhere in the country.

P. P. S. If it is still possible, I would like to add the following to my report on the Star Glass Co. of New Albany, Indiana:

During the last week in March, I dug once more on the river bank behind the site of the old Star Glass Works, after the flood waters had receded. More old glass and slag was exposed, but I found no insulators at all, nor pieces of insulators. Meanwhile, however, a letter written by Ed Pawkins, Jr., Rd. 3, New Buffalo Rd. , Canfield, Ohio 44406, published in the April 1971 issue of Old Bottle Magazine states that information about Star insulators is to be found in "Dr. Toulouse's Fruit Jar Book, on page 293. They were made by the Star Glass Co., New Albany, Ind. (1860-1900)." All that remains now is to verify the source of Dr. Toulouse's information; if it is an old Star Glass Co. catalog, then the mystery of the origin of the star-embossed insulators will have been solved. I would be grateful if readers knowing how to get in touch with Dr. Toulouse would either send me his address or ask him to write me.

Donald M. Fiene 
1102 E. 10th St. 
Jeffersonville, Ind. 47130