Info On Patents
by George F. Lahm

Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", June 1972, page 5

I have been wanting to write for quite a while, but just haven't had the time. Winter was late in arriving, and, since I work for a highway department, this has been keeping me busy, especially since February 1.

I have been looking up Patent information on insulators at Cornell University when I have time. I tried to look up some of the ones that the readers of Crown Jewels have asked about. I wish that these had copied better, but they are the best that I could get from the Photo-Copy machine at Cornell. I re-wrote the claims for the Ranson patent and the Whitall Tatum No. 12.


929,878 INSULATOR. Issued Aug. 3, 1909. Joseph W. Ranson, Batavia, Ohio. 
Filed July 22, 1908. Serial No. 444,766.

1. An Insulator comprising a shiftable body provided with means for receiving the wire when one position and means for bending and automatically interlocking with the wire when shifted to a different position, substantially as specified.

2. An insulator comprising a rotatable body provided with means for receiving the wire when in one position and means for bending and automatically interlocking with the wire when rotated to a different position, substantially as specified.

3. An insulator comprising a rotatable body provided with a groove adapted to receive the wire when in one position, a groove adapted to interlock with the wire when shifted to a different position, the relation of said grooves being such that the wire is bent when the body is shifted, and a directing surface adapted to automatically direct the wire into the interlocking groove as the body is 
shifted, substantially as specified.

4. An insulator comprising a rotatable body provided with a groove adapted to receive the wire when in one position; a groove adapted to interlock with the wire when rotated to a different position, the relation of said grooves being such that the wire is bent when the body is rotated and a directing surface adapted to automatically direct the wire into the interlocking groove as the body is 
rotated, substantially as specified.

5. An insulator comprising a body rotatable A provided with receiving groove B, interlocking grooves C, so related as to cause a bend in the wire and directing surfaces D adapted to automatically direct the wire into grooves C as the body is rotated, substantially as specified. (Claims 6 and 7 not printed in the Gazette.)

WT #12 - Whitall Tatum

1,708,038. LOW-LOSS INSULATOR. Leon T. Wilson, East Orange, N.J., assignor to American Telephone and Telegraph Company, a Corporation of New York. Filed Dec. 24, 1925. Serial No. 77,584. 3 Claims. (Cl. 173-28)

3. An insulator having a flange extending outwardly therefrom, a groove in said flange for carrying a line conductor and a tiewire, an interior bore within the insulator whereby it may be mounted upon a supporting pin, said groove being located well below the top of said supporting pin and the diameter of said groove being more than twice the diameter of said internal bore, and a groove extending upwardly into said flange from the underside thereof to a point well above the external groove and approximately as high as said interior bore so that an air-space will intervene between the said external groove and the supporting pin.