Preferably direct porcelain news items and questions directly to Jack H. Tod, 3427 N. 47th Place, Phoenix, Ariz. 85018. All mail will be answered if reply stamp is enclosed, and the most newsworthy items and questions of general interest will be published as space permits.

Dear Jack:

Our deal came through, and we got the brown Imperial similar to U-710. The color in a real pretty shiny glaze, frosted brown with greenish streaks through it. Then Imperial made this brown insulator, they sure made a mess of it; it is rather crudely shaped, has some real big flat dips in the sides of its skirt and a big gash in the side of it.

We've enclosed a rough sketch of it showing the various markings, and note the 3-17-04 date! Noticed in your Supplement A page 225, you said a specimen has been report- ed which bears a manufacturing date in the year 1902, and this extends the Imperial activity in pin types even more. Have any turned up since that was written dated later than 1902? We hope this later date has some significance. 
Ed & Judy Gish 
Houston, Texas

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Dear Ed & Judy:

Yes, you are 100% correct, and this 1904 manufacturing date by Imperial is the one clue we have been looking for all along. It may lead to a complete reversal of our thinking on numerous things. An you know, Imperial continued to make other types of insulators for many years (until the 1930's as I understand it), but we have always wondered why and when they quit making pin types.

In my book I had speculated that Imperial may have quit manufacture of pin types as a result of the Boch patent infringement suits filed by Thomas in 1901, and the resulting complete absence of glaze-weld designs in the 1902 Locke catalogs. It is important to note that this 1904 specimen and some other late Imperial designs are formed all in one piece and are not glaze-welds.

Last year I was perusing some bound library copies of patent court records of cases during that period, and I came across a Thomas case where it appeared a judgment reversal was made on the glaze-filling or glaze-welding process - a ruling that the process was not novel etc. (I will look into this again next time there.) This did ring bells with me at the time, since the other companies (New Lexington, Ohio Brass and Locke Insulator Co.) were all making glaze-welded insulators in profusion long before the Boch patent would have expired in 1915.

Irrespective of these patent factors, this specimen dated 1904 is important in showing much later Imperial activity in pin types than we had previously known, but the relative rarity of brown Imperials suggests that they quit the game about that time or shortly thereafter. If anyone could turn up some early paperwork (catalogs, etc..) on the Imperial operation, it might help shed additional light on these questions.

Jack

Gerald Brown (Two Buttes, Colo.) has a new threadless porcelain and was naturally quite excited when he told me about it some time ago. It is just one of numerous new items reported in Gerald's book Supplement now available.

This insulator is white and is rather crudely made. Gerald's number for it is UE 731 because it is very similar to the glass CD-731 threadless Tillotson. I don't recall if Gerald told me whether this is a unique item or not, but I haven't heard of any other specimen than his to date. 

This is tentatively U-792 in the Universal Style Chart.

The "insulator" above may be the ultimate in value as a museum piece, not only to collectors of Fred Locke items but to anyone interested in the very beginning of the high-voltage porcelain insulator industry. Although other companies were already making high-voltage porcelain insulators before Fred Locke decided to manufacture them himself, few will argue the fact that the establishment of his insulator plant at Victor, N.Y. was the real foundation of the high-voltage porcelain insulator industry.

Just as Fred Locke had Brookfield make large glass insulators to his design for the first transmission lines, he also later had porcelain insulators made to his design by other companies before he built his own plant in 1898. A few dry process units were made for him by Electrical Porcelain & Manufacturing Co. (Trenton) and later a great number of wet process ones made by Imperial Porcelain Works (Trenton, N.J.).

There are written references to Fred Locke having experimented with designs at his Fishers, N.Y. plant and to him having fired experimental designs in his kitchen stove. The above specimen is a crude pottery model of what later turned out to be the Locke #1 porcelain insulator. It is made from local yard clay, pebble inclusions and all and is a two-piece, glaze-weld as the drawing above indicates. It has (faintly) the Fred M. Locke underglaze marking on the skirt just as the other Fred Locke porcelain #1 specimens do.

This specimen originated in the old test laboratory at the Victor plant along with other Fred Locke effects and somehow managed to survive all these many years until I obtained it last year. As a student of porcelain insulator history, I feel this mechanical model, possibly created by the hands of Fred Locke himself, has immense historical value. If we ever establish an insulator museum, it should occupy a pedestal at the front of all other porcelains!

The item pictured at the right (above) is a steel threading mandrel used to make threads in porcelain insulators in the plunge-and-reverse method. This particular one was used by Jeffery-Devitt Co. at their plant in Kenova, W. Va.

Dear Jack:

I just got an insulator at the Glass Capitol Show which is a cross between the U-217 and U-217A. It measures 4-3/4 by 4. The crown is like U-217A and even more pointed, wire grooves like 217A and rib just above bottom groove is sharp like 217A. But the middle skirt between grooves is exactly like the U-217. Glaze is chocolate brown with underglaze Illinois marking #9 per your book (date 1954?) in black 
Dave Ramp, 
Peru, Indiana

... have two transpositions that are Sim U-217 and also Sim U-217A - each is different and from each other. Would you want outlines (shadow profiles) to see if they vary enough for new numbers in the style chart?
Lew Hohn, 
Rochester, N.Y.

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Dear Dave & Lew:

Locke evidently created this gadget (U-217A) and cataloged it in 1916, as did also Canadian Porcelain Co. that same year. It was later copied by Illinois, Lapp, Pinco and possibly others. Counting all these companies, plus different tooling over the years at each company, there would be numerous variations, and I have one of these even more different than the ones you describe.

This is yet another example where we just can't have style chart drawings to exactly fit every single specimen, and I suggest you just pick the closest number and let it go at that - such as "Sim U-217A", or "Sim U-217/217A". Similarly, we lump all the glass beehives under CD-145 even though they are grossly different in size and exact shape, but if I show on my list a "CD-145, O.V.G. Co.", you surely know generally what it will look like or if you need it. I haven't seen many people listing it as "Sim CD-145", and few people are on Woody's back to add another dozen beehives to the glass style chart to cover all the variations.

Incidentally, the 1954 date on your Illinois marking doesn't sound plausible. How 'bout 1944 or 1951 instead? All these big transpos seem to be scarce.

Jack

SPOOK!! Pictured above are six of 12 different Spook insulators in my collection. We have had a couple of questions on these in the past, and I have seen and heard some incorrect information about these insulators.

They are neon sign tube support insulators. Each has a threaded brass bushing in the bottom for attaching to the sign, and the "eyes" are for tie wires or spring clips. Note the spring clip in place on the second one from right.

A number of the different electrical porcelain companions have made these as contract items for the larger electric sign manufacturers and also as proprietary items for their own catalog sales. In fact, a good portion of Union Electrical Porcelain Company's business (Trenton) is their complete line of sign insulators of all types.

Even though collectors do have their limits as to what they collect in offbeat insulators, these are popular because of that truly ghostly shape. 

Jack

Dear Jack:

... picked up a couple of interesting insulators. The first one is a chocolate brown Sim U-610A (see sketch at right) which has the M P marking exactly the same letter style and size as on the beehives. This came from Paul Folckemer (Buffalo) who got a couple from someone in Pennsylvania in a trade. I think this marking on a cable is a little unusual, isn't it?

I also got from Mrs. Lucille Barlow one of the ponies in copper lustre. This is the U-9 with the sand-rest base and is exactly the same as the chocolate brown one; in fact, the chocolate shows in a couple of spots. It also shows wear on wire rim and top and base, so looks authentic. Was this an experiment during time of Corning's carnival glass era or possibly at the "radio treatment" time?

In April Crown Jewels, page 17, you list a few items as still unreported. I have the U-595, identical except that the crown is slightly different shape (par for the course) 
Lew Hohn, 
Rochester, N.Y.

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Dear Lew:

Yes indeed, customer markings (railroads) are highly unusual on cables and the like. First I've heard of this. I also have P.R.R. on a U-529 feeder cable insulator, but it's a questionable item, as I dug it in the Pittsburg dumpage. We'll count it if anyone ever turns up one that was used on a line. Glad to find someone actually has a U-595 specimen, a rather unusual cable shape.

I know absolutely nothing about those copper lustre items, but I feel it's more likely they were an experiment on the part of some ceramic hobbiest! If I quit seeing them at the flea markets and start seeing them on phone lines, I'll naturally change my tune.

Jack

This is not an insulator as we term them, but it is an unusual electrical porcelain item. It does not show well in the photo, but this little porcelain puppy (a bathroom fixture?) has conventional electrical outlets on its sides and back.

I found this interesting gadget last year while rummaging through some bins of old porcelain samples at Union Electrical Porcelain Co. in Trenton, N.J. When you get this thing all wired up for electricity, you can then call it a "hot dog". Right?

FIREPLUGS. This is a general review for those who are interested in these insulators. Of all the many special wiring knobs, these are the most exciting because they were manufactured and used in relatively large numbers and are thus more readily obtainable by collectors.

These were patented (#954,596) April 12, 1910 by Albert L. Staderermann, Terre Haute, Ind. All specimens I have seen have either this patent date on them or a legend "PAT. PEND". The idea was to afford both a vertical and a horizontal tying plane for a pair of wires on any mounting surface. There are three sizes - the 1001, 1002 and 1003 (left to right in the above photo).

All specimens carry the tradename "UNIVERSAL" plus the size number designation and a reference to the patent, but there are several variations of location and arrangement of these markings on the insulators of each style. They are also known with manufacturer's identification markings of Triangle-M (Illinois) and F.O.P. (unattributed).

Fireplugs come in all shades of brown from light tan to nearly black, and very rarely in white.

The 1002 size is the most common. At one time, it was thought the 1001 was the least common, but a number of these have appeared upon the scene in the past couple of years, and I would now rate the 1003 as the toughest one to find. Many specimens have slight chipping about the sharp edge of the base or at the top of the screw hole, and 100% mint ones are the exception to the rule.

For additional information, see Crown Jewels, July 1971, pages 18-19 and Gerald Brown's 2nd Edition of Collectible

Porcelain Insulators, page 157.

Jack

Dear Jack:

I have an Elliot flint-glass threadless which was recently found in a construction excavation. It's the equal to the U-980 in the style chart, same measurements, but there is one big difference. In the style chart drawing, and also in the photo on page 11 of Frances Terrill's book, it clearly shows this insulator as having three interior petticoats, but mine has only two petticoats. I've enclosed a sketch (above) showing this, and you can compare it with the U-980 drawing.

Dear Warren:

No, I never noticed this. I drew the style chart drawing from the first specimen that came along to my machine, and that's the way it was. Since then, I have seen some of these in collections and several at a time at various shows, but it never dawned on me to inspect the inside of each one for variations.

This slight variation is meaningless for any collector wanting one of these for his display shelf, but may be a very, important factor in considering the production of these insulators. The variation comes from use of two different jiggering tools for this Elliot design, and note that these are still different from the jiggering blades used for the U-979 and U-981 Elliots. This would indicate substantial runs of these insulators being made at one time or their manufacture over an extended period of time.

Trade literature of the time which "recommended" these insulators flatly stated they were then in use on many lines, and collectors have turned them up in most parts of New England plus Canada. All this put together seems to indicate that considerable of these were made and used.

The U-980 and U-981 are both generally available for sale on lists and at shows, but the U-979 is evidently a rarer item.

Jack

Dave Ramp, Lew Bohn, Robert Winkler and others report having insulators which approximate the U-105 in our style chart, and the righthand drawing here is from data Lew sent. The big question being - is this really the U-105. I have a suspicion that these are two different animals and that if we merely revise the U-105 drawing to this new thing, we'll have problems if specimens ever do show up which fit the U-105 drawing now in the chart. It seems best then to tag this new item U-104 and add it to the chart. Specimens of these came off of one United Telephone Co. exchange in northern Indiana, and the fellows say they look like a Pittsburg item from glaze and pin hole type.

Reproduced on the following page is a 1920 advertisement of Electrode Manufacturing Co. which shows a number of composition insulators they cataloged. Another large group of Electrode pin types is shown on page 54 of the Cranfill- Kareofelas "Dictionary of Glass - Ceramic ...".

These listings might be helpful to those who collect these composition types. I have seen a number of these different types, including one marked ''Electrode Mfg. Co." but I rather think most of these were never actually made or sold. Note in the C-K book they even cataloged a two-piece transposition and pin types rated up to 22 Kv. I'd say they had some real losers with these designs.