The Bain Insulator

Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", August 1973, page 26

We present this week a cut of a new high resistance glass insulator, the invention of Mr. Foree Bain, of Chicago.

The insulator is made extra strong and is especially adapted to heavy work, such as carrying large primary wires, and particularly feeder wires for electric railroad work. The corrugations which are made both outside and inside of the apron increase the distance from the wire to the pin fully 100 per cent , and it is claimed that water will, in passing over the edges of tile rings, become thin and broken, and on reaching tile inside of the glass will drop off rather than creep over the inner obstructions to the pin

Another point in favor of this form of insulator is that the many surfaces will reflect the light under the glass in such a way as to keep insects out, obviating a source of much annoyance where plain dark glass is employed.

This insulator will cost a little more to manufacture than the ordinary plain glass insulator, but the inventor claims that an advance of a few cents per mile in the cost of construction will not be any objection where a high class of work is desired.

Mr. Bain has assigned his patent to the Central Electric Company, of Chicago, who are now sole owners and by whom the article is being placed upon the market.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear Dora,

While researching for insulators in some old volumes of The Electrical Engineer we came across the preceding article concerning CD144, the Bain insulator. This article was on page 661 December 10, 1890 issue. The insulator was manufactured for the Central Electric Co, who is putting the insulator on the market. Wish that they would have named the manufacturer.

Also found an interesting news note on page 74 of the July 16, 1890 The Electrical Engineer.. and it is reproduced below. 
Sincerely, 
Elton & Lynda Gish

DESTRUCTION OF INSULATORS AND WIRES BY COWBOYS.

Every telegraph wire on the Union Pacific Railway near Sydney, Neb., was interrupted on July 10, and all communication with the West and Pacific coast by this, the main route of the Western Union Telegraph Company, was completely severed from daylight until late in the afternoon.

A lot of cowboys who had been working on a round-up near Sydney visited that town at night, and, when they had exhausted all the pleasures of the metropolis of Cheyenne county, at day. light they mounted their ponies and proceeded a few miles west of the town, where they set up a target against a telegraph pole. They spent some time in hitting it from various distances, but, the mark proving too easy for their skill, they turned their attention to the insulators and wires, and only desisted when they had knocked off all the insulators and cut every wire with their bullets. The Western Union Telegraph Company sent repairers to the scene, but it took them all day to repair the damage.