The Story Of The Block Glass Insulators
by Frank Jones

Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", August 1972, page 3

This story has been three years in the making, and even now as I write it is still not complete. This insulator probably has more names than any insulator known. They are as follows: The Bird House Insulator, The Squire Glass Insulator, The Coffin Insulator, The Tree Insulator, and the last one to come to light is: The Peoples Telegraph Insulator. Now if the collectors have heard it called by one or all of these names, the fact is that they are all one and the same, The Block Glass.

There have been many rumors and much speculation on the block glass insulator, and I am not writing this story to build up the block glass. It is my intention only to put the facts down for all the collectors to read. I hope I can put this story together and put all the facts down simply enough so all the collectors will be able to have a better understanding of the block glass insulators. I feel I should start this story on how I got into this strange hobby of collecting insulators, since the block glass insulators entered the picture very shortly after I started collecting insulators. .

In the early part of 1968 I read an article about people starting to collect insulators; so, being a fellow with an eye for a quick dollar, I figured if these nuts are going to collect those crazy things, I'll just get a few and sell them. At this early stage I figured there couldn't be more than ten or twelve different kinds. The article in this magazine stated that Hemingray 42's were worth $5.00 each. So on March 25, 1968, armed with this vast amount of knowledge on insulators, I set out to make that quick buck. I had a wide open field in this part of the country at that time. I was bringing the insulators back by the baskets full every time I went out. My first trip out I came back with over 200 Hemingray 42's. At $5.00 each that was a jackpot! I had been picking insulators for about two months before the bug bit me! And from that day on it has been a race with time and other collectors across this land to come up with the wildest collection I could put together. Today three years later, I have had collectors tell me that I have the wildest collection in the country; but, having much more knowledge on insulators today than I had three years ago, I have reason to doubt that statement. 

I had been picking insulators about two and a half months when I invited my friend, Waylon Foutch, to go with me. That was a time to remember. He thought it was real funny the way I got excited to get to the next pole to see what was on the crossarms. The second time out, the bug bit him. He was a little ways in front of me when he spotted an SCA Whitall Tatum #1 with the sun shining  through it. This was the first one of these we had found. Waylon let out a whop like a dog bit by a bumblebee! From that day on we went out together whenever possible. Had it not been for Waylon's efforts, the story on the block glass insulators for us would not be what it is today. Waylon ran into an antique dealer in Gallatin, Tennessee, where he lives, that had a few of the block glass insulators.

(Left) How's this for a telegraph pole? We had to use all the blocks in our collection, plus all our spare blocks which are damaged, to make this photo. (Right) This photo shows the old threadless egg standing guard over our herd of block glass. You can easily pick out the Ala. and Ky. block glass from the Tenn. block glass, as they are much lighter in color, 7 of them, 

I tried to get a good shot of this one with the wire and metal pieces on it, but it did not come out too clear. 

So Waylon, being a bug-bitten collector at this time, proceeded to find out where the antique dealer got the ugly looking pieces of glass he called old telegraph insulators. This led Waylon to a gentleman who got these old block glass insulators out of the old railroad station at Gallatin, Tennessee, when it was being torn down. These insulators were stashed away in an old wooden box in one of the storerooms; the box had an 1859 date on it. He had quite a few of these insulators in several different colors. But, since there were three different styles of block glass Insulators and an old threadless egg, plus several other insulators in the box, we could not figure any way to connect the 1859 date to the block glass insulators.

The old railroad station was built In 1850, and this railroad was completed in 1857. Most of the railroads did not use the telegraph until around 1860. The Peoples Telegraph was in service in 1848, and since most of the block glass insulators showed signs of being used, we figured they were just taken out of service and stashed away in this old storeroom.

As best we can put the picture together, the railroad and the telegraph traveled the same route between Gallatin, Tennessee, and Nashville, Tennessee. At these two towns they separated and went their different routes. What we think happened is that in 1859 the railroad bought this section of telegraph line and replaced the block glass insulators with another type of insulator.

Anyway, the old fellow had traded off and given away several of the block glass before Waylon paid him a visit. At this time, Waylon traded him out of six of them and gave me two. I studied for many hours trying to figure out these old animals and how they were used. Once I had seen the block glass and found there were more colors, I knew I would, if at all possible, have to have them. The 
gentleman could not remember how many block glass he had gotten rid of, only the names of the people he had let have them. All this information I received from him the first time I met him. Waylon and I proceeded to trade him out of the remaining block glass he had left and that took over two years and is a long story in itself. To make it short and give an idea of what went on, I traded everything from a cow out of my angus herd to just about enough antiques between Waylon and me to stock an entire antique shop.

I did manage to trail down all the block glass gotten rid of except two. They were sold by an antique dealer in Gallatin for five dollars each to another antique dealer who was headed for Alabama.

The gentleman traded away seventeen in four different colors; we recaptured eight of them. The nine that got away were all green, except one which was amber; and only the collector that lives in Sequim, Washington, can tell us the true color of that one. It has now been about three years since I set out to capture the block glass. There were eleven different colors in the old box to begin with, and I now have all these eleven colors in my collection, plus five colors that were not in this find. I have a total of 18 different block glass in my collection; Waylon has eleven different in his collection; and when we combine, we have a total of 24 in 16 different colors and three different styles. 


Pictured above (left to right) are Jimmy Morris, Butch House, and Glenn House. Below you can see the results of their digging--
Alabama block glass insulators.



Our total number of block glass in our collections comes to 29 blocks, and that number represents about one-third of the total number of block glass that have been found to date that we know of. 

The first time I saw the block glass insulator, I thought to myself they should have called it a lock insulator, as the insulator has a zig-zag slot in it, and when the wire is placed in it, it's locked in such a way that it cannot come out. Also, when looking at the insulator from the end, it looks like an old type keyhole in an old door.

I have studied many hours in the last three years on the block glass trying to unravel its secrets. I have gone through a good-sized stack of early history books and telegraph books. I still have not been able to pin down its maker or where it was made, but am almost 100% certain it was made in the South. The name of the line the block glass insulators were used on was The Peoples Telegraph. The wires of this line stretched all the way from Louisville, Kentucky to New Orleans. The old telegraph books I have do not give an exact date the line was constructed, but it mentions this line and another line from Pittsburgh to New Orleans by another route being constructed about the same time. It does not give a date on this, either; but it does give information that there was a telegraph in service in 1847 in one of the towns the other line went through. These two telegraph lines in the early days were in direct competition with each other. Now here is the fact that gives the block glass insulators a definite age of not less than 124 years, and I quote: "It was possible in the year 1848 to hold direct telegraph communications between New York and New Orleans by using repeaters." The first mention in this old book of a repeater being used on telegraph communications was in Columbus, Georgia, in the year 1847.

Now we know for a fact that the northern end of the Peoples Telegraph was Louisville, and the southern end was New Orleans. Now here is the route we think this line traveled, as block glass have been found along this route. Some of these towns were not even in existence when this telegraph line was constructed: from Louisville, Kentucky, south into Tennessee by way of Gallatin, Nashville, and down the old Tennessee road into Alabama through what is now Decataca, Birmingham, Selma, Mobile, and then over to New Orleans. Block glass insulators have been found in four of these towns. Using all the information from all the collectors that I have been in touch with to date, here are the facts as I have them. To date 105 block glass insulators have been found. 

Where They Were Found 
1. One was dug in a dump in Louisville, Ky.
2. A collector in Louisiana advertised an amber one; also, another party in Louisiana found two somewhere between Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans. I have no more information on these finds. 
3. A collector in Florida had two damaged ones at the National meet last year - no information on where these were found.
4. One was found in Mobile, Ala. - no Information on condition or color. 
5. Fifty-seven blocks were found In Gallatin, Tenn. 

In this photo of style "A". "B", and "C" type block glass you can see the difference in the wire groove slots which is reversed on the style "B" block glass.

This gives you an idea of what a lot of the damaged block glass looked like. Items "A" & "B" are in our collection, as they are the only ones like them. Item "A" was the one that was dug in Louisville, Ky. Item "B" is the clear one with a green tint, found by Glenn House in Alabama.

This photo shows the difference in size of the block glass.

6. Forty blocks have been found in Alabama, not counting the one in Mobile. I don't feel I should give out the information as to where these were found.
7. I have been told a collector in Two Buttes, Colo., has a block glass that is different from the three styles we own, but I have no information on it or where it was found.

Now out of the 105 blocks, there are three styles, and very possibly a fourth style. The condition of these 105 blocks, on the ones we have information on, runs all the way from a block glass in good condition to less than a third of a block glass. To date we have not seen one block glass insulator in mint condition.

Here is the way these blocks are broken down condition-wise. good condition, 39; fair condition, 5; damaged, 46; unknown, 15, There are 16 different colors known, and 4 different styles: style "A" - 1846; style "B" - 1846 reversed wire slot; style "C" - we think 1859, definitely before 1877, as this one is shown in a book printed in 1877; style "D" - Brookfield or Hemingray shown in Cranfill's, book "Dictionary of Glass and Ceramic Insulators". We have not seen one of these to date, but we think the one in Colorado is possibly this style.??

Close-up of aqua glass blocks.

Close-up of glass block in reconstructed cross arm.

The block glass found in Tennessee are like the ones found in Alabama in style and design, except for the color and the fact that they were made in a different mold. All the ones found in Tennessee that I have seen have a round spot on the bottom, like sketch #5. I assume this round spot was made by some kind of rod they used to punch it out of the mold. On some of the insulators this spot shows up real plain, and on others it is very faint and hard to see.

On the Alabama block glass there is no round spot like sketch #5, but four little round spots on the bottom of the insulator like sketch #6. On some of the insulators I have seen, all four spots can be seen; and on some of them, only one or two of the spots or circles, I should say, can be seen. 

I cannot give a break-down on colors of the Alabama and Louisiana block glass, but I do know that there are three different shades of light aqua, as I have these three different shades that I got from Mr. Glenn House of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I also got a clear one from him that has a very light green tint in it. Glenn informed me that this was the only one in the bunch that they found in this color, from this we know that out of the 41 block glass found in Alabama there were four different colors.

Now I will give a color break-down and rarity of the ones that I have information on, also condition:

I have seen and held over two thirds of all of the 105 block glass insulators, and to this day I have not seen two of them that had the exact same amount of glass in them. The height from bottom to top on these insulators varies as much as approximately 1/2 of an inch from the shortest to the tallest.

Here is a list of the towns in which these 105 block glass were last known to be resting: Cottontown, Gallatin, South Tunnel, Spring City, and Nashville, Tenn.; Tuscaloosa, Selma, Mobile, Birmingham, Gordo, Foley, and Baldwin County, Alabama; Central, Tallahassee, Ormand Beach, and Deland, Fla.; Napa, Ontario, Sacramento, and Chico, Cal.; Pennington, N. J.; Keyes, Okla.; Montour, and Boise, Idaho; Drummond, Mont.; Lemmon Valley, Nev.; Cumberland, Iowa; New Hope, Bethlehem, and Parker, Pa.; South Field, Ludlowville, and Middletown, N. Y.; Two Buttes, Colo.; Eureka, Kans.; Wallingford, Ct.; Ogallala, Nebr.; Portland, Ore.; Bremen, Ind.; Sequim, Wash.; and in southeastern Louisiana.

I believe all the collectors can read this story and draw their own conclusions on the rarity of the different block glass that I have mentioned. However, I have heard of collectors who feel that there are still a lot of blocks around that just haven't been found yet. Well, I would hope that they are right, as I feel every collector should have at least one of these old animals in his collection. However, with my knowledge of the history of the south between the years 1861 and 1865 I would place the odds of anyone turning up a lot of the old block glass at about a million to one. The reasons for these kind of odds are very simple. Just about all the old telegraph lines in the south were destroyed by the armies of the north and the south during these years they were fighting. I would like to ask all the collectors this question: "How many threadless pin type insulators do you know of that have been found in the southeastern states?" I have been looking for over three years and have looked in all of these southern states, and to this date I have not yet found that first threadless pin type insulator and have heard of very few that have been found. Am also sure that there are other collectors that now have a block glass insulator that will not find their town listed on the list of towns of last known locations of block glass insulators. Some of the collectors in the towns listed did have more than one block glass, and I'm sure there has been some selling or trading on some of the spare block glass. It is also possible that there are one or two block glass insulators out there somewhere that I haven't heard about. If there is, I would be interested in hearing from anybody that has them. I would also like for all the collectors to keep their eyes open for one old block glass in S.C.A. It does exist, but to date only a very tiny piece of one has been found--just enough to prove that it was a piece of an old block glass. As for the value I place on all my block glass, I am sure it is much higher than other collectors would place on them. But, as they say, an insulator is only worth what a collector is willing to pay, and I am sure my interest in the old block glass insulators runs much deeper than other collectors' interest do. To me this old insulator represents some of man's first efforts to communicate by wire.

My interest and value I place on the old block glass insulators runs more in the form of a historical relic than an insulator.

This is the story of the block glass as it is today, and if someone should turn up a million block glass, they will still be at the top of my collection. So with this I leave all you good "Pole Cats" and "House Cats".

Best Regards to all,
The Cottontown "Pole Cat"