Many interesting reports continue to come in as well as many that are the result of the extensive survey of more than 30 collectors who helped with the new porcelain insulator Value Guide. Insulator shows always produce new or unusual items, too. You can share in the excitement of discovery by attending a show near you. Please support your local shows and the two N.I.A. sanctioned Regional shows and annual National show. The Marlborough National show was FANTASTIC overall and great for porcelain, too! The next edition of Porcelain Insulator News will feature items from Marlborough. I hope to see many of you at the Central (London, OH) and Western Regional (Visalia, CA) shows later this year. Now for a variety of reports.

Phil and Mona Nichols (NIA #4713/#4714) reported a couple of odd items. Their first report is an unusual marking that most of you may not have seen before. The incuse Findlay marking shown below (except with a “l92” instead of “l82”) was found on a U-151 with a dark chocolate-colored glaze. This very uncommon marking usually appears with various three-digit catalog numbers and was shown on page 116 in Jack Tod’s book, Porcelain Insulator Guide Book. Phil and Mona said they found the insulator along the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way in Kansas where all of the poles and wires had been taken down about a year earlier.

I have never seen a Findlay catalog and would appreciate a Xerox copy for my research files. Please contact me if you have one.

The second unusual item Phil and Mona reported was an Ohio Brass U-320 with an odd glaze color. They found several identical insulators marked with the #5 O-B recess-embossed marking (on page 134 in Jack Tod’s book) on the skirt and the incuse date “6' and ’78" on either side of the bar below the O-B.

Phil and Mona sent me a piece of a broken U-320 so I could see the unique color firsthand. It is impossible to accurately describe the color, but I will make an attempt. The color could be described as tan by many people outside the hobby, but it is not the light shade of slightly reddish-tone tan so common on Fred Locke and other early insulators. Rather it is a uniform brown-toned tan. The color density could be described as medium which produces a lighter shade on the raised parts of the marking and a darker shade in the recesses. Maybe the color could be best described as light chocolate. It is different than anything I have seen on a porcelain insulator.

I love going to insulator shows because something new always turns up. The Denver show this past May was no exception. If you have a copy of my new book, Value Guide for Unipart and Multipart Porcelain Insulator, you will see U-411 listed as “unknown”. This means that no specimens of this style have been reported. Jack Tod made the U-Chart drawing based on a drawing he found in the 1916 Locke catalog. Oddly, U-411 was not shown in the 1919 Locke catalog. A fine specimen of U-411 was brought to the show by Mike Miller (NIA #4622) who said that he found it on a Denver line sometime before 1972. The glaze is a dark mahogany color more typical of the glaze used by Franklin Porcelain Co. I thought the insulator looked odd, but Mark Miner (NIA #4846) had a keener eye, and he quickly added it to his collection. Please let me know if another U-411 is sitting on your shelf. Hopefully one can be found with a marking.

Until I started surveying porcelain collectors in preparation for the Value Guide for Unipart and Multipart Porcelain Insulators, the special two-groove cable-top styles represented by U-410A (Lapp), U-411 (Locke), U-412 (Porcelain Products), U-412A (Franklin Porcelain), and U-412B (Pinco) were all listed as “unknown” - no specimens known - and all but one were based on drawings from catalogs. Pittsburg’s version, U-410, is known, but there are probably no more than a dozen specimens in collections. Now only U-410A and U-412B remain to be reported.

Previously unknown style, U-411,
 cataloged by Locke in 1916.

U-410A was taken from a drawing in Lapp’s files dated “10-21-21”.

The only copy of a Franklin Porcelain Co. catalog that I have seen is an old Xerox copy in Jack Tod’s files dated January 1928. This catalog shows that Franklin Porcelain’s version of this basic style was U-412A, so I doubt that they also made U-411 even though the glaze color might be a little odd for Locke. U-412A is a very uncommon style, too. Ken Willick (NIA #3709) first reported having a U-412A. Then Bill Rohde (NIA #1219) sent photographs of several U-412A’s still on poles in eastern Washington. One of Bill’s photographs (shown here) show two U-412A’s used to deadend small conductors by wrapping the wire around the top side-groove. Drop leads from each insulator run down the pole. Bill said the glaze color was pumpkin similar to Lapp products. The Franklin Porcelain Co. catalog states that U-412A was for line voltages not exceeding 7500 volts and further comments that “They are of the two groove type, used for special purposes on distribution lines.” Robin Harrison (NIA #1309) just reported getting a reddish brown U-412A. His insulator is marked ‘FP’ which confirms these were made by Franklin Porcelain. Robin’s insulator came from Washington state and may have come from the same line Bill observed.

Photograph showing two U-412A’s in eastern Washington
state which are used to dead-end two conductors and with
drop leads running down the pole.

Two unmarked U-412’s were recently reported by Bob Stahr (NIA #4186). This is Porcelain Products’ version of the two-groove cable-top style; however, Bob reports that the glaze looks more like a Thomas product. The color is dark mahogany with some dark orange coloration around the wire grooves. Porcelain Product glazes tend to be chocolate brown. Bob said the two insulators came from a collection in Pennsylvania.

Mike Miller brought another much more interesting insulator (at least to classic porcelain collectors like myself) to the Denver show. It is a new style of Fred Locke multipart!! I have assigned it M-3710. The insulator is unmarked; however, Mike said that he found pieces of the same insulator along the old power line which did have one of the Fred Locke multiple patent date markings on the top skirt. Mike found this specimen of M-3710 (with beautiful two-tone top skirt) along the same line from the Skagway, CO power plant to Pueblo, CO where the famous all glass Locke 25’s (CD 342) were installed in 1901. Evidently the M-3710’s were used to replace the fragile CD 342’s which began to fall within a year of installation. The glass apparently had internal stresses which caused them to “explode” and otherwise self-destruct. It is doubtful that many other M-3710’s will be recovered from this line since the terrain is extremely rugged and remote. The guys who explored part of this line recently said they were lucky to get out alive much less carry out insulators.

M-3710 No Name Fred Locke