Dear Jack:

I'm enclosing a shadow profile and dimensional data of a white Imperial I recently acquired. It's a Top Rest firing and a real different glaze for Imperial. Also has 4 large bumps on the surface under the glaze and 2 larger bumps on the inside of the skirt. Somewhat odd looking, as the bumps are smooth and had to be in the clay before the thing was fired.

I've added about 10 good pieces to my specialized "white" collection since I saw you last., including U-981 threadless Elliot, a U-937, Fred Locke with patent dates, couple more Imperials, etc. Good whites are getting hard to find. 
Larry E. Thomas, 
Oroville, Cal.

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Dear Larry:

Great! This is the No. 4 Imperial as listed in the C. S. Knowles 1902 catalog (Reprinted, $3, Frank Peters) and has never been reported heretofore. There are several other Imperials shown in the Knowles catalog which haven't shown up yet either, and it gives us something to hope for.

Although similar to U-559 and a couple of others in the chart, we'll add this one as U-560 because it is an early classic of some importance. We continue to ignore any minor variations in more modern styles of less importance.

Jack

Dear Jack:

You took the words right out of my mouth. Great! Page 25-28 of the June 176 issue (Pricing Porcelain Insulators). I couldn't add a thing.
Thanks.
Bob Hines, 
West Monroe, La.

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Yeah, by the time I got to the 3rd or 4th rough draft, I thought it read pretty well myself.

Jack

When I flunk out in answering questions and ask for readers to help, it sometimes goes from famine to feast -- as with the question about this marking (July 1976 Crown Jewels, page 23).

Thus far, the following have sent detailed information on the marking: Don Schuknecht (Guelph, Ontario), Jim McLeod (Calgary, Alberta), Joe Maurath, Jr. (East Weymouth, Mass., insulator editor of Old Bottle Magazine). The following is a composite of all info received, and there may be a few minor discrepancies in dates or locations.

In 1900 the Ontario, Canada legislature voted $40,000 for surveys of a possible line north into the valuable farm lands. In 1902 an act was passed establishing the TEMISKAMING AND NORTHERN ONTARIO RAILWAY, a provincially owned company.

The line was completed to Moosonee by 1932, and then on to just south of James Bay by 1938, a total of 440 miles of track.

Because of the confusion of the reporting marks, the road used to receive bills intended for the Texas & New Orleans Railway, especially since Temiskaming came first in the alphabetical listings. Thus, the railway was renamed ONTARIO NORTHLAND RAILWAY in 1945 (or 1946) and is still such.

One reader estimates these beehives at $8 to $10 value, but another says he saw them on a list that indicated value would be about $150 for dome-marked and $75 for skirt-marked. Guess this proves the Canadian boys have the same problem we do in the States -- one price for the "I need it" boys and another price for the "I've got it" crew.

Jack

Dear Jack.

My son gave me a pin type similar U-501 with an underglaze EP-55 marking. He got it in Bellingham, Wash. and thinks it is a local utility company marking. Any info or ideas?
Lew Hohn, 
Rochester, N.Y.

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Dear Lew:

Nope, stamped again.

Line Material Co. (more recently McGraw-Edison) used numbers such as NP8 for catalog numbers, but they never used these markings on the insulators themselves, and none of their unipart styles were in the area of #55.

Other companies have used NP to designate Noise Proof (radio quiet), but usually as a suffix, and never on the insulator marking. I know of no company that ever used the number 55 for any style approaching the U-501.

The N.E.M.A. general class for unipart pintypes is Class 55, with subclasses such as 55-1, 55-2, etc.

Now if you feed all that into your computer, it should prove that there are 7 days in each week & that the sun will rise in the east.

Jack

Dear Jack:

I'm enclosing sketches of a couple of cobalt blue porcelain items, and can you help with any info as to use, manufacturer, etc.?
Rick E. Jones 
Dayton, Ohio

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Dear Rick:

If you were of my vintage, you would readily recall that the flunky radio receivers we had in the 1920's and 30's didn't work worth a hoot unless you firmly grounded the chassis and then ran a long antenna wire out the window to a nearby tree or over the roof top.

We didn't take kindly to lightning running down the antenna wire into our living room, so we always used these lightning arrestors where the wire entered the house. Note they are marked to show where to attach the antenna wire and the grounding wire.

It was normal to buy a complete "antenna kit", either as a separate item or as sold with the radios. The kit usually contained a roll of antenna wire, one of these lightning arrestors, a couple of small strain insulators, a flexible, insulated strap to feed under the window sill, and sometimes several nail knobs to run the wire down the side of the house. It's because these items were so visible on or around the house that the porcelain parts nearly always were furnished with blue, green, brown or black glazes in kits. Nearly any small knob you come across in a glaze other than white probably was part of one of these antenna kits.

There are a great number of these lightning arrestors of varied forms, but I've never seen any that did not have identifying markings. Most of them have names of radio companies, wire manufacturers or mailorder houses, all of whom were the big sellers of the kits. Some, most probably sold as separate items, have unattributed trade names.

The BESCO trade name stumps me for the present. The CORWICO on the boat-shaped one is Cornish Wire Co., Inc. New York, N.Y.

These are a real fun item to collect on many counts, and probably most people who collect the small radio antenna strain insulators relish these arrestors. They are all pretty glaze colors, all have identifiable markings, and all are nearly the same size and shape with the two end holes which allow them to be neatly mounted on a display board.

They are a flea market item, and you can locate them in the junk boxes at $.10 to $1 a throw. You'll get quite a nice collection before you start seeing ones you already have! Collectors of these usually just trade them back and forth on a one-for-one basis.

By the 1940's radios were furnished with internal loop antennas, and shortly thereafter even these "loops", weren't required with the much more sensitive radios. Except for insulators used on specialized communications (ham systems, etc.), these radio antenna porcelains are a thing of the past, a real piece of nostalgia, a collectible antique for sure. I like 'em.

Jack

Dear Jack:

I'm sending along these two white porcelain pin types that I got from the Trenton, N.J. fire circuit, and these are the only two styles in the system. I'm sure they were made here in Trenton somewhere.
Tech Hetteroth, 
Trenton

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Dear Tech:

Many thanks, since I didn't have either of these. They are both TUF items and should be good swappers for you.

The white toll is U-108, reasonably common in brown glaze but practically unknown in white. They were made by Thomas, dry process, at East Liverpool, Ohio and were cataloged by Thomas in 1912 as their #1033.

The beehive is Sim U-143 (smaller groove yet) See page 19, May 1975 CJ. These were cataloged by Thomas in 1904 and 1907 and were made first at East Liverpool and later at Lisbon, Ohio. I believe the smaller-grooved ones came first and the larger-groove ones evolved later.

Jack

Dear Jack:

I found an old-looking wireholder at a flea market in Massachusetts, and can you tell me what the embossings on it stand for?
(Mrs.) Edwidge Cook 
Uxbridge, Mass.

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Dear Mrs. Cook:

Partly. I've never been able to attribute the Diamond-L marking, although it's very common on rack spools, wireholders. and specialty items. It's probably an electrical equipment supply company.

The Circle-CI marking indicates the item was made by Colonial Insulator Co., Akron, Ohio. That's also a fairly common manufacturer's marking.

Jack

Dear Jack:

Recently on a trip to one of our area flea markets I came upon what I believe to be a radio antenna strain insulator. It's a brown glaze, and what caught my eye was the "GERMANY" embossing. I purchased 10 for $1.00. Would you consider the piece common or unique?
Mike Serbin, 
Trenton, N.J.

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Dear Mike:

Well, hopefully we'll get one thing straight here. The Webster first-preference definition of "unique" is "SINGLE, SOLE", and the second-preference is "being without equal: UNEQUALED".  Webster's third-preference is "very rare or uncommon: very unusual".

In all collecting hobbies with which I've been connected, the first two definitions have prevailed; that is, "unique" means it's the only specimen known. I have pin types such as the U-514 which I think could be unique thus far in collector circles, since I've never seen or heard of another like it. On the other hand, ones like U-212 may be exceedingly rare, but certainly not unique; I know of 3 specimens of it.

I think anyone is out in left field by himself if he runs an ad that reads something like, "U-xxx, cobalt blue, UNIQUE, only $2 each, $20 per dozen, $125 per hundred". 'Nuf said?

Jack

MORE ON SHIPPING INSULATORS

Even though you learned in last month's column how to properly pack insulators to withstand U.S. Postal Service handling procedures, I highly recommend you consider shipping your parcels by UNITED PARCEL SERVICE (U.P.S.), and all the information you'll need is given below.

The first advantage is economy. You will save from about 15% to 25% per parcel, depending on the weights and zones involved, and that's on shipping alone. U.P.S. pays the insurance up to a declared value of $100 on each parcel. Above that, insurance is only $.25 each additional $100 up to a limit of $5,000.

The second advantage is speedy delivery. As opposed to "forever" delivery of Postal Service, delivery from Phoenix is 2 to 3 working days to west coast, 4 working days to the midwest, 5 working days to the east coast. Invariably the parcel will get there as soon as your first class letter mailed at the same time, so might as well just put the letter inside the box. That saves another 13 cents.

The third and most important advantage is in handling. U.P.S. never heard of "gray sacks", Every parcel is treated as a separate shipment itself (all go "outside" in Postal Service terminology). Regardless of shape, size or weight of the parcel, I've yet to receive a box by U.P.S. which was crushed or mangled in any way.

U.P.S. now delivers to anywhere in the U.S. If you live 75 miles out in the sticks over an ungraded road, they'll find you and run to your door with the parcel.

They will deliver to a Rt. #, Box # address or to a P.O. Box # address if you put the recipient's phone number (including area code) next to the address on the box and on the shipping record sheet you fill out when sending. If they call and can't rouse anyone, they advise addressee by post card of the arrival and hold the parcel for 7 days.

You can send your parcels from any U.P.S. office in the cities and larger towns. New offices are sprouting rapidly.

If you do not live near a U.P.S. office, or just don't want to leave the house, U.P.S. will pick up parcels anywhere in the U.S.! Procedure: You just call the U.P.S. office to give the parcel address and weight. The U.P.S. track will come the following day to pick up the parcel, and you pay the driver. This pickup service costs you $2.00, but any additional called-in pickups the same working week are then free of pickup charge. In some areas you can't even drive to and from the nearest Post Office for $2 expense, even if you consider your time worth nothing.

All regular rates apply to parcels measuring up to 84", length-plus-girth. Parcels measuring over 84", are termed "oversize" and minimum charge is the 25# rate. Maximum size for any parcel is 108" length plus girth.

Maximum weight for any one parcel is 50 pounds. You can send a maximum of 100 pounds (regardless of number of boxes) to any one address on any given day. If your boxes total more than 100# to one address, it requires a second shipment.

So there you go. I wrap up a 17 pound box of insulators and ship them off to Nashville. If I send it by U.P.S., it costs me $4.00 (includes insurance to $100), takes 4 days to get there and arrives in good condition.

If I send it by Postal Service, it costs me $4.92 (plus more for insurance), takes 2 weeks to a month to get there and arrives maybe in good condition or maybe looking like a herd of elephants walked over it.

If I use Priority (air) Mail to try to speed up delivery by Postal Service, it costs me $9.52 (plus insurance), and it would get there just as quickly by ordinary U.P.S.

You can continue to ship your insulator goodies any way you prefer, and including freight, air freight, Greyhound bus, express, mule train or whatever. I've just outlined the U.P.S. alternative here so you can use your own judgment on its suitability for your circumstances.

Regardless of how you ship, it does pay to pack parcels well. A couple of pounds more of compressed newspaper for packing will up your shipping fee a bit (not much), but you more than get that back by not needing to insure, and no more tears shed over broken goodies forever lost from the collecting scene, insured or otherwise.

Jack