More About Spanish Insulators 

The April '79 issue of Crown Jewels presented an excellent article about E.S.A. glass insulators from Spain written by Matt Grayson. While that is still fresh on our minds, and after I did some digging, I'd like to follow up with some answers to a couple of questions he had, some actual photos of the insulators he talked about -- including a new E.S.A. find (a real "creature" -- but beautiful), and a look at some Spanish porcelains. It's not that I'm smart about all this, it's just that I pester people for answers until they are ready to scream! Nothing ventured -- nothing gained!

As Matt stated, E.S.A. stands for "Esperanza Sociedad Anonima", meaning Esperanza (the name of the glass factory, translating as HOPE) Inc. or Ltd. Even the native Spaniards I've talked to agree that Esperanza is a strange name for a glass factory, but that's what it is. One of them suggested it might be a family name. 

When the factory answered Matt's original letter of inquiry, the words on their letterhead were "Fabrica de Vidrio y Domicilio Social". According to a Spanish teacher friend of mine, that translates as Glass Factory and Business Address or Location, even though "Domicilio Social" literally translates as Social House. 

In Spanish if an address is to be denoted as a private or personal address, the words used would have been "Domicilio Particular". As you know, on some of the insulators, in addition to the embossing E.S.A. are found the letters C.T.N.E., the initials of the Spanish telephone company. According to Frank Miller (Tulsa, Oklahoma) and Frank Shiels (Fort Worth, Texas) this stands for "Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana", or National Telephone Company of Spain.

Milholland's Fourth Revision includes several different E.S.A. insulators, some of which are shown in the photo below. There are also a couple that are not in his book -- the one marked with a ? and the C.D. 945 (last two on right bottom shelf). All of these are from my own collection. 

On the page opposite is a chart with the description of the insulators in the above photo.

Following is a photo of a beautiful insulator, C.D. 803 in clear, from Lu Farin's collection (Decatur, Texas). I enjoyed meeting this gracious lady -- she's one in a million! She's widely traveled. And you think you have a lot of insulators! Name any insulator, and she's got it. No danger of her house ever blowing away in a storm. 

4-1/16" x 2-5/8"
E.S.A. // 93

Next I'd like to introduce you to the "creature". I met it and its owner, a swell fellow by the name of Paul Wondolowski (Corpus Christi, Texas) at the National Show in Denver this past summer.

This insulator was a gift brought back to him by his mother when she took a trip to Spain several years ago. In spite of my amateur attempts at photography, you can see it is a beautiful dark green glass. Neither of us could guess just how it was used, but it is an insulator and is embossed E.S.A. (E.S.A. manufactures many types of insulators.) It has no inner skirt, no threads, and the hole does not go all the way through the top.

So much for the glass -- except to say -- please, if any of you have others not shown here or in Matt Grayson's article in Crown Jewels, April 1979, how about letting me know, so we can keep the list up to date. 

Now, to look at some beautiful white porcelain from Spain. The picture below is from Frank Feher's collection (West Sacramento, California). These insulators were brought to him by his son, Rick, who did some sleuthing while in that country. 

To my knowledge, none of these porcelains have any markings, so there is no way to know for sure if they were manufactured in Spain, or by whom but they were found in Spain. The tall one (second from left, back row), that resembles a milk can, came from an old supply warehouse in Madrid. The "fountain" insulator to the right front of it has a paper label on the lower skirt, but part of it is torn away, so it is hard to be sure of all the words. What is visible is definitely Spanish! My guess is that it says Manufacturers of Ceramics, Inc. Tested at 45,000 volts (maximum load).

Frank's picture also includes three glass insulators. The only one of these we haven't talked about is the little dark green one in the foreground -- it's a C.D. 832.1 -- Esperanza S.A. // 22- EV. 

The last picture shows the porcelains from my own collection. 

Of special interest is the one second from the left; it is the exact replica of the C.D. 803 E.S.A. in glass. The insulator third from the right has on its crown the incuse marking C/T -- the only one I have with any marking at all. I have no idea what it means. Help! To add to the confusion, Pat Patocka (Penryn, California) turned up one of these in Vietnam! The "fountain" insulator second from the right was a gift from Joe Steen (Austin, Texas). It is different from the others in that instead of a threaded pinhole, it has a threadless pinhole that has had a "sand band" applied. This feature allowed the prospective insulator customer to cement in a metal thimble or whatever special electrical equipment was required.

While writing this article I talked with Frank Shiels, who is at present a student at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He has returned recently from Europe. I suggested he write an article for Crown Jewels telling about his experiences, and hopefully he will, but briefly....he attended the University of Madrid, Spain, under the sponsorship of S.M.U. (Dallas, Texas) for the Spring semester of 1979. He had studied Spanish for ten years and hoped to round out his knowledge by actually living in Spain. When school let out, the summer found him working off the coast of Italy on an off-shore drilling rig. With the money he earned he managed to visit several countries in Europe before returning home. It took a lot of pluck -- he did all this on his own! 

While in Spain he saw some C.D. 800 and 802 dark green glass insulators cemented on single brackets -- French? He also found several Hemingray 42's with round drips. Small world! Listed on the following page are his other finds. 

We'll look to hear from you soon, Frank -- it's your turn. Will I ever be quiet? 

Yes --

See you next month.