Porcelain Insulator News
by Jack H. Tod

Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", December 1972, page 8

Jarl & Karen Anderson (New Bedford, Mass.) furnish us with the most exciting news this month. They found this new helmet type in the north central part of New Hampshire and call it their Bat-man helmet. Accompanying their photo of it is our drawing made by remote control with shadow profile and pertinent dimensions.

Because of its very widely spaced ears, this is a very unusual item, and it should rank alongside the U-390 as one of the most desirable helmets. This specimen is of very good porcelain quality and is unmarked. If anyone is able to turn up any marked ones, let us know.

Phil Klabel (Peru, Ill.) reports having a dry process 3" rack spool with the markings shown at right, and the question is if the monogram-FP marking could be Franklin Porcelain Company. Well, yes it could be, but I doubt it since Franklin isn't noted for a line of dry press items - and especially on items made for Line Material under contract. The "680" is the L-M catalog number for this dry process spool, and the small embossed circle-delta mark is the simplified L-M trademark as used on the smaller dry process items by contract porcelain companies. If anyone has catalogs or literature showing this monogram-FP marking, please speak up.

Dear Jack:

I have a 2-part multi something like the U-869B unipart and which F has a large incuse F on the under- side of the top skirt and a large number "515" on the underside of the bottom skirt. What do these markings stand for?

Another one that I'm having trouble identifying is a brown U-282B with a marking on the crown as shown at right. I am sending this one and the multi to you and hope you can help me with them. Enclosed check is for return postage on the insulators. 

"Shorty" Bemelman 
218 Fred St. 
Lufkin, Texas 75901        (note new address)

Answer:

We've had three other inquiries about the same thing, so this answer may handle future questions too.

These markings under skirts of multiparts are logically factory subassembly part numbers. Various factory operations are continually geared to make "runs" on specific insulators (or parts of insulators), and throughout the factory you'll see carts, pallets, kiln care etc. all stacked with a great variety of pieces of different types of insulators. It may take a month from the time the insulator is pressed and trimmed until it has gone through the drying cycles, glazing, firing, testing, etc.

These fired multipart subassemblies are then stored by their part number. Now suppose the assembly operation starts a "run" for the #426789 multipart insulator. The drawing specifies this "F" for the top part and the "515" for the bottom part. The numbers on the actual porcelain parts reduce errors since many of these multipart pieces are interchangeable and would fit the wrong top or bottom.

You have hit the jackpot with the marking on the U-282B and we'll have to call this one "marking of the month". General Porcelain Company was founded in 1913 by the merger of three other companies, and the plant was in Parkersburg W. Va. It operated as such until 1927 when it was one of six porcelain companies which merged to become Porcelain Products, Inc.

G. P. Co. items are relatively common and most collections have a number of different ones, but the marking on pin types has always been the one as shown at left above. I have traced their trademark (center above) from the cover of the G. P. Co. catalog, and your marking is as shown at the right above. I would like to hear from anyone else who has an item with a nice clear impression of this "trademark" form of G. P. Co. marking. It's an incuse one.

Dear Jack:

... Also I have an egg-shaped strain insulator which was used on the old series street lighting circuits in Pittsburgh, Pa. It is embossed with "D. L. CO." which stands for Duquesne Light Co. which supplies power to Pittsburgh and surrounding areas ... 
Reed Kosmal 
Verona, Pa.

Dear Reed:

Many thanks for sending the info on this. Many of us have this insulator in our collection but we hadn't been able to attribute the marking. Collectors in the midwest have dubbed this closed-end guy strain the "hand grenade" insulator. 
J. H. Tod

The normal marking seen on the U-923 has incuse (incise, or sunken in) characters and is as shown at the right.

Dave Parks (35569 Ave. H, Yucaipa, Cal. 92399) has one of these U-923 with embossed (raised) characters and with a slightly different line: 

PAT MAY 89 & MAY 22 94.

This my be a dry process insulator and one of the first Locke had made for him by Electrical Porcelain & Mfg. Co. before he went to Imperial to have his early porcelains made in about 1896-97. This is the first specimen like this I've seen or heard of. It's obviously a classic and probably also a rarity. This isn't the only eye catcher in Dave's extensive porcelain collection - one of the best out this way.

Dear Jack:

I have an old U-432A which has a 1" pin hole but with the threads divided into four equal sections as shown in this sketch (enlarged) looking up into the pin hole. What...?

Harold Folckemer 
3309 Harlem Ave. 
Cheektowaga, N.Y. 14225

Answer:

Others have reported similar items, not only on the U-432A but on feeder cable insulators. If you will inspect these "segmenting" marks closely, you will see that they are marks left by a fluted spindle used in the trimming operation. Quoting from "Porcelain Insulators Guide Book for Collectors", page 30:

Pin type insulators are finished by placing the leather dry units on the vertical spindle of the trimming machine. At one time, some companies used tapered spindles with shallow spline ridges to afford better traction with a minimum deformation of the threads, and these spline marks are discernible on the threads of some older units.

Dear Jack:

I am sending you this yellow U-474 Findlay for your listing, and has this error been reported yet? Are errors such as this unusual in porcelain markings?
Gene Bond 
15 E. Camden Ave. 
Moorestown, N.J. 08057

Dear Gene:

Wow! Unusual is an understatement, and it's only the second legitimate error I know of on porcelain pin types. The other is "PROCELAIN" spelling on an Imperial marking device (which also occurs with correct spelling). Errors on glass insulators are very common as it is difficult to remedy the error by reworking forming molds, but errors in porcelain marking handstamps caused the device to be sent back to the maker for replacement with a correct one.

Yes, this item was also reported just this past week by Lew Bohn (Rochester)- also on a yellow U-474. This marking is on the skirt of the insulator.

All sorts of "errors" such as backward numerals and letters are very common on standard porcelain and specialty porcelain items where the marking was stamped directly into the dry press dies - much the same as glass molds.

NEW PORCELAIN BOOK

"Collectible Porcelain Insulators, Second Edition", by Gerald Brown. Softbound, 175 pages, $6 postpaid from the author at Two Buttes, Colorado 81084.

I just received a copy of this new book, and it's just like Gerald tells you in his ad copy - 350 additional porcelain insulators, much new information, lots of patent data, and a beautiful addition to your insulator library.

The 8 1/2" by 11" format allows considerably more information in one book, and the plastic ring binding will be welcomed by everyone who is frustrated by softbound books acting like mousetraps just after you find the right page.

It continues to be my philosophy that the education gleaned from hobby books is as stimulating as the collecting or doing part of the hobby itself. If you have found Gerald's first edition a handy desk reference for various insulators, you'll like this new edition twice as much. 
J. H. Tod

Dear Jack:

... I acquired a fuse cutout with an odd name (see sketch at right) recess-embossed on front and below it 30 AMP/ 2500 VOLTS. Any info on this?

I have two more cables with full dates on them - both incuse markings on the top. One is U-600 with May 8, 1920. The other is U-576 with June 13, 1915. Both of these have Pittsburg High Voltage characteristics.

Lew Bohn
Rochester, N.Y.

Answer:

One reference in my files indicates your fuse cutout was sold by Kuhlman Electric Co., 26th & Jefferson Sts. (circa 1920), Bay City, Mich. This company (founded in 1893) manufactured transformers. Evidently most of the electric companies who manufactured or sold distribution transformers also supplied the recommended primary fuse cutouts for them, and this accounts for all the oddball names you run across on them

There seems to be no question that all those items with the full date markings are the output of Pittsburg(h) High Voltage, and some of them occur on styles made only by that company. I've started tabulating all the dates I have seen or heard about, the earliest thus far being June 17, 1913 and the latest one May 8, 1920. These dates match the time span when Westinghouse had a controlling interest in the company, but preceding the 1921 period when Westinghouse owned the company outright. 

Furthermore, I am getting the feeling that the various "date control" markings such as "SEP 20 REC'D" were also an output of Pittsburg. One I obtained recently with the marking of "AUG 26 PAID" is a distribution hat which was a Pittsburg catalog style, which has the common Pittsburg glaze characteristics and which has certain pin hole characteristics common to most other Pittsburg items.

It is logical that the terminal characters (PAID) could have been substituted for the year when it was desired to not publish the year on the insulators. The corresponding years would then be recorded on the factory file print. This is exactly what Pinco did in the 1946-1966 period with their "traveling dot" in the markings; the dot moved across the top and then the bottom of PINCO one notch per year, etc. Other companies also used factory marking codes to denote year of manufacture - notably Locke and Whse.

Dear Mr. Tod:

I don't mean to impose on your time but I feel that you are best qualified to answer one simple question I have. Recently I was fortunate enough to find half a dozen split tree insulators marked P.P. 22. I am offering them for sale in [ads] and noticed that someone else has them for $18. Are they actually worth that much? I don't want to "give them away" if they are really that good but I wouldn't want to ask an outrageous price if they aren't. If you will just take a moment to jot down your best appraisal on the enclosed card I will greatly appreciate it. 
Charles N. Frisa
Rome, Nov York 

Dear Charles:

The split tree insulators you have are the "#22 Victor" in the standard porcelain code (first adopted in 1897). Other than the 37-split (round and not octagonal like the #22), this was the most commonly used tree insulator for 50 years up until the D-1 thru D-6 series of standard forestry insulators (rounds and ovals) came into general use in the 1930's and 1940's.

These #22 items were naturally made by all the porcelain companies who made standard porcelain insulators for half a century, and the P.P on yours is for Porcelain Products, Inc. (1927 - 1958).

You can probably tell from all the above that these are a common item. It is my personal opinion that the proper trade value for the #22 with common marking like P.P. is about $1 - and up to $1.50 with better markings like MACOMB, U.S., BRUNT, G. P. Co., etc.

If your sales are brisk at this level and you ran out, you can buy another crate of them from Porcelain Products Co. (Clarken Co., Carey, Ohio) since they are still (as of 1971) a catalog item with them and presumably still made and stocked. The shipping weight on the standard carton of 100 of these is 38 pounds. 
J. H. Tod

MARKINGS ON PORCELAIN INSULATORS

(Concluded from last month)

Continuation of markings found on "standard porcelain", line items and specialty porcelain insulators & devices. Markings used only on pin types are not included here.

	U. S. Elec. Porcelain Co., Findlay, Ohio
U S	Ditto
U S Co	Ditto
U S E P Co	Ditto
U. S. P. Co.	Ditto
UTILITY	Utility Services Co., Allentown, Pa.
V. V.	V. V. Fittings Co., Phila., Pa.
W. D. INC.	(Unattributed) (specialties)
WEDGE	(Unattributed) (C.P. Co., split knobs)
W E S Co.	Western Electric Supply Co., St. Louis
WHITE	White Elec. Supply Co., St. Louis
WIRT	(Unattributed) (std porc. knobs)
WIS - P	Wisconsin Porcelain Co., Sun Prairie, Wis.
WIS - P - C.	Ditto
WISP	Ditto
WP	Ditto
W S	(Unattributed) (headed tubes)
	(Unattributed) (specialties)
	(Unattributed) (line items & specialties)

My track record for matching company names to the unattributed markings above is so poor that I quit doing it, but for those who like to speculate about the identity of their items with reckless abandon, here's a list of additional companies who are either confirmed porcelain manufacturers or who had large distributions of standard porcelain or specialty porcelain items under their name.

I wish to take this small space to thank the many readers who have written to say that they have enjoyed this porcelain column. I have enjoyed working on it, and your letters are more than adequate compensation for the work involved with my gratis contribution to the magazine. A very happy New Year to all of you, and may it bring lots of new porcelain goodies to your shelves.

Jack H. Tod

Note: Unless I break a leg, I will be at the Las Vegas show Jan 20-21 and have a table there. Would like to meet any porcelain buffs who can attend, and we can swap some talk - and insulators. Bring any unreported porc. items.
Jack