The New Lexington
High Voltage Porcelain Company 
(1903 - 1912)

Very little is known about the New Lexington High Voltage Porcelain Co. (N-L). The company was incorporated in March 1903 and located in New Lexington, OH. When the company started, construction of electrical transmission lines was nearing a peak in the boom to get all the cities in the country wired for electrical power. Transmission voltages were rising quickly, too, which required larger insulators than the unipart pintypes (including glazeweld styles) previously produced by R. Thomas & Sons, Fred M. Locke (now Locke Insulator Mfg. Co.), and Imperial Porcelain Works. Major manufacturers such as Ohio Brass (1910), Pittsburg (1908), Lapp (1916), Pinco (1921), and others had not begun to produce insulators. Thomas introduced large glazeweld styles by 1901-1902 and continued to show them in their 1904 catalog along with cemented versions. Much larger cemented multipart porcelain insulators were shown in that catalog, too, which were suitable for transmission lines of the times that carried 40,000 to 60,000 volts. Locke introduced similar large glazeweld styles in their 1904 catalog as well as several sizes of cemented multiparts up to 4-part styles for 60,000 volts. Additional information about these companies and the insulators they produced can be found in my book, Multipart Porcelain Insulators (2nd edition).

1903 was a great year to enter the insulator business since there were few competitors and the demand for porcelain insulators was greater than the supply. Glass insulators were not considered suitable for high voltage transmission service even after the success of the Hemingray Muncies in Montana. Porcelain was the only material suitable for high voltage service since it possessed strength and durability. To produce good porcelain, you needed a supply of fuel such as natural gas. New Lexington, OH had a reliable supply of fuel gas, known deposits of clay, and expertise could be easily obtained from nearby East Liverpool, OH, which was the center of electrical porcelain manufacture in the country. It was a perfect location and a perfect time to start an insulator manufacturing business. 

N-L essentially copied basic styles made by Locke and Thomas. They sold their insulators through other companies or jobbers such as Ohio Brass (in 1907), Johns-Manville, C. S. Knowles (in 1907), and J. H. Parker & Sons. They also marketed insulators directly through their own catalogs. No N-L catalogs are known to have survived. In the early 1970's, Jack Tod made a rather poor copy of 16 pages from a 1908 N-L catalog he found at Ohio Brass. Unfortunately, Jack was only interested in unipart pintypes and did not copy the pages that showed multipart styles and other insulators. That and other catalogs he copied at Ohio Brass have since disappeared. We do not have an earlier copy of the J. H. Parker catalog, but it is obvious from the circa 1917 catalog (in Brent Mills book) that they were carrying unique N-L styles such as: M-2000, M-2142, M-2820, M-3055, M-3281, M-3400, M-3715, and M-3960. Naturally, N-L was out of business in 1912 long before the circa 1917 Parker catalog. The following insulators have been attributed to N-L by either markings or characteristics:

Specimens with New Lexington marking (number of specimens known in parentheses): U-552 (1), U-746 (9), U-954 (1), U-966A (5), M-2140 (1), M-2260B (1), M-2440 (2), M-2637 (3), M-2841 (2), M-3022 (2), M-3890 (broken crowns only). Note that U-552 was reported about 20 years ago and the location of that specimen is unknown.

Multipart specimens with Johns-Manville marking (number of specimens known in parentheses): M-2140 (3), M-2635 (1), M-2636 (2), M-3150A (2), and M-3222 (1).

Location of N-L marked specimens are sketchy. It has been reported that Dave Ramp found all the U-966A's around 1972-75 at old copper/iron mines in upper Michigan. All of the marked U-746' s were found in the Salt Lake City area in the late 1970's. One marked M-2260B and several unmarked specimens were found in the northwest. The crowns of M-3890 were found in the Niagara area.

It is odd that the 1907 C. S. Knowles catalog referred to N-L insulators by the tradename "Crown". While not stating New Lexington High Voltage Porcelain Co. by name, the catalog indicated the porcelain factory was located in New Lexington, OH. The illustrations of all of the "Crown" unipart styles shown in that catalog are identical to that shown in their 1902 catalog, which described them with the "Imperial" tradename accompanied by an illustration of the identical crown logo used by Imperial Porcelain Works on every insulator they made after July 1, 1897, except for a few specimens of two styles made in 1903. The C. S. Knowles "Imperial" styles were definitely made by Imperial Porcelain Works as the factory was indicated to be in Trenton, NJ at that time.

N-L probably fell to competition after two other large companies started producing insulators: Pittsburg High Voltage in 1908 and Ohio Brass in 1910 (purchase of Akron HP factory). By 1912, N-L was in serious financial difficulties. Payments on two mortgages were behind. Various transfers of ownership occurred until June 19, 1918 when General Porcelain Co. purchased the property for $7,750. A large stock of molds, insulators, and soup bowls and various quantities of clay and other materials were itemized in the sale. General Porcelain stripped the plant and sold it on July 25, 1918 with the understanding that it would not be used to make porcelain insulators or doorknobs for a period of five years. The defunct factory was known as Consumers Insulator Co. between Oct. 5,1912 and Nov. 15, 1914. One postcard has been found with an illustration of the factory using this name.

Below are copies of the only two other postcards that have been reported. All three postcards are from the collection of James Murphy.

There is a letter in Jack Tod's files from 1972 written by Murra Fowler. He said this about the N-L factory: "Ground was broken in June of 1902, and building, kilns, etc. completed in August 1903. Production started in September. As a young boy, I carried moulds to and from one of the presses ten hours a day, six days a week, for the large sum of 12-1/2 cents per hour. Their slogan was "High potential insulators for the transmission of great power." Local businessmen owned all stock in the plant. They hired "Bunker" Brown as Supt. and "Capt." Lowery as General Manager: These men came from East Liverpool, O. They were experienced pottery men. It furnished more insulators to the Pacific Coast power plants than all its competitors." The N-L factory also made porcelain tableware. Mr. Fowler reported a man who had a small meat plate and a cup and saucer.

Markings: 
Only 25 unipart and multipart insulators have been reported with the incuse N-L marking:

NEW LEXINGTON, O.

Most of the insulators that bear this marking are U-746. The marking is very rare indeed even on U-746 with only nine confirmed specimens. Only ten multipart insulators have been reported with this marking comprising six different styles. Four of the six multipart styles are shown in my display with the N-L marking along with three of the four unipart styles. All multipart porcelain insulators with the incuse marking, JOHNS-MANVILLE, were made by N-L. Unipart insulators with this marking were made by Pittsburg with the possible exception of U-746.

It is known that N-L made multipart insulators for the Borel line in southern California, which do not have the N-L marking, but bear one or two other incuse markings. Most of the insulators used on this line (constructed in late 1903 to early 1904) were M-3721's made by Fred Locke. All of the others were essentially identical insulators but made of four shells. The difference being the short collar under the top skirt was glazewelded on the M-3721 's and cemented on the four-part N-L version, M-4325A. The nine "kitsulator" specimens of M-4325A found along the line by Mike Spadafora bear a full-date marking from NOV 12 1903 to as late as JAN 26 1904. All of the specimens with a 1904 date and one dated DEC 23 1903 also bear the following incuse marking:

PATENTED 
June 17, 1890

This is the common Oakman patent (No. 430,296) found on many glass insulators with dovetail ears (CD 257, CD 259, CD 260), eyeholes in the ears (CD 263), the Jumbos (CD 140, CD 269) or the style similar to U-408 (CD 266). The specification in the patent was for "one or more dove-tail projections" on the crown to permit a heavy conductor to change directions. It is obvious that the Oakman patent has little to do with the flat-topped crown of M-4325A. The identical marking was found on at least one crown from a M-3890 along with the incuse N-L marking. That crown is in my display. The M-3890 crowns were found in the Niagara area. The Oakman patent would have remained in effect until June 17,1907. I suspect that Knowles licensed the patent for insulators they had made for them, so they asked N-L to mark the porcelain insulators they sold to make sure they were covered against patent infringement. The incuse patent marking is different in that it was made of sans serifed letters whereby the N-L marking used serifed letters.

This incuse marking was found on crown of M-3890.
Note the Oakman patent date of June 17, 1890.

Another interesting marking which could have possibly been made by N-L are incuse date markings found on several U-709A's. All the dates are in 1907 and look nothing like the Pittsburg dates, which naturally fall later and nothing like Imperial dates, which fall earlier. The three dates reported so far are: 2 05 07, 8 08 7 SUN, and 8 27 7 SUN. Oddly, Sunday does not fall on either of the two dates. August 8, 1907 is a Thursday and August 27 is a Tuesday.

For color photos of New Lexington insulators, please go to my website: www.r-infinity.com.

Glaze Colors and Typical Characteristics 
Very few characteristics of N-L insulators have been noted with any certainty. Since nearly all insulators are unmarked, it is difficult to attribute a specific specimen to N-L. Very few unmarked unipart and multipart styles have been attributed to N-L. The table on the following two pages indicates all known and attributed styles. Here are a few typical characteristics that are not necessarily hard and fast, but will help in attribution of a particular specimen to N-L:

Glaze Colors:
1. Light blonde 
2. Light sandy tan peppered with fine cinnamon specs 
3. Rich rusty tan with larger cinnamon specs 
4. Dark brown or dark reddish brown with a fine speckled appearance
5. Unattractive flat dark metallic tan (on most with incuse marking JOHNS-MANVILLE) 
6. Black with tan highlights

Unipart Styles: 
1. Unglazed pinhole 
2. Perfectly made semicircular threads 
3. Top of pinhole is crude and imperfect with gaps, globs of porcelain, spiral splits in porcelain 
4. Thick well rounded petticoat edges 
5. Rounded edges on crown 
6. Firing rest can be either filed off or wax resist 
7. Pinhole diameter is often smaller than normal 
8. Finely speckled glaze 
9. Triple petticoat styles can be 2-part or 3-part glazewelds

Multipart Styles (1903-1904): 
1. Oakman patent date: June 17,1890 
2. Full-date incuse marking in late 1903 or early 1904 
3. Fully glazed crown with no external firing rest 

Multipart Styles (after 1904): 
1. Thick well rounded shells 
2. Rounded edges on crown 
3. Crown has flat vertical sides 
4. Usually fully glazed pinhole but some have unglazed pinholes 
5. Finely speckled glaze even if black or ugly Johns-Manville glaze

View inside the New Lexington factory taken 
from the 1907 C. S. Knowles catalog.

My display at the 2002 Ft. Collins National show.

Following article was found in the Electrical Review dated June 6, 1908:

New Lexington Gas-Fired Porcelain Insulators

The New Lexington High-Voltage Porcelain Company, of New Lexington, Ohio, has adopted natural gas exclusively for burning the kilns in which are fired its insulators for transmission line service. The insulator, being of vital importance to the transmission engineer, who desires to offer to his power users uninterrupted service, is worthy of the best efforts of both engineer and manufacturer. The use of the gas fire benefits the insulator very materially, the company states, in two distinct ways. First, it eliminates from the glaze of the insulator any impurities, which are found there when the insulator is burned in a coal-fired kiln. There may be a considerable amount of metallic substance in the impurities, but the principal difficulty is experienced from the fact that coal contains sulfur, and this is deposited in the glaze on the insulator and causes it to arc over under test at a lower voltage than it otherwise would. After this arcing, streaks may be found on the surface of the insulator, which are impossible to rub off, and are a sure telltale for sulfur in the glaze. Second, it can be readily understood that it is easier to regulate twelve gas burners by turning a valve a little one way or the other, so that the temperature in all parts of the kiln will be the same, than it is to regulate twelve coal fires to accomplish the same result. By using the gas fire a more even temperature is obtained throughout the kiln, and when the insulators are drawn from the kiln they will be of uniform color and vitrification, free from foreign matter in general, and have a clean and neat appearance.

A similar article to that above appeared in the Electrical World dated June 13, 1908. Both articles featured the new M-4321. At least five nice specimens have been found from that line.

This article was found in the Western Electrician 
dated June 6, 1908. Note that the insulator featured 
is M-4550. An almost identical illustration 
appeared in the 1917 Parker catalog.

From Electrical World dated May 27,1909.