December 1973 Research Division

Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", December 1973, page 31

My husband and I recently acquired an insulator which we believe to be a companion to Chambers C.D. 432. It is identical to the one described by Milholland, except ours shows the following embossing on the crown opposite the side with the vertical groove: PATENT / DEC. 19, 1871

Also, is there any new pricing information on an old Hemingray No. 2 (C.D. 132) embossed with a 2 on one side and PATENT / DEC. 19, 1871 on the other?

Thank you for your great magazine. We've met some wonderful people through your ads.
Sincerely,
Mrs. John McDougald
4592 Andorra Drive
North Olmsted, OH 44070

I wonder if any of your readers have ever heard of this one. I found a Hemingray 10 C.D. 115 clear smooth base. The embossing is perfect and says HEMINGRAY-16 MADE IN USA on the back.

Also while in Sweden this summer I found a lot of white porcelain insulators, Terrill's book, page 70, left side. Did not see any glass except the large French green sombrero.
Sincerely,
Herb Barker
2326 Livingston
Missoula, MT 59801

I may not be current on glass insulator research, but I believe collectors are still wondering why the CD158.9 Boston has the "screw top". I recently ran on to a patent which evidently covers this design.

Image text (upper):
490,560. INSULATOR Auguste J. Hauty, Saltsburg, Pa, assignor of one-third to John Burke, same place. Filed Aug. 29,1892. Serial No. 444,405. (No model.)

Image text (lower):
Claim. In an insulator, the combination of the threaded standard, the outer cap having its inner periphery threaded oppositely to the standard and provided with a longitudinal slot, and the inner or intermediate cap having its outer periphery threaded to register with the threaded portion of the outer cap, and its inner periphery threaded to register with the threaded portion of the standard, substantially as and for the purposes described.

This is Patent No. 490,560, Jan 24, 1893 by Autuste J. Hauty, Saltsburg, Pa., assignor of 1/3 to John Burke, same city.

The idea is that the insulator is placed on the peg and the cap is placed on the insulator top with the line conductor positioned in the cap slot. The insulator is then turned down onto the peg, and simultaneously the cap screws down to firmly hold the line wire. For this to work, the top set of threads have to be lefthand as opposed to the righthand threads on the pin hole portion.

I have speculated in my sketch at the right what the cap may have looked like, and I assume it must have been wooden to work well and to reduce the chance for breakage that would be caused by a glass-to-glass thread.

As with most other glass and porcelain "no-tie-wire" brainstorms, the insulator is also provided with a normal side groove. Also as with other such designs, I doubt that the design was very reliable in permanently holding the line wire, and the caps were probably soon discarded in favor of using the insulator in conventional fashion. It would be a real victory if someone located one of the caps for this insulator, but the chances for that would appear to be very remote.

Another insulator design with top external threads was reported on page 26 of the June 1971 Crown Jewels, and it could also fit this patent if the top threads are lefthand as on the Boston (the correspondent didn't say).

Referring to October issue, page 18, I "JIST" happened to have what this boy was looking for. I have sent Glenn Polasik this dope direct, and so here it is for you (See following page.). This is a page (reduced one third) from my forthcoming book on UNIQUE INSULATORS.

As you will see from the copy, my specimen does not have the patent date on it and so was doubly glad to get this new information.

Have just made a display of all the STANDARD knobs that I have. It is real interesting.

An insulator which fits patent No. 122,961 which is in my collection. It has no patent date but I have information from Glenn Polasik of Green Bay Wis. of one he has which has the 1872 patent date on it.

Forest Jones has one like this which he thinks is made of carbon. I have not seen it.