Vendor Registration is OPEN for both the October Tanner's and Decembers Magic of Santa shows. |
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Upcoming Shows
November 21,22
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Click the link below to go to the website for more information.
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We look forward to seeing everyone at the shows!
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INSULATORS - JEWELS IN THE SKY |
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You see Insulators every day but have you ever really looked at them?
With the advent of electricity. it didn't take long to realize that a way to isolate it from the environment was needed. The first large scale use of insulators was for telegraph lines.
The very first designs they tried were threadless insulators, and they had to suspend the insulators with the hooks and the bureau knobs. Then they got the idea to put a wood pin in the cross arm and have an overturned glass on top of that, but at the time the hollow inside the insulator was smooth, there was no thread. So it was hard to get it to stay on the pin, they would glue them on. But it just wouldn’t stay on because it’s hard to make things stick to smooth glass. So they’d work in the summer but winter would come and the wires would shrink and tighten up and they’d start pulling and the insulators would pop off the pins. Finally around 1865 Lee Covey had the brilliant idea to thread the insulator cavity and have a matching thread on the pin and screw the insulator on so they wouldn’t pop off.
To this day, pin-type insulators still have threaded pinholes.
Which are the most collectible insulators?
In insulator circles, anything not clear or aqua is considered colored. Aqua and clear were the default colors. Because of the iron content in the glass, most of the insulators came out a little green, that’s the typical aqua color you see and it’s very common. It’s a nice enough color, but when you’re collecting you try to find everything but aqua.
Most of the color is in a few of the styles, especially in the signal insulators that carried railroad signals. They were offered in colors by the factory, you could specifically order blue, amber, or green, which would be helpful if you had a pole with a lot of insulators on it, for marking certain circuits with certain colors. Otherwise, they didn’t try to make insulators in colors because it didn’t matter.
You’d get a few fancy colors because some glasshouse did a fancy batch of cranberry glass or made some colored glassware and had some left over so they pressed a few insulators with it. Most of the glass houses didn’t make only insulators, they’d make all kinds of glassware. That’s why you get fancy colors sometimes. If they had an order for a whole bunch of Cobalt blue candle holders and they had glass left over, they weren’t going to waste it so they would put it towards another glass item, sometimes insulators.
To make insulators they used a lot of cullet, or recycled glass, and every batch of glass has some form of cullet in it because it was a lot more workable. So depending on the cullet that was used, you’d get different colors. Sometimes you’d even get swirls if they didn’t mix it well. There’s a batch of very nice green insulators made by McLaughlin in Vernon, California. He got a truckload of green gin bottles and melted them down and created a batch of insulators. That’s where those nice deep green insulators come from.
The most popular color among collectors is Cobalt blue. That’s one of the colors Hemingray offered for their insulators, there are thousands of them out there. But they are so popular they are all snapped up immediately, everybody wants them.
Who were some of the major insulator manufacturers?
The biggest and best was Hemingray. They came along in a boom time when gas fields were being found, and cities would offer free gas supply to companies so they’d just follow the gas around. They produced the most different styles and were in production for the longest time. They made color insulators on purpose.
Another popular manufacturer was Brookfield in New York. On the West Coast the only people making insulators were EC & M around the 1880s. They made a really crude, bad insulator, but you didn’t have to ship it from the East. Those are very sought after now; they’re a unique style and a San Francisco product and they come in some very nice colors. But no one has any idea of who actually made them. There were plants all over the place, transportation and fuel were a big factor.
McLaughlin insulators were made from 1920-1935. The factory was in Vernon, CA which is near the area known as East LA.
The very earliest insulators were lightning rod insulators. Before people were making electricity, insulators were being used to support grounding rods, just channeling electricity to ground, protecting houses. Later on when the telegraph was invented, suddenly there was a need to run wires on poles for many miles and to develop insulators. They started out small because there was typically only one telegraph line on a pole. Then telephones took over and got popular, and there was the Rural Electrification Act, which tried to provide power to all these farm people. So there was a big insulator boom in the early part of the century, The heyday was the 20's up into the 40's when glass insulators began being replaced with porcelain.
Collecting Insulators can be a very fun hobby with their tremendous variation in color, style and history.
Where do I find Insulators
There are still a few in the wild but the best places to find them are flea markets and antique stores and of course online auctions like eBay and Poletop Discoveries.
There’s a national organization the N.I.A. (National Insulators Association) that puts on a national show once a year and regional shows once a year. There are also local clubs which host shows and activities at their houses. There’s a lot of activity, dozens of shows each year.
Insulator shapes are classed by CD numbers.
Clickable links are in cream colored text.
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Image References
Top: Chester threadless Pilgrim hat from the first transcontinental telegraph line. Used in the West.
Top: Brooks pat 1867 Rams Horn telegraph insulator. These telegraph insulators went up as the Central Pacific Transcontinental Railroad proceeded east from California. They did not do well in the extreme heat and cold of the desert and were replaced within a year or two.
E.C &M Co. Telegraph Insulator. Electrical Construction and Maintenance Company c1870
Other Misc. colored Insulators
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Labor Day Jokes
My wife came home from work yesterday and was raging about her boss. She said to me, “I’m never going to work for that man again!”.
I asked her, “Why, what did he say to you?”
She said, “You’re fired.”
“If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end… it would probably be Labor Day Weekend.” ~ Doug Larson
My boss made me go into the office on Labor Day. Halfway through the day, he came in to check up on me and caught me having a beer.
He said to me, “You can’t drink while you’re working.”
I said, “Oh, don’t worry – I’m not working.”
As a young man
- My first job was in an orange juice factory, but I couldn't concentrate on the same old boring rind, so I got canned.
- Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the axe.
- After that, I tried working in a donut shop, but I soon got tired of the hole business.
- I manufactured calendars, but my days were numbered.
- I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn't suited for it. Mainly because it was a sew-sew job, de-pleating and de-pressing.
- I took a job as an upholsterer, but I never recovered.
In my prime
- Next I tried working in a car muffler factory, but that was exhausting.
- I wanted to be a barber, but I just couldn't cut it.
- Then I was a pilot, but tended to wing it, and I didn't have the right altitude.
- I studied to become a doctor, but I didn't have enough patients for the job.
- I became a Velcro salesman, but I couldn't stick with it.
- I tried my hand at a professional career in tennis, but it wasn't my racket. I was too high strung.
- I became a baker, but it wasn't a cakewalk, and I couldn't make enough dough. They fired me after I left a cake out in the rain.
- I was a masseur for a while, but I rubbed people the wrong way.
- I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining.
Later in life
- Then I became a personal trainer in a gym, but they said I wasn't fit for the job.
- I thought about being a historian, but I couldn't see a future in it.
- Next I was an electrician, but I found the work shocking and revolting, so they discharged me.
- I tried being a teacher, but I soon lost my principal, my faculties, and my class.
- I turned to farming, but I wasn't outstanding in my field.
- I took a job as an elevator operator. The job had its ups and downs, and I got the shaft.
- I sold origami, but the business folded.
Finally:
- I took a job at UPS, but I couldn't express myself.
- I tried being a fireman, but I suffered burnout.
- I became a banker, but I lacked interest and maturity, and finally withdrew from the job.
- I was a professional fisherman, but I couldn't live on my net income.
- I next worked in a shoe factory, but I just didn't fit in. They thought I was a loafer, and I got the boot.
- I worked at Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind.
- So I've retired, and I find I'm a perfect fit for this job!
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You can also get your antiques fix at one of our fun local antique stores and The Nevada Marketplace in Reno Town Mall. |
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1313 S. Virginia
775-323-1515
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960 S. Virginia St.
775-322-5865
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Reno Town Mall
775-384-3153
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