Insulators out in the Wild
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This corner post was left for some unknown reason when this farmers field was engineered for a housing project.
Look up! I think it was the "Warning of Death" signs that made me look up at the isolators at the Strontian electricity sub-station. It was the colour of them that really attracted me, but not enough to touch them. If only they glowed at night they would look even better.
For this week's MacroMondays challenge Ceramic.
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This is the first power pole I have seen with four glass insulators still intact. I had to pull off on the side of the road just past an intersection. Why are all the good things to shoot in the worst places.
Happy Telegraph Tuesday.
However, this is no longer a farmers field having been divided and developed into a housing area this post is now part of my back yard.
The first electrical systems to make use of insulators were telegraph lines; direct attachment of wires to wooden poles was found to give very poor results, especially during damp weather.
The first glass insulators used in large quantities had an unthreaded pinhole. These pieces of glass were positioned on a tapered wooden pin, vertically extending upwards from the pole's crossarm (commonly only two insulators to a pole and maybe one on top of the pole itself). Natural contraction and expansion of the wires tied to these "threadless insulators" resulted in insulators unseating from their pins, requiring manual reseating.
Amongst the first to produce ceramic insulators were companies in the United Kingdom, with Stiff and Doulton using stoneware from the mid-1840s, Joseph Bourne (later renamed Denby) producing them from around 1860 and Bullers from 1868. Utility patent number 48,906 was granted to Louis A. Cauvet on 25 July 1865 for a process to produce insulators with a threaded pinhole: pin-type insulators still have threaded pinholes.
The invention of suspension-type insulators made high-voltage power transmission possible. As transmission line voltages reached and passed 60,000 volts, the insulators required become very large and heavy, with insulators made for a safety margin of 88,000 volts being about the practical limit for manufacturing and installation. Suspension insulators, on the other hand, can be connected into strings as long as required for the line's voltage.
A large variety of telephone, telegraph and power insulators have been made; some people collect them, both for their historic interest and for the aesthetic quality of many insulator designs and finishes. One collectors organisation is the US National Insulator Association, which has over 9,000 members.
Whitley County, Indiana
Insulators on an abandoned railroad pole are nearly buried over from snow from last week snowstorms.
Taken along the former Nickel Plate Road east of South Whitley, Indiana.
This shot is taken of glass insulators that were produced in the Denver, Colorado area, and were used in service in the state of Colorado and surrounding states.
The first insulators produced in the Denver area was at a small village, Valverde, Colorado southwest of Denver. Robert Good Jr rented out a small glass factory in 1895, and about a year later was in full production with both insulators and bottles. The name of his company was the Valverde Glass Works.
In the summer of 1899, disaster struck when a fire caused by a ruptured glass tank destroyed most of the glass plant. It was rebuilt in 1899 as the Western Flint Glass Company (W.F.G.CO.) at the same location in Valverde, Colorado by a group of young entrepreneurs who were sons of wealthy Denver businessmen. Robert Good Jr remained in Denver into the fall to assist with the reconstruction of the furnace, and getting the business back into operation. These new owners were not knowledgeable about the manufacturing of glass. With the bad color runs that failed to meet the satisfaction of its bottle customers and bad quality control of the insulators, the company in the summer of 1900 was reorganized, and the name was changed to the Western Glass Manufacturing Company (W.G.M.CO.).
When W.G.M.CO. took over operations from W.F.G.CO. they had a new and highly reputed plant manager from St. Louis, and he appeared to be turning the tide for W.G.M.CO. They also used new molds and new glass mixtures for their insulators which made their glass to be much more consistent in form and the colors more uniform. Production and sales were going good for W.G.M.CO. until May 5, 1906 when a fire totally destroyed the Western Glass Company's plant. With the great fire of 1906 and when it could no longer compete with the new bottle forming machines used by most of the newer glass works, W.G.M.CO. ceased operations about mid 1909.
Most W.G.M.CO. and a few styles of Robert Good Jr and W.F.G.CO. insulators have a distinct purple color from years of exposure to the sun. These insulators were made from glass which contained manganese, a decolorizing agent used to produce clear glass. The more manganese in a glass batch and the longer the insulator was exposed to the sun the darker the insulator got, sometimes to a purple blackglass.
More information about the insulators starting from the left.
CD 106, W.G.M.CO., Purple, Used for telephone distribution.
CD 106, W.G.M.CO., Royal Purple, Used for telephone distribution.
CD 121, Robert Good Jr, Purple, Used for long distance telephone distribution.
CD 121, W.G.M.CO., Purple, Used for long distance telephone distribution.
CD 121, W.G.M.CO., Royal Purple, Used for long distance telephone distribution.
CD 134, W.G.M.CO., Light Purple, Used for low voltage distribution.
CD 134, W.G.M.CO., Purple, Used for low voltage distribution.
CD 134, W.F.G.CO., Purple, Used for low voltage distribution.
CD 162, W.F.G.CO., Dark Purple, Used for low voltage distribution.
CD 162, W.G.M.CO., Purple, Used for low voltage distribution.
CD 145, W.G.M.CO., Light Purple, Used for telegraph distribution.
CD 145, W.G.M.CO., Purple, Used for telegraph distribution.
CD 145, W.G.M.CO., Black Purple, Used for telegraph distribution.
Abandoned Factory in the West of Melbourne where strange things happen at night.
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After a couple days of looking for these silly things in the rain, it was nice to see the sunshine for a brief time.
4/29/2023
The famed "Aqua Mound" at the B-Square Ranch. I don't think even the owner knows exactly how many insulators are in that pile!
A look inside an old Hemingway glass insulator. Another take on my subject from last week.
Macro Mondays - iSpy - 7/12/21
Ponder the comparisons with corporate America or most world governments. Those who rise to the top soon look down upon the rest and see nothing but shitheads. This works well, as those who stay on the bottom look up and see only assholes.
Numerous pigeons line up on crossarms of this old PRR/IC pole.
8/31/2024
Effingham, IL
Glass insulators on some very old utility poles. Manufacturers stopped producing the teal-colored ones in the late 1930s.
Held only by a cable support strand, this old pole looks like it really wants to go into the drink. There are twenty root beer amber Whitall Tatum CD 216s, which I thought was neato.
4/25/2025
Abandoned Factory in the West of Melbourne where strange things happen at night.
Also Check out MCDP's new blog at
The CD 145 style of insulator known as the "Beehive" insulator were the standard insulator used for telegraph distribution, commonly used along U.S. and Canadian railroads. CD 145 beehive insulators were produced by many different glass companies from the mid 1880s to around the 1930s. Western Union used the beehive style for many decades for their standard telegraph insulator. On Febuary 12, 1884 Samuel Oakman of Melrose, MA received a patent for the beehive style of insulator.
In this shot and second shot are all the different CD 145 embossings in alphabetical order from left to right taken from my collection that are known in the insulator hobby.
Some of these embossings are from the glass manufacturers, while others are railroad names from Canada produced by unknown Canadian glass manufacturers.
1. AM. INSULATOR CO., 2. B, 3. B.G.M.CO., 4. BROOKFIELD, 5. CALIFORNIA, 6. E.D.R., 7. G.N.W.TEL. CO., 8. G.T.P.TEL.CO., 9. H.B.R., 10. H.G.CO., 11. HARLOE (HAWLEY), 12. HEMINGRAY, 13. K.C.G.W.
With a recently new CD 145 beehive discovery from Mexico with the embossing TEL. FED. MEX., I now don't have all the different beehive embossings, since the insulator is a one of a kind.
The CD 145 beehives were always my favorite CD style of insulators to find out in the wild along railroads.
Please click on the photo to see in larger view.
Part 2 in comment section.