Several factors prompted me to proceed with making a dream become reality. For years I had thought about producing some sort of insulator commemorative. All I really needed was a date to commemorate. I actually made a rubber mold for the (1993) 100th anniversary of the drip point patent, and wanted to make a few signals in resin. That was the year I did the resin-made "Insulators from Mars" display at the Enumclaw, WA show. All my extra energy went towards the Martian things, and the drip point commemorative never got done. This was partly due to the difficulty of getting casting resin to flow up into drip points. I was moving that month too, and it was all just too much to do. It was too bad, because the Enumclaw show date was May 1 and 2, 1993. The drip point patent, May 2, 1893.

This year is the 150th anniversary of the first telegraph company in Canada, so it seemed like a good time to try again. (The Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara and St Catharines Electro-Magnetic Company was formed in October 1846.) I chose the shape of a CD 718 because I had one in my collection to work from, and proceeded with the mold making. Now, three months and some expense later, I have actually got a 17-pound 2-piece opening glass mold with a hand-pressed plunger.

I wanted to make commemoratives as realistic as possible, in color and shape, and in glass! With the recent concern in the hobby about 'suspect' insulators being circulated, I made sure these commemoratives could not be passed as real. I did this by not including a pin hole, and by base embossing them with '1846-1996 TELEGRAPH IN CANADA'. (I didn't want people to be able to chip off the embossing and pass them as real, because they sure look real). Having no pin hole actually ads quite an advantage for full dome glass.

I also wanted to produce them in a few of the colors that the Canadian CD 718's actually came in, but cost a few thousand more than most people can afford. I certainly enjoy looking at my window shelf and seeing CD 718's in burgundy, emerald green and bubbly amber, even if they are just reproductions. I certainly couldn't afford the real thing!

These commemoratives are produced one at a time in the 2-piece mold, hand plunged. I want to produce at least 5 colors in this series, but will start with a light cobalt blue, burgundy, and a bright, almost sapphire blue. I thought I would make 50 of each, and offer them individually or in sets.

Next year is the 150th anniversary of the Montreal Telegraph Company. I have begun work on a mold which will look like a CD742. If this year's commemoratives are popular, then next year a series of these Montreal Telegraph commemoratives will be produced in realistic colors for the CD 742's.