Lightning Rod Insulator Primer (Part 1)
Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", January 1983, page 8
Submitted by JAMES COLBURN
1616 North N St.,
Lake Worth, Florida 33460
(Reprinted, with permission, from "The Crown
Point" newsletter by Dick and Dottie Daugherty.)
Most readers of this
newsletter probably collect LRB's. While that is all right, they may be ignoring
the fascinating field of collectible lightning rod insulators.
In some of the
early ads for lightning protection systems, lightning rod insulators are
mentioned. They were used up into the twentieth century. Lightning rod
insulators (LRI's) were used in the scroll braces or other closed holder braces;
they were nailed across the roof; and mounted in brackets that were screwed;
and, less commonly, were hammered into the sides of a structure.
Most LRI's now
known are of several basic shapes. The following description is of possibly the
most common of these shapes.
THE SIDE TAB (fig. 1) This is also referred to as a
'sleeve', 'thru-hole', and 'wart'. I will use the term side tab. Side tabs were
mounted in LR braces (fig. 2) and in brackets on the sides of a protected
structure where the screw thread portion was turned into the woodwork of a
building (fig. 3).
Side tab insulators are found in glass and porcelain. There
are many known embossed pieces. They vary quite a bit in their dimensions. The
coloring of these can really be described as a rainbow, as the many shades of
blue, greens, purple, and others have turned up.
|