Here is a snapshot of some insulators, all porcelain, presented to me in Holland while on a recent vacation.

Staying over in Amsterdam, I phoned the local energy company - electricity and gas - and spoke in English to the No. 2 man. Asking where I was calling from, and being told, he said he would pick me up in a few minutes.

He took me to the main plant, where I met the "Wheels", presenting them with a Hemingray miniature or two. One is going into their museum. Since it was then 4 p.m., we made an appointment for a tour of their facilities for the next day.

Promptly at 9:30 Mr. Jacop Heukelom, the deputy director and my host of the previous day, picked me up, and we drove to the first generating plant. I was offered several large insulators, but passed them up for obvious reasons.

We went through four plants in the city, met the foreman, and ended up with several nice insulators, all Dutch, except an import from Japan. These I carried all the way back to London and then back to the USA.

Europeans are surprised that there is an insulator collecting hobby here, but accept the idea as "within normal limits", and didn't hold it against me. In France, at a champagne company, they had two or three large glass insulators as ashtrays, and one other chap in Paris told of picking one up in the mountains and using it as a bird bath. That is the limit of the insulator "hobby" there.

In England I called the local power company and was invited to Kent to go through their junk pile, etc., but declined due to time limitations. Maybe next time.

On arrival home, I sent Mr. Heukelom a dozen or so glass and porcelain insulators, all with undeniable US and Canadian markings. All in all, a very interesting trip.

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Thank you, Roy, for sharing your experiences with us. These shapes are different and interesting. I think it's a pretty safe bet to assume, after four and one half years of scattered reports from subscribers who have visited foreign countries, that glass insulators weren't used as extensively there as in the United States, Canada, Australia and Mexico. Of course, there are still many countries we haven't heard what was used. Wonder what Russian insulators look like? 

Dora