Some Very Uncommon Foreign Insulators

To a certain extent all foreign insulators are rare, simply because of what someone had to go through to get them: traveling hundreds of miles, overcoming the language barrier, hand carrying and/or shipping the insulators, going through customs, telling a few windies while going through customs, etc. Consequently it was a difficult decision to choose which insulators to show you. But there are a certain few that just never show up on sales tables, and perhaps you have never seen them. Shown below are six different insulators, with some others to follow in a later column. 

Chile

 From 1945 to 1967 Cristalerias De Chile S.A., a glass plant in Santiago, produced at least seven styles of American type communication insulators. Nothing further is known about the company as of this writing. Three styles of their insulators are shown in the picture below, and all three have round drip points, U.S. standard size threads, and 1" pinholes. Looking from left to right, the embossings read:

• C.D. 202 - CRISTALERIAS DE CHILE N.53 (pink)
• C.D. 154 - CRISTALERIAS DE CHILE (aqua)
• C.D. 113 - CRISTALERIAS CHILE N.12 (green)

You will notice that these insulators, while they are definitely of foreign manufacture, have not been assigned new C.D. numbers as have the European styles, simply because they are American styles. C.D. 202 is the rarest of the three and truly a beautiful-insulator. It is so nearly identical to our C.D. 202 Hemingray-53, that it is hard to believe it was not made from the same mold. I acquired it recently from Joe Fitzgerald (Austin, Texas), who had had it chained down securely for a number of years. I guess it really involved a decision as to whether or not to cut off my am!

The above information about Cristalerias De Chile S.A. in Santiago was taken from N. R. Woodward's 1973 Report, The Glass Insulator in America. 

"Special Cuban Type, " U-2019

This unmarked white porcelain insulator was manufactured by Ohio Brass Company for export, and, apparently, at least one specimen has been found in Canada; but I do not know where this particular one came from. Jerry Turner (Goshen, Ohio) had it on his sales table in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I was very happy to find it! The insulator has what is called a "twist-lock" crown. A similar style, U-2015, was made by Buller, Jobson & Company of England for use in Spain, as well as our U.S. style U-186, patented August 11, 1914. All three of these power insulators are extremely rare because they were not very successful and, consequently, were not used to any great extent. They were hard to make, and they broke easily! Jack H. Tod (Phoenix, Arizona), in his book, Porcelain Insulators - A Guide Book for Collectors, has this to say about the twist-lock insulator: "After the insulator is screwed onto the peg, it is backed off 1/4 turn or slightly more to allow the conductor to slide down into the top slot. Then the insulator is turned back down 1/4 turn again, and the 2 large ears hold the conductor in place. Although this is a difficult shape to make, it is by far the easiest for a lineman to install. But the 'twist-lock' led to some problems: if the conductor broke at any one spot, a whole length of line on either side of the break backed out of the insulators down the line and sagged to the ground, leading to all sorts of problems before and during repair." 

Jack was speaking about the U.S. style, U-186, when he wrote this, which would have been designed to screw on and off of a standard threaded pin. In fact, the "twist- lock" design was dependent on this. The big question in my mind is: Since the pinhole and the threads on my foreign specimen are both small, did it screw onto a smaller metal pin, or was the pin cemented into the pinhole, and, if so, how could the "twist-lock" feature have been of any use? Do any of you readers know?

The Langdon Insulator, U-1980 

This one is really an oldie! It has no markings, but it is listed in an old Buller Jobson catalogue (1890-1895) as one they manufactured. They describe it as a double shed (petticoat) insulator "sometimes used for terminating wires which cross railways, etc. It has three grooves, a long and strong metal bolt with a double flange, and the grooves are low down."

Mr. N. R. Woodward (Houston, Texas) brought this to me from England last year. He and a friend had gone to Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales to ride the Ffestiniog Railway. This is an old two-foot gauge steam railway, dating back to 1836, that was used to carry slate from the mine nearby to the seaport of Porth Madog fourteen miles away. The restoration of the railway line has just recently been completed, and it is a popular tourist attraction. While there, they learned that many old scrap insulators had been donated to rebuild the line, and that three of the Langdon insulators were among them. Since they were not originally used on the line, they were put aside and were not part of the restoration. (The Langdon was used, however, as a telegraph insulator for British Rail, and Mr. Woodward did see a few of these no longer in service along that line between Darby and London, so he recognized them as something of value.) The man who had these three agreed to part with just one, and that is how I came to have it. I am very proud to be its owner! 

A Fogbowl from Taiwan

Talk about neat! This one came from Jerry Turner's table again in Cedar Rapids. He had a sticker on it that said CHINA, and it's entirely possible that it was found there, but we believe the trademark is from Taiwan, even though we have not been able to attribute it to a definite manufacturer. I just couldn't get over this one! How many have you seen like it? It is white porcelain, it measures 5-1/4" wide by 5-7/8" tall, and the 1-3/8" pinhole has annular rings instead of threads, spaced widely apart. This feature is typical of insulators we have seen from Taiwan. The rings or grooves are intended to give grabbing power to the cement that holds the metal pin. No drawing has been made of this insulator yet, nor has it been assigned a U-number. We are in the process of catching up on all the completely new finds that came from the Cedar Rapids National. They were many, many! Following is a snapshot of the insulator. It won't show up in the picture, but there are traces of orange glaze on the flat top of the crown. Over and over we have seen Taiwanese insulators with bands of orange. That alone seems almost to be their trademark.