Preferably direct porcelain news item and questions directly to Jack H. Tod, 3427 N. 47th Place, Phoenix, Ariz. 85018. All mail will be answered if reply stamp is enclosed, and the most newsworthy item and questions of general interest will be published as space permits.

One day a couple of years ago I was leaving Jerry Turner's home in Goshen and heading for Chillicothe, Ohio along state route 28. I was in a bit of a daze after having spent over a day trying to look at all of Jerry's fantastic porcelain collection and now eager to get over into West Virginia to investigate some old porcelain insulator manufacturers. It was a relief to just meander through the pretty country and try to get insulators off my mind for a few hours.

But all of a sudden I rounded a bend in the road and saw a pole line that caused me to do the biggest double take I'd done in a long time. I nearly ran off the road into the ditch staring at it! This was a three-phase secondary power line just as pictured in the drawing on the preceding page. The three wires ran from pole to pole "slack wire" through the bottom hole of closed-end guy strain insulators as shown.

This very peculiar line construction caused a lasting impression with me, and I wanted to share it with you. Not being very good at scenic drawing, I sent a sketch of it to Robert Winkler just as I remembered it, and the scene was perfectly recreated for us. Robert did the pole line part of the drawing and his buddy, Paul Mohrs (also from Michigan City, Ind.), did the background work. The South Shore line track wasn't part of the scene I saw in Ohio, but Robert put it in as a bonus to equal Paul's output.

Large Image (215Kb)

Robert and Paul have contributed countless superb drawings to Crown Jewels, especially the Porcelain Corner, in the past years. Their pay for all this is certainly low (nonexistent), but the talent is certainly high. Just wait till you see some drawings coming in the next issues.

Matt Grayson (N.Y.) found a No.1 standard one-wire cleat with this new marking and wanted to know what company. No way of knowing for sure, but I'm guessing Pettingell-Andrews Co., Boston, Mass. They were an electrical supply company in operation around the turn of the century into the 1920's. See Woodward's 1973 Report, page 32.

Keith Evart (Canada) sent more information on the U-610A items with the "cents" marking (see, October '75 CJ). The information is that these are evidently emanating from Canadian lines. The one I picked up at San Diego was on a table with HESCHO items (Canadian items), but I had no way of relating these items to each other at the time.

Gerald Brown (Two Buttes) recently sent a carefully made drawing of his MERSHON TYPE. This isn't in the style chart yet, since I could never bump into one to make a drawing, and no one had sent me "remote control" data from which the drawing could be made.

Ed Smith (New York) reported on his recent survey sheet he had one, and Gerald says that Tom Moulton (N.Y .) has one. This in a rare item.

The patent is #605,256 of June 7, 1898, Ralph D. Mershon, but Fred Locke's patent 605,109 granted the same date makes the same claim for the extended petticoat, and Thomas patent 601,195 granted 3-29-98 also claims this long petticoat.

It is unknown to me what company made the MERSHON TYPE insulator pictured above. This creation seems to fit into the Universal Style Chart at about U-945.

Jack

Paul Mohrs (Indiana) has a dry press "Mine" insulator very similar to U-98A, white glaze, mold lines up the sides, and it has an embossed marking O. P. Co. on the collar around the threads at the bottom.

We formerly knew of the O. P. Co. marking on dry press U-274 specimens, and we attribute the marking to Ohio Porcelain Co., East Liverpool, Ohio (1897-1911). These U-274 so marked are very rare, and this is the first report of any other pin type with this marking.

Lloyd Asbury (Liberty Hill Rd., Bedford, NH 03102) sent these sketches of two insulators and wanted usual info -- desirability to collectors, rarity, value.

These are foreign styles. Generally speaking, all pin types used in the North American continent and the Islands use 1" crossarm pins, and other countries use the small "spindle".

I know nothing about the crown markings shown above, and maybe a reader can tell us what foreign manufacturers used these markings.

I naturally cannot determine the rarity (ergo value) of items I know nothing about. Foreign styles, especially ones with clear markings, are desirable collector items but they don't really turn on collectors unless they can be attributed to their country of origin.

Paul Mohrs (Indiana) sent these photos which include some really rare items from his collection.

The picture at the right shows four different New Lexington insulators, and three of these have the rare NEW LEXINGTON, 0. marking! The third one from the left is an unmarked U-541 as cataloged only by New Lexington, and I've heard of only a couple of these in other collections.

The U-966 glazeweld on the left is rare with the marking. The U-746 second from left is very rare with the marking. The U-552 on the far right is the only specimen of this I have ever heard of with New Lexington marking.

The photo at the right shows two specimens with the LIMA, N.Y. marking.

The two-piece multi on the left is the one (from Alaska) seen in most collections, and it is scarce. The U-705 at the right is one of only several known uniparts with the LIMA marking, and is the only one of this U- number I know of. Will anyone argue if we call this one "very rare"? Thanks very such, Paul, for sending us these nice photos of some real goodies.

Jerry Turner (Ohio) recently gave me a cap for my formerly capless U-187 specimen, and this has a readable (barely) marking on it as shown here. That patent involved in #971,785, Alfred L. Pierce, Wallingford, Conn. (The complete patent drawings for this are shown in Gerald Brown's Second Edition, page 118.)

The 1924 Pettingell-Andrews catalog pictured a U-187 somewhat different -- with the bottom part more "milk bottle" shaped (see Sep 1973 CJ, page 23), and a Canadian collector once reported having one of that shape. I've never heard of another one.

Gerald Brown (Two Buttes, Colo.) reports this new threadless porcelain pin type. It is a medium brown, quite shiny. The information was sent to Gerald by Douglas Henderson (Hawesbury, Ont., Canada).

Note that this insulator is almost identical in shape to the U-974, but it is somewhat larger, and look at that oddball 1-5/8" pin size! I thought all threadless pin types were used on a pin approximating 1" size. The drawing here is from rough data, but this item should be added to the Universal Style Chart as U-975.

Ed Smith (Union Springs, N.Y.) has a specimen of U-928 with the early embossed marking which shows very clearly, and he sent this sketch of what this rare marking looks like. Note the initial letters are larger caps than the other letters. This very rare classic marking first reported by Mike Barbieri, Oct '74 CJ.

Porcelain Collector Survey

The survey we conducted (see July '75 CJ) was fairly successful, and some unusual or previously unknown items were reported on the survey sheets. We'll start publishing the results this month and conclude it next month. 

I have listed below the readers who responded to the survey, some with mountains of information, others with minimal data but relating their collection was boxed up in the process of moving or some such thing.

The numbers in the following pages correspond to the numbered names above. The number of people reporting having a given item is helpful, but don't misjudge true rarity by this relatively few people reporting. I know of many large collections on which no report was received. Some items below show only one or two collectors reporting as having it, yet I may know of several other non-reporting collections which also have the item. 

Well, other than the fact that if your last name begins with P your first name should be David, here is what the survey turned up.

Pittsburg "date stamp" markings:

Customer & company markings (all on brown items):

Customer & company markings (on brown or white items):

The following collect "general", but nearly all general collectors have some pet things they work on harder: 
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 39

The following collectors tend to specializes
1, 15, 17, 18, 23, 26, 30, 35, 40, 41

Here are some specialties reported:

#1 (Lapp) 4 (color, dated Ill-Lapp-Locke), 5 (whites, tramps, crude) 6 (Illinois "general"), 7 (Locke), 10 (odd shapes: old MLOD). 11 ("embossings"), 12 (colors, odd shapes), 13 (Canadian, whites, color),

15 (tramps, old MLOD, odd markings), 16 (date:, Fred Lockes), 18 (all blue glazes), 19 early classic, color), 20 (classics, greens), 21 (classics, odd shapes, small companies, colors, etc.), 22 (transpositions),

23 (greens, cobalt blues), 25 (ponies, tramps, helmets, color, early classics), 26 (general of O-B, Lapp, Thomas), 28 (crudeness, odd colors, unusuals), 29 (odd styles pin types, also switch & bus, cutouts, arrestors, etc.),

30 (early classics all types), 31 (ponies & exchanges), 33 (color, shape), 35 (whites, "Macomb"), 36 (old MLOD, tramps, color, Fred Lockes). 39 (anything old, crude or unusual), 40 (tramps, colors), 41 (old types, tramps, any unusual pin types).

The following shows the degree of interest in various types of insulators, collector number shown. for those with serious interest of some types. Some handwritten reports were in a form that precluded listing those numbers below. Number of people Item Serious interest casual no interest interest Uniparts everyone 0 0

The following shows number of people (not individuals) who rated types of column material on a if-you-had-to-choose basis. Several people rated all equally, unable to choose one over the other. And the tabulation doesn't include the one who liked "poetry & cartoons" third best & pushing Question- Answer down to his 4th best.

There's a catch or two here though! The majority don't favor the Q-A format (this surprised me), yet they like the research/history. In most cases though, my very wordy answers to simple questions are what impart the research and history elements to the column. Some people ask simply who made it, when, how, and it's use. It may take a page to give all these answers in detail.

The consensus is only average interest in reports of new items, but what this really means is that only a few care about a new nail knob marking, and everyone goes ape if someone reports a new two-piece tramp in cobalt blue! In any event, we'll try to accommodate the readers' desires in line with these survey results.

The question regarding glass insulator collecting activity brought no surprises. Several checked "collect glass" but specified they preferred porcelain -- or indicated they collected porcelain but that wife (or husband) collected the glass. Here are the results:

More next month, including reports of some unusual items, a none count of the scarce and rare pin type styles, etc.