There has been a tremendous response to my new book, Fred M. Locke: A Biography. There is a sufficient quantity of the soft cover edition but only 87 volumes of the hard cover edition were produced. Advance orders for the limited hard cover edition were shipped about August 7th. By the time you read this in CJ, all hard cover books probably will have been sold. Many of the hard cover books were shipped to the Victor area to interested people, libraries, and historical societies, and a large number were given to the five Fred Locke granddaughters and immediate families in recognition of their help. Only 45 copies were obtained by collectors. So, if you were fortunate enough to get a hard cover edition, it should prove to be a good investment for the future. See my ad in the back of this issue of Crown Jewels of the Wire to order the 343 page, 8-1/2" x 11" size soft bound edition, which incidentally weighs in at three pounds. 

My next project was prompted by many of you who have requested a value guide for porcelain insulators. Interest in porcelain insulators has been increasing over the last two years. Interest in collecting multipart porcelain insulators has been especially brisk. So, I have started to put together a value guide for both unipart and multipart porcelain insulators with the goal of having it available at the 1996 National Show in Marlborough, MA. My list of known multipart specimens is fairly up-to-date but I need help putting together a comprehensive list of unipart specimens which can be found in an enormous variety.

To accomplish this task, I have asked twenty-nine avid porcelain collectors to catalog their collection. I sent them a preliminary list itemizing U-number, manufacturer, and color. Seven people, have already returned the survey which added about 50% more 'insulators to the survey -- almost 1800 different unipart specimens!! After all the surveys have been returned, a final listing will be sent back to them asking for values. The end result should be a fairly good average value for each insulator as well as a general survey of the quantity of rarer specimens. Everyone who has sent back their survey has expressed excitement over the project and are very willing to help. This is a tedious job for each collector and the importance of everyone participating cannot be looked on lightly.

Now is a good opportunity to expand on Jack Tod's 1975 survey of rare to uncommon specimens. His survey offered an insight into how many rare specimens were available, but a lot has changed over the past 19 years. If you would like to participate in the survey of known specimens and inventory of rare specimens, please send me a request and I will mail you a copy of the 36 page survey. OR simply send me a listing of what you have in your collection and I will add it to the survey. It is important that we get a reasonably good inventory of rarer items and as complete a listing of specimens as possible. I cannot afford to spend several years traveling around the country to shows and collections to compile a list of known unipart specimens. 

Please do not feel that your collection is too small or too common to be included. Chances are that you have at least one item that is considered interesting, uncommon, or rare, has not been seen before in that color, and/or the manufacturer/marking is unusual for that style. Every collection that I have seen has at least one item (and usually many more) that fit in one of those categories. If you do send in your inventory, I will place your name on the mailing list to be the first to receive notice of the new "Porcelain Insulator Value Guide: For Unipart and Multipart Insulators".

Now for reports of new items. It seems that news of rare porcelain insulators continues to surface each year. This year is no exception and may be one of the best years in a long time for new reports. Steve Jones (NIA #5426) and Ken Willick (NIA #3709) are fascinated with the historic 26-mile, 11,000 volt Niagara Falls-Buffalo transmission line in western New York. They have spent many hours walking the line and digging in various dumps in the area. The original line was put into service on November 16, 1896 using Fred Locke's design for U-937 which he had produced by Imperial Porcelain Works of Trenton, NJ. Imperial could not produce a sufficient quantity of the oval-shaped U-937 to complete the line on schedule so they made up the balance with Imperial made U-934's. I suspect that Imperial was having problems pressing out an oval insulator and got permission to change the design to the round U-934. 

Specimens of U-937 are particularly rare and desirable (one specimen is in the Smithsonian). A slightly greater quantity of the U-934 style has been found associated with that line and a small number were found in British Columbia during the last couple of years, so the U-934 is rare, too. Trade journals referred to U-937 as "Niagara Type" and U-934 as "Type C". More details of the Niagara Falls-Buffalo line, historical references, and photographs can be found in my new book, Fred M. Locke: A Biography. 

In late 1900, work was begun to install a second pole line that would operate at 22,000 volts. The pole spacing of the original pole line was only 70 feet in anticipation of a build up of heavy layers of ice. The ice was never a problem because heat generated by the line prevented it from forming. So the pole spacing of the new line was increased to 140 feet. To accommodate the higher voltage and anticipated additional strain of a longer pole spacing, a larger insulator was designed with a 1-5/8" inch pin. This was U-966 as designed by Lewis B. Stillwell. He was a resident of Niagara Falls and probably worked for the Niagara Falls Power Co. Stillwell applied for the design patent on Dec. 18, 1900, and design patent No. 34,211 was granted on March 12, 1901. This unique insulator was called "Type E" and originally manufactured by the R. Thomas & Sons Co. The Thomas version is U-966 and can be found in their 1904 catalog. Two similar styles, U-966A (made by the New Lexington High Voltage Porcelain Co.) and U-966B (made by the Imperial Porcelain Works), were copies of the Thomas "Type E".

The New Lexington version, U-966A, is very rare. A few of them have the marking "NEW LEXINGTON, O." on the side of the crown. I have not seen any evidence to indicate where these were used. Both the Thomas U-966 and New Lexington U-966A were made of two pieces fused together by glazewelding. There are more specimens of U-966 than any other "Type E" style, but it is still considered rare. No specimens of U-966 are marked. I have heard of only two specimens that were marked "THOMAS", but these were the cemented version, M-2275 (7 - 6.5 x 8). M-2275 is the same basic shape as U-966 except that the two parts are cemented together instead of glazewelded. A few U-966's have been found on the upper Michigan peninsula in the iron ore regions. I have not heard of any evidence to suggest that M-2275 was found along the Niagara line.

Unfortunately, when my book, Fred M. Locke: A Biography, was published, we did not have a specimen large enough to assign a new U-number, so I called it U-966A. This leads us back to Ken and Steve's exploration of the Niagara Falls-Buffalo power line. Ken has occasionally found broken specimens of the Imperial "Type E" along the line right-of-way (see January 1992 CJ). Earlier this year Ken and Steve were extremely fortunate to find several nice brown Imperial "Type E" specimens in two small piles along the line. The Imperial version was quite different and I assigned it U-966B. All of them have the Imperial "crown logo" with manufacturing dates but the heavy brown glaze makes the markings mostly unreadable. However, Ken got one mint specimen with a lighter glaze that shows the manufacturing date to be "6-7-001" (1901). Since the second line was put into service on April 1, 1901, the Imperial U-966B' s were probably used as replacements. What makes U-966B more unusual is that it was made from one piece of porcelain -- not glaze welded! This is not surprising for those of you that have already read my book, because you would have learned that Imperial never made glazeweld insulators. U-966B is very rare. Before Ken and Steve's discovery, only one specimen was known, and that one has not been seen for many years.

Four of the brown U-966B Imperials found 
along the Niagara Falls-Buffalo line.

Richard Brennan wrote me about a recent discovery of the super rare Thomas classic U-976. Richard found a beautiful specimen at a flea market. It has a very light caramel-colored glaze with some darker mottling. This is the third specimen known. We first reported this style in the January 1991 CJ. Specimens of U-976 were made from two pieces glazewelded together. They have the characteristic Thomas "blue-jean" seam inside the bottom skirt and clear impressions of the weave of denim fabric. I think the denim was used to prevent the plunger from sticking to the soft clay when it was removed after forming the shape of the skirt. The near vertical sides of the skirt would make the plunger difficult to remove without pulling the clay apart. The 1904 Thomas catalog showed U-967 as No.8 "S" (2-part).

Thomas U-976

No.8 "S" (U-976) from 1904 Thomas catalog

Illustration of Thomas No.9 "S" 
from January 21, 1905 Electrical World and Engineer.

All three of the U-967 specimens apparently were found in the New York area, but I have not been able to locate an old trade journal article describing their use. I did find an article in the January 21, 1905 issue of Electrical World and Engineer that described the use of a slightly larger Thomas No. 9 "S". It was the same style and height as U-967 but the top skirt was 9 inches in diameter (Thomas catalog shows the diameter of No. 8 "S" to be 8 inches). This larger insulator was used on two 34-mile, 22,500 volt transmission lines from the power house at DeCew Falls, Ontario to Hamilton, Ontario. One line ran along the shore of Lake Ontario and the second line ran parallel to the first a few miles from the shore and above the escarpment. The water used in the hydroelectric project was diverted from Lake Erie by the WeIland Canal. The article stated that the power company intended to increase the line voltage to 45,000 which may have required larger insulators. Maybe one of you in that area can track down the Thomas No.9 "S".

Imperial U-924 (left) and U-930 (right)