One exciting thing about collecting porcelain insulators is that something new is always turning up or, at the very least, another rare insulator walks through the door at an insulator show giving you an unexpected chance to obtain a long-desired jewel for your collection. It is rare indeed when a half-dozen rare jewels show up. That is exactly what happened at the Atlanta National this year.

Alton Fix with one of his gray 
M-4395's made by Ohio Brass.

Alton Fix and his wife brought about six gray M-4395's to the show all the way down from New York. Not a small task for an insulator that weighs in at about 52 pounds. One was unmarked but all the others had the large Ohio Brass O-B logo embossed on the crown. Note that I said "embossed" and not "incuse". This is why it is important to distinguish the marking type on porcelain insulators. Most people are in the glass-habit of saying "embossing" when describing a marking when in most cases the marking is actually incuse (struck into the surface) and in some case underglaze ink.

I first saw a M-4395 at the 1985 St. Charles National. No one knew what it was or how old it could be. Some years later we learned that these huge insulators were made around 1907-1912. The first gray cross-top, M-4338, was made by Locke to replace M-3890's that were failing in large numbers due to lightning strikes along the Niagara, Lockport, and Ontario Power Co. line. It was a long time before another M-4395 showed up. Then about 1997 or so, one or two showed up at shows. 

Alton said that he was a lineman in New York and in about 1972-73 he took down 8-10 M-4395's from a 34 kV line near Buffalo, NY. They were so unusual that he carried them home. There they stayed for many years until he started to take them to shows. Apparently all the M-4395's in collections are from that group that Alton recovered. Ken Willick told me a few years ago that about 11-13 M-4395's are still in service at a railroad crossing in western New York. Alton confirmed this saying the crossing was near Buffalo. Some were still in the original double-stacked or tandem arrangement to carry the conductor over the railroad track. The illustration below from an A. O. Austin report in the 1916 AlEE Journal shows this arrangement. The article discussed protection against lightning flashover by using taller insulators or tandem assemblies. It stated that the tandem insulator shown in the illustration was "now being used on one 66 kV line." Note that the insulator on the bottom of the tandem assembly is shown with a petticoat under the top skirt and without a cross-top crown; however, Alton said the M-4395 was used on the bottom, too, and the cast iron bracket was a different design that clamped around the crown - not the full metal cap shown in the illustration. Alton said he kept one of the cast iron crown brackets, which he will send to Bill Rohde so he can reassemble the tandem insulator. It is obviously the largest application for a pin-type insulator.

Note the huge cast iron pin cemented in the M-4395.	Illustration of the tandem arrangement

Earl Paulson from Baxter, MN reported the next insulator. It is M-2924 with the recessed-embossed Ohio Brass logo marking shown below.

The "S" and ''T'' stands for "Silent Type" which is OB's trademark for a radio treated insulator to prevent AM radio frequency interference (RFI). It does have conductive black glaze in the conductor groove on the top of the crown and a cemented metal thimble, which provides limited RFI treatment. What makes this insulator so unusual is the contrast between the rich brown glaze of the top shell and the white glaze of the bottom shell. Note the brown glaze sprayed on the upper portion of the white shell, which adds further interest to this very unusual insulator. Another interesting feature is the pinhole was glazed brown, too, extending down past the metal thimble.

M-2924 Ohio Brass with contrasting brown and white shells.

Earlier this year David Dahle reported a power line with these same brown and white M-2924's located along state highway 123 north of Sandstone, MN. The line runs for several miles. Dave reported that about 3/4 of the poles still had 3 (or 6) M-2924's on them. The rest had 1 or 2 replacements, and these were a real mixture - various brown or sky-glaze multis, posts with tie tops, clamp tops, and even brand new polymer post insulators. Ohio Brass definitely intended to make a two-color insulator. Perhaps they needed a way to mark a particular line. The M-2924 that Dave found has an Ohio Brass sandblast marking with the year date 1947 as shown below:

For those of you who do not know what we mean by M-numbers, it is the cataloging system developed for pin-type porcelain insulators made up of 2, 3,4, or 5 porcelain shells cemented together. You can get the complete M-Chart and learn all you need to know about these types of insulators in my new book, Multipart Porcelain Insulators. The U-Chart for unipart porcelain insulators can be found in Jack Tod's book, Porcelain Insulator Guide Book. See the ad in this Crown Jewels of the Wire issue or go to www.r-infinity.com for more information.

We have reported a couple of insulators in past PIN's that had two different markings. Here is another one reported by Dennis Stewart. It is a brown U-532B with an embossed O-B on the crown and a more modem recess-embossed O-B on the skirt. The recess-embossed marking was first used in 1940 at the time the embossed marking was discontinued. Obviously, with both markings on the same insulator, the transition had started but the molds had not been altered to remove the embossed marking. Dennis' insulator was probably made in 1940-41.

U-532B with two types of Ohio Brass markings.

James Lindsey, Jr. reported a new Ohio Brass style somewhat similar to U-320. It has been assigned U-321. Both styles can be found with the recess-embossed O-B marking on the skirt. James sent me an unmarked U-321 and a marked U-320 so I can see the differences.

Two white Ohio Brass insulators: U-321 and U-320.

U-321 has a flat top, a very extended inner skirt, and has only been found with a pure white glaze. Another unusual feature are the three circular spots on the flat top as if it was fired upside-down on a three-pronged firing stool. However, the spots are glazed over and show no signs of having served as a firing rest.

While on the subject ofU-320, Phil and Mona Nichols reported a relatively modem U-320 in the September 1995 issue of Crown Jewels. It had the recess-embossed Ohio Brass marking on the skirt, but what made it so unusual was the beautiful richly colored medium tan glaze. The glaze in nothing like I have ever seen before. Robert Winkler has been on the trail of this elusive jewel for some time and finally captured several recently. He sent me one and I was thrilled to add this very pretty insulator to my collection. If you want to see what it looks like in color, it will be shown at www.insulators.com as one of the preview photos for this month's PIN. The one Robert sent me has the date "7-78" below the recess-embossed O-B marking.

U-320 with beautiful richly colored medium tan glaze.

New "Supplement 2001" that shows all the new U-numbers for unipart porcelain insulators. This 14-page supplement contains new U-numbers that have been assigned since Jack Tod's 3rd edition book, "Porcelain Insulator Guide Book", was published in 1988. It is designed as an addendum to that book and the companion book, "Value Guide for Unipart and Multipart Porcelain Insulators". A total of 137 new unipart styles have been added. In addition, six Imperial styles originally shown as glazewelds have been redrawn confirming that Imperial insulators were always made in one piece. A Value Guide section is included at the end of this supplement to provide additional information and values about each new U-number. There are 14 pages total with 8 pages of U-Chart drawings of the 137 new U-numbers. The price is $4 ppd. Canadian orders please add 50 cents for postage.

Elton Gish, P.O. Box 1317, Buna, TX 77612 E-mail: egish@r-infinity.com