The New Westminster and Burrard Inlet Telephone Company, and the rapid spread of telephone use in western Canada during the 1880's was, of course, sparked by Robert Burns McMicking. McMicking was an "overlander", accompanying his brother when drawn from the east by the great Cariboo gold rush in northern BC in 1862. 

After the gold rush, he was employed by the Collins' Overland Telegraph project, and then became the superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Co. The head office was at Yale, and he would have overseen the building of the second line into northern BC, (the one with the upside down EC&M's and cobalt Cal's on it). 

He was fired from Western Union when he was discovered to have been spending company funds on telephone sets for use on lines he was constructing in the Victoria and Vancouver area. 

N. W. & B.I.T. line crew raising a pole in downtown Vancouver c. 1900

Two Port Moody real estate speculators, William Weeks and Charles Foster, were impressed by his two successful lines in the Vancouver area and formed a telephone company there in 1883. With a loan from J. C. "Cariboo Joe" Armstrong, construction of their first line was completed in November of that year between New Westminster (also known as the Royal City) and Port Moody, the western terminus of the (yet to be completed) Canadian Pacific Railway. In February 1884 they incorporated and became the New Westminster and Port Moody Telephone Co. One year later, Armstrong took over the company for $26.00 owing on a barrel of glass insulators. These would not have been N.W. & B.I.T. embossed pieces, as the company name had not been changed until after that time. 

The CPR decided to move the location of its western terminus further down the inlet to the coast. Port Moody real estate values collapsed. The NW & PM Tel. Co. quickly fell into the hands of creditors.

The creditors, Joseph Armstrong and the Bank of BC, expanded the service to Granville (now Vancouver), and on April 8, 1886, finally incorporated under the name New Westminster & Burrard Inlet Telephone Co.

Vernon & Nelson line crew

On April 20, 1891, the N.W.& B.I.T. Co. expanded its operation to the mining boomtown of Nelson, in the southern interior of British Columbia, and formed a subsidiary, the Vernon & Nelson Telephone Co. (Several N.W.& B.I.T.Co insulators have been located in this area over the years.)

In 1898 the N.W.& B.I.T. Co. was sold to Yorkshire Securities, of Britain, which also absorbed several other small telephone companies in British Columbia around the same time. These included McMicking' s Victoria & Esquimalt Tel. Co., Naniamo, Slocan, Boundary & Kootenay Lakes, thus forming a monopoly. In 1902 the N.W. & B.I.T. Co.'s charter was expiring, so all the interests were consolidated into the V.& N. Tel. Co, whose charter was renewable. Yorkshire Securities changed the name to the British Columbia Telephone Company, and was sold to American interests, and remains that way today.

The insulators used on the original line from New Westminster to Port Moody were the U-48 Fred M. Locke mottled tan porcelain. 

The scarce and beautiful CD102 N.W. & B.I.T. Co. insulators, however are more obscure. The two curious aspects of these wonders are: who is responsible for their manufacture, and, what was under the blot-outs on the type 2 and type 3 molds?

N. W. & B.I.T. Co. Mold styles: Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3

There were three molds known to be used for the production of these insulators. All are three piece molds, with very thin lower skirts and a round base.

Style 1, tall ampersand ( & )

1) The first mold has a tall ampersand and wide period spacing, and no blot-out or very very faint blot-out on the back. This style seems to be the most scarce of the three. The colors are It. green and off-clear ... grey. Three of the six light green ones known (to me) have a portion of the dome ground down, as a result of being screwed onto wooden chair legs. (Around the turn of the century it was assumed that this practice was helpful in reducing electric shocks to telephone switchboard operators.)

Style 2, short and wide ampersand ( & ) 
and blot out with commas

2) This style is the most available of the three, although still very hard to find. The embossing has a shorter ampersand, and the period spacing is different than in Type 1. There also appears to be a blot-out under parts of the lettering. The blot-out and the comma also appear on the back. It has been found in a color range from a beautiful crystal-clear through to medium SCA, and in grey, and smoke. Most of this mold style have a thin line of milk running up one side of the threads and swirling around in the dome. The low pin hole, full round top, and transparent quality make these insulators glow and reflect light in the solid glass like a lens.

Style 3 with blot out on front (with comma, as seen on
 the rear of Style 2) and a blot out on the rear
 skirt with a period at the end.

3) The third style is unmarked, but does have blot-outs on each side. One side has the same blot-out as found on type 2, with the comma, and the other side has a blot-out with a period at the end. This would not have been the N.W. & B.I.T.Co lettering, because both embossed styles have no period at the end. The colors known are light green and clear. These are also hard to find, and are easily mistaken for the more common CD 102 NN Canadian MLOD, or NN Canadian (Diamond blot out) insulators. (Check them closely for the very thin skirts and the blot-outs).

Three Canadian Ponies: NN MLOD, NW & B.I.T. Co, NN Bar Diamond

Dome milk swirls found in most N.W.& B.I.T. Co. insulators.

It has been assumed by collectors that the Crystal Glass Co. of the Burrard Inlet area was responsible for the manufacture of these insulators. However the N.W. & B.I.T. Co. name had been changed to B.C. Tel. five years before the glass factory was built. The quality of glass is also different from that of the CD113 Braille and the CD164 Petticoat, also assumed to be made at Crystal Glass. The mold is unique. There is no other CD102 mold that I am aware of that has the same low pin hole and very thin lower skirt. 

The quality of the glass does suggest that insulator production was a sideline for whoever made them. The color range of clear to SCA suggests the use of manganese to remove the green tint of iron oxide impurities in the glass. The milk streaks found in most of these insulators would not have been acceptable glass for windows or tableware (of which pressed glass of that quality was usually used). If you were a window manufacturer and had a run of manganese-cleared glass contaminated with a milky streak what would you do with it? Perhaps you would press some insulators until the milk streak was no longer visible. 

Another puzzling aspect of this insulator are the blot-outs. There were name changes and subsidiaries within the company, but none can be easily abbreviated to have a comma placed after the first three letter spaces. I think it would be safe to assume that a comma was used because there was not enough room on the skirt for the added width of the ampersand. Here are some possible markings:

N.W.,P.M. Tel. Co. (the Port Moody name)
Vic., Esq. Tel. Co. (McMicking's company in Victoria)
Vrn., Nelson Tel. Co. (the 1891 subsidiary)

The blot out on the other side of Type 3, with the period at the end, is also curious, and could have been one of the above. Perhaps in the years to come more information and specimens will surface.

N.W. & B.I.T. letterhead provided by Robin Harrison of Seattle, Washington