Most of these actually turned out to be in either poor condition or weak color.

Investigation of the peculiar insulator showed that this was indeed an experimental piece produced by Hemingray under the direction of Owens-Illinois. The remainder of the same line on which the E-14 B's were found, was equipped with Whitall Tatum CSC, date coded, 1946. This is a good indication as to the date of the E-14 B, but is not confirmed.

The significance of the "E-14 B" is not known. However, the "CS" on the reverse side does indicate that this insulator was intended for a carrier system. Carrier is a method in which several telephone circuits are assigned a different frequency and carried simultaneously over one pair of wires. (It must be remembered that this is only a simplified explanation of a rather complex system.) Special glass with certain insulation properties is necessary to operate a carrier system. Hemingray, along with several of the other glass companies, was quite involved at this time in trying to find the glass properties necessary for the carrier system. Hemingray experimented with E-l (CD 128 and CD 100.6), E-2 (CD 122.4) and E-3 (CD 233), E-14 B and others (some for carrier). Both Corning and Whitall Tatum also had their experimental oddities.

The unusual color has been given various names, such as "vaseline", "opalescent" and "moonstone". According to an article that appeared in the August, 1973, issue of Old Bottle Magazine, "Small phosphorous pellets were stirred in-to the molten quartz glass at very high temperatures. Then ... the insulators are always annealed by slow cooking to prevent cracking or fractures ... The fire and color of the opal depends on the internal planes that reflect back the light. Fractures of the internal quartz cause the red fire, blues, greens, and the yellows". The annealing process "might have been omitted ... and the insulator would have (minute) internal fractures like true opal..." This is only one of the several interesting theories as to how this vaseline glass came about. Another theory of a few years back claimed that the E-14 B was colored by the sun; but this is very doubtful. In addition to the vaseline colors, milkglass has been found. It is doubtful that any of the milkglass insulators were ever used on the line, as they were located in the Hemingray, Muncie, Indiana, dump.

The E-14 B glass has unusual properties, unlike most others. Although this glass is very weak and soft, it also seems to absorb impurities from the soil where it was buried. The soil around Lake Okeechobee is high in acid, and this tended to "eat" up the glass. I saw a beautiful top of a piece sticking out of the ground, but the lower half of the E-14 B insulator under the surface was almost gone, as if it had been dissolved in the mud. Some of the earlier collectors learned what their cleaning acid did to this E-14 B glass. After a short time in the solution, all that was left was a pile of broken glass.