CAROL AND MARILYN CONDUCT INSULATOR
RESEARCH TRIP ON FOREIGN SOIL
PART IV

After our sojourn in Belgium, our next destination was France. I'm sad to say that for all the great anticipation we had for finding wonderful glass while in that country, our time in France was more disappointing than rewarding. We saw marvelous insulators upon the lines, some of which would have warranted new CD numbers if we could have held them in our hands long enough to get a shadow profile and some dimensions. Some were still in service, but many were without wires. We drove miles out into the countryside, we asked a jillion questions, we approached every electric company in every town we came to and told them what we were looking for. We even offered to pay people if they would take down the old abandoned insulators we could see dangling from the fronts of their houses, but they said, "No!" Many times offices were closed or, if open, they shrugged and said their dumpsters had just been emptied and no insulators were available. In a few cases, we could have taken some, but they were either broken or cemented to tons of hardware! To stand at the bottom of a pole and see beautiful French glass just a few feet away, knowing that there is no way to take them with you is the worst pain known to medical science!

While in the town of CAMBRAI, we went to the office of ELEKTRIZIDAD DE FRANCE (EDF) and were told that they order their insulators from a supplier in ST. ANDRE called SOCIETE GROS (Wholesale Company) and perhaps they could help us. When we got there we were able to speak with the manager, MR. CHRISTIAN FINET, who seemed very interested in the foreign insulator books and was fascinated by the fact that we collect such things. We asked him about certain unidentified markings on French insulators and he gave us the name of the recently retired president of the SEDIVER INC., which has a glass insulator manufacturing facility in St. Yorre. "MONSIEUR BOUCHER will know the answers to your questions," he said. "He knew his company well, but the man who is president now does not." Unfortunately, there was no exact forwarding address for MONSIEUR BOUCHER, but he is believed to be living in the city of NAIRLLY. Sort of a dead end there, but MR. FINET gave us each a CD 535 with the word SEDIVER embossed vertically on the skirt. There was also a CD 396.2 unembossed EIV for Carol, to even things up as I had acquired one earlier, and some CD 1065 and 1066 EIV's for good measure!

It was a Friday evening when we arrived in COMPIEGNE, which was our next stop. We had expected the electric companies to be closed for the weekend, but had not realized that people in France made quite a big deal out of May Day, and since the 1st of May was on Tuesday, most businesses were shut down from Friday until Wednesday. We had seen such amazing glass up on the lines on the way to COMPIEGNE, that we figured somehow we'd hit the jackpot in this town and we settled in for the duration. We scoured the countryside with eyeballs popping and mouths watering. Carol had a dream that she found one of every style she saw! It was a long weekend, but we took lots of pictures and enjoyed the May Day celebrations.

On a hunch, Carol was up early Monday morning and went to the EDF office in COMPIEGNE--"just to see if they are open, but I'll be right back." After what seemed to be an eternity, she burst back into the hotel room with her face beaming and a large box under her arm. EDF had indeed been open and the manager had given her a sample of 6 different CD's that he just happened to have around for some unknown reason. The 6 were CD 552 ISOREX 234, CD 559 FOLEMBRAY 261, CD 643 No Name (a CD 640 without an inner skirt), a CD 657 PFC 2120b., a CD 665 FOLEMBRAY 282 and CD 677.5 FOLEMBRAY 286.

The manager at EDF with whom Carol had spoken has also called around to the electrical companies in the area that are under contract to EDF to see if they were open and might have other samples to give us. No luck there either. "Try them on Wednesday morning," he said. Ho-hum!

EDF substation in Compiegne with CD 535's
 used to install security electric fence.

With a list of these companies in hand, we were at their doors on Wednesday morning, as advised. In each case, we showed them our books and many photos as well, but nothing of any real value to us was available. COMPIEGNE was a lovely city, but since we had come for quite a different purpose and it had been thwarted, we almost felt that our time had been wasted. It was disappointing to put so much into something and receive so little reward for those efforts.

So we packed up and moved on, spending one night in GRIESHEIM, WEST GERMANY, as our route took us westward across the tip of that country on our way to SWITZERLAND. As we left FRANCE, we noticed how quickly the glass insulators disappeared from the scene and porcelains took their places. What a contrast! Once inside the Swiss border, we began to see bright yellow porcelain insulators on the lines. There would usually be 1 or 2 yellow ones to 3 or more insulators of the same style, but in different colors such as brown or white. We were to learn that the yellow insulators were used to mark the neutral lines. We saw 4 different U-numbers in yellow!

Typical Swiss pole with one yellow insulator (top left)
and three white insulators with green tops.

Our first stop in SWITZERLAND was ZURICH, where we went to the head office of ELEKTRIZITATSWERK DER STADT ZURICH (EWZ), or Electric Company of the City of Zurich. My husband and I had gone to EWZ in 1983 in search of a yellow porcelain insulator and had been given a U-1737, brand new and the prettiest yellow you ever saw. This time, Carol and I were told that these are no longer available and they could not give us any. But they did phone the company that produced them, SUISSE LANGENTHAL, in the city of that name a few miles away and I was able to speak with their director, MR. STAUB. He invited us to come the next day for a tour of the factory. So off to LANGENTHAL it was, to find a good B&B place to spend the night. We were excited! When we arrived to keep our appointment, we were told that MR. STAUB was held up in a meeting and could not meet with us. Instead, he had asked his secretary, MARY ANN WAELTI, to be our guide and give us some brochures on SUISSE LANGENTHAL. Following is a brief summary of the company's history. 

Front view of the Prozellanfabrik Langenthal A.G. at Langenthal

LANGENTHAL SUISSE CHINA WORKS LTD. was founded in 1906. Within months, the company was able to produce superior china for hotels and restaurants and later began to make household china as well. Electrotechnical porcelain became one of its product lines in 1920. Since 1988, LANGENTHAL has been a subsidiary of the KERAMIK HOLDING AG LAUFEN, which operates internationally. Several variations of the LANGENTHAL trademark were used on insulators during the years before the merger with LAUFEN. These are shown on the following page. You'll notice the current trademark in the accompanying photo.

Today, LANGENTHAL produces only very large insulators such as bushings, solid core post insulators, etc. All pintypes have been discontinued and are no longer available as replacements for those on existing lines. This was a mystery to us because so many are still in use. Sadly, we came away without any yellow insulators. So if you have one in your collection, consider yourself lucky. MR. STAUB said he could not even get any for his grandchildren to play with!

Large brown post insulator with current 
LANGENTHAL / LAUFEN trademark

Marilyn standing by post insulators ready for shipment at Langenthal plant

MARY ANN and another employee, MR. PFAEFFLI, showed us through the buildings where LANGENTHAL'S insulator production takes place, all the way from a lump of clay (called "green-ware") to the finished product. For security reasons, no pictures could he taken, so we have only those in our heads! But we certainly treasured that experience.

Just before leaving, MARY ANN took us through the showroom where all of LANGENTHAL's many china patterns are on display. As a last kind gesture, the lady in charge of the showroom gave Carol and I each a couple of small pin trays decorated with rhododendrons and stamped with the SUISSE LANGENTHAL trademark. 

Back on the road again, we journeyed toward the small village of VUIS-TERNANZ-EN-OGOZ, near Fribourg, where we'd been invited to spend the weekend at the home of COLLETE and REMY VOLLENWEIDER. Collete is the mother of JEAN-PHILIPPE "J.P" DUBEY, who was an AFS exchange student in 1984-1985, lived with the McDougalds and attended high school with their two sons, David and Bob. Collette's daughter, MARIE- STEPHANIE "M.S." DUBEY, also lives in Vuistemanz-en-Ogoz in the family's beautiful farmhouse in this village of 400 inhabitants.

Marie-Stephanie, Collette, Remy and Marilyn

CAROL and JOHN refer to J.P. as their "son" because he became one of the family during the year he lived with them. His face was certainly wreathed in smiles when we arrived! The whole family is just beautiful and they all went to great lengths to make us feel welcome during the two days we were there. One of the highlights was a driving tour of the surrounding countryside with its many small towns. We stopped in GRUYERE and went through their famous cheese factory and climbed the hill to the GRUYERE CASTLE. We drove around beautiful LAKE GENEVA, marveled at the many hillsides covered with terrace after terrace of vineyards, and we even saw the Swiss NESTLÉ'S CHOCOLATE factory! Collete and Remy are both culinary artists and its goes without saying that we enjoyed several marvelous Swiss dishes. REMY makes a mean cup of coffee, too, and it was voted the best of the entire trip.

"J.P."and his "mom" Carol

MARTINE RUEGER, a friend of J.P.'s, who had spent two weeks with the McDougalds during 1989, brought over several white porcelain insulators with Swiss and German markings. A friend of Martine's works for the utility company and had saved them for our visit. Both Carol and I chose a few to bring home, so that was a treat too. 

On Sunday morning, with our car packed to the ceiling, we thanked our wonderful hosts, said goodbye and began the long drive southward to BARCELONA, where we would catch a plane to the Spanish island of MAJORCA. We will conclude this series of our European adventures next time with Part V. You'll enjoy that one!