The Value Guide for Unipart and Multipart Porcelain Insulators that I introduced last year has met with very good success. About 200 have found their way into collector’s hands. The book could not have been written without the help of about 30 collectors who donated large amounts of time and energy cataloging their collection and answering my surveys and follow-up questions. I was totally surprised and amazed at the willingness of each person to participate in the surveys. We made every effort to show in the book accurate estimates of quantity available for a number of rare insulators; however a few rare insulators reported many years ago in ‘Porcelain Insulator News” were not reported this time. Also several other interesting items were brought to light. This month I will report a few of these.

First we will discuss the super rare insulators that were not reported in the surveys. I would like to know what happened to these insulators, so please report them if either you have them or you know who does. I know that there are major porcelain collectors out there who I either did not know about or forgot to send a survey. Also some rare insulators could be sitting on shelves of collectors who do not collect porcelain insulators as a primary interest.

No one reported having U-67. Lew Hohn reported this style with Fred Locke marking many years ago; however, he does not remember who he sold it to. He said that a bottle digger friend found two (I guess in the New York area). He traded one to Lew and kept the second one. Surely someone in the hobby has the one that belonged to Lew.

Jack Tod had the only known U-188 with the recess embossed marking AMERICAN ELEC. CO. INC. (front side) and PATENT PENDING (back side). This was the original mold set (circa 1925) marking for the dry process Square D “dry-spot” insulator. Jack sold all of his insulators about 10 years ago.

U-552 with NEW LEXINGTON, O. marking was not reported. This super classic marking is unique to extremely rare on any style of insulator with exception of U-746. It is only moderately rare for that style where perhaps one dozen marked specimens are known.

U-705 with LIMA, N.Y. marking was reported many years ago with the U-552 N-L, but no one reported it this time. Lima markings are rare for any style.

Please let me know if you
have any of these four insulators.

There were many surprises from the surveys, and it was interesting to inventory the rare insulators. One unusual report was Bob Berry’s (NIA #1203) unmarked U-937. These were made by Imperial Porcelain Works for the Niagara Falls-Buffalo line that was put into service in November 1896. All of the eleven other reported specimens have the #1 Imperial marking (no “crown logo”). Ken Willick (NIA #3709) recently found a “new” specimen and had it at his table at the London show.

A second U-938 Imperial was reported. These have the typical shiny tan/brown Imperial glaze from circa 1902-1904. There are four ribs under the top skirt similar to CD 315 and CD 321. Two more U-924’s showed up to make a total of three (see Nov. 1994 Crown Jewels of the Wire). These white insulators have the #1 Imperial marking. Three more U-923B’s were reported to make a total of four. These early dry process insulators with embossed (raised) Fred Locke marking #2-1 in the cross-top grooves were made by Thomas circa 1894-95. It was also discovered that Jack Tod’s drawing for U-923C was actually made from an unmarked specimen. Marked specimens, with embossed (raised) Fred Locke marking #2-1 in the cross-top grooves, have a slightly different profile. The unmarked specimens appear to be more rare. Remember that “embossed” is seldom accurate when describing markings on porcelain insulators because that refers to raised letters/numbers as is typical on glass insulators. Most markings on porcelain insulators are “incuse” markings where the letters/numbers are struck or indented into the surface.

A brown U-560 with Imperial “crown logo” was reported for the first time. Rick Tyler recently reported a white insulator with the Imperial marking #11. The manufacturing date is very difficult to read. My best guess for the date is 8-23-98. This is the first time that I have seen a manufacturing date without the “crown logo” marking. For a long time I thought this was a new style until I realized that it was actually U-560. Two other white Imperial U-560’s were reported on the Value Guide survey. A second U-940B was recently reported by Chris Hedges (NIA #15).

Chuck Dittmar (NIA #2910) reported two rare insulators. One is a white U-939D with Fred Locke under-glaze ink marking - the second one known. The under-glaze ink marked specimens were made by Electric Porcelain & Mfg. Co. for Fred Locke circa 1897-1900. More significant is Chuck’s report of a U-141 made by Pass & Seymour. He is not 100% sure that it is a U-141, so I would sure like to see this one to satisfy myself that it really is a P&S. The threaded part is a metal bushing cemented into a porcelain shell. If Chuck’s insulator is a P&S U-141, this would truly be a historic piece. The only confirmed P&S pin-type is one specimen of U-146.

The following list (taken from my Value Guide for Unipart and Multipart Porcelain Insulators) shows all of the classic one-of-a-kind threaded porcelain Insulator styles. If you are after the super rare in porcelain, this will give you something to shoot for. Naturally there are a few other insulators that might be considered one-of-a-kind because of marking, glaze coloration, etc. A couple of examples would be two white U-4’s made for Fred Locke by Electric Porcelain & Mfg. Co. One has under-glaze ink Fred Locke marking #0-5 and the other under-glaze ink Fred Locke marking #6-3. Both are unique because of the marking differences. Another would be the unmarked U-937. The next group of rare porcelain where only two to ten specimens are known contains about twice the number of styles as the unique (one-of-a-kind) group. Many more rare porcelain insulators can be added to the list if multipart porcelain insulators were included.

I just received two exciting new reports that should be brought to your attention. George Nowacki (NIA #5813) from Sudbury, Ontario reported that he has a mint two-part suspension insulator that he found around the mining country where he lives. It has the Victor R=oo insulator logo marking and a nice speckled rust/brown glaze. Except for the marking, it is identical to Bill Rohde’s insulator (with short split connector ring) shown on page 10 of the May 1995 issue of CJ. George said it was used on a circa 1910 power line to one of the INCO, Ltd. (International Nickel Co.) mining operations at Sudbury.

Tim SanSoucie (NIA #5129) just reported a very interesting marking combination on his brown U-152. On one side is the uncommon marking G. P. Co. and the reverse side has a faint but clear scarce MP marking. I quickly grabbed my U-152 specimens with MP and G. P. Co. markings for comparison. Indeed, each specimen matches perfectly with exception of glaze color and wire groove size. My brown MP specimen has a 3/4" diameter wire groove (my white one has a 5/8" groove) compared to 1/2" for the G. P. Co., and the glaze color is closer to a light (German) chocolate brown compared to the typical speckled rust/brown glaze of my G. P. Co. specimen. I do have a G. P. Co. marked wall-through tube (1-1/2" diameter hole by 3-1/4" tall) with nearly the same glaze color as my U-152 MP specimen. Of notable similarity is the unique thin-edged petticoat, lack of collar at start of threads, and 1/2" diameter, slightly concave impression in top of pinhole. I have no doubt that the U-152 MP insulators were made by G. P. Co.

MP stands for Missouri Pacific Railroad, and insulators with this marking were found in Missouri along that railroad. Bob Stahr (NIA #4186) got a few MP marked insulators from a man in Missouri who said that U-152’s with G. P. Co. markings were also found on the same line as those marked with MP. Bob says that it appears that the white MP marked specimens outnumber the brown ones, and that there is a variety of brown glaze colors. MP marked U-152’s are scarce (Bob still has a couple left for trade). The only other MP marked style is U-610A. No one reported having U-610A in the survey (the report of a U-625B should have been listed under U-610A), but I have since learned of five in collections including a new addition to my collection. An MP marked U-610A is much more rare than the U-152.