25 years ago -- a beginning.

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", March 1994, page 3

In an early 1969 issue of Old Bottle Magazine, an announcement was inserted as a flyer. A new publication was being offered --                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                            

INSULATORS Crown Jewels of the Wire

Large Image (194 Kb)

Barry Rufi of Sandy, Utah was recently digging into "the deepest, darkest corner of his archives" and found this gem. Thank you, Barry, for the timeliness of your discovery.

"So many people have asked me how I came up with the name of the magazine. Not long before we begin publishing it, we subscribed to Old Bottle Magazine for the insulator column that Frances Terrill wrote. She ran a contest and had collectors send in names for her column. I submitted 'Insulators Crown Jewels of the Wire', which was apparently rejected. So when we started our magazine, I already had the name."

Dora Harned, Chico, California -- originator
 and editor, March 1969 to May 1985

The first issue in March 1969 was sent to 160 individuals. Word-of-mouth advertising and responses to the fliers in OBX brought growth in the number of subscribers. Annual subscription rate for 12 issues was only $4.00!!

A new magazine heading was introduced with the November 1975 issue. It continued as the magazine's moniker until the magazine was sold in 1985.

Over the past 25 years, insulator collecting interest has had its peaks and valleys. The June 1985 issue, the first to be edited by John and Carol McDougald, was mailed to a little over 1,000 subscribers. "Maybe the magazine's appeal can cross the lines of more than just one collectible -- how about railroad, electrical, telephone and telegraph history?" A new cover with just Crown Jewels of the Wire and a disappearing railroad track was designed (by Ray Klingensmith of Orwell, Ohio) and used for the balance of 1985 until the current design (by Howie Snyder of N. Royalton, Ohio) replaced it.

"It clearly was a case of growing pains to try and follow in Dora's well established tradition. Subscriptions hovered at about 1,000 readers. What we thought would work, didn't and we returned to what had worked best -- insulators and the history associated with them and supporting collectibles. Today, we mail over 1640 magazines each month. This is a real tribute to the word-of-mouth advertising of our readers and their individual efforts at promoting the hobby through local newspaper articles, swap meets and shows. We are at a peak of collecting interest. Our gratitude goes to our readers and staff of editors who continue to make the magazine exciting each month. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!" John and Carol McDougald, editors since June 1985 of Crown Jewels of the Wire

"During a recent visit by Tom and Lynda Katonak (Corrales, NM), we took them through a mini tour of how the magazine is published each month. We thought you might enjoy one as well..."

The Gateway 2000 computer and Aldus PageMaker 5.0 desktop publishing program is used to typeset and layout the entire month's magazine. Carol does most of the work herself, with John helping to put in advertising and articles when time runs short. A flatbed scanner can take some of the articles sent by readers and contributing editors directly from their typewritten page to the computer for a little "enhancement", but most of the articles and ads must be manually typed into the program. 

Photos are still made into halftones (a series of dots which allows them to be printed on the offset press) at a graphics studio, even though Carol thinks she has the programs to do that here at home -- she just doesn't have enough hours to study the manuals.

The latest version of the desktop publishing program allows her to put in the entire month's magazine, give it a few commands and parameters for printing, push "OK" and out comes the printing layout in position....that is, page 1 on the right, page 60 on the left of the same piece of paper; page 2 on the left and page 59 on the right and so on. This has been the greatest time saver. The final layout of the magazine is then delivered to the printer.

It takes two full days between two press operators to print CJ. One pressman, Bob Peruscini, handles the internal pages, and Terri Ekstrom prints the two color cover. We receive back each of the fifteen pages and cover stacked in about seven large boxes. 

From the car to, our basement they go... 

Now John takes over... 

A twelve bin electric eye collator awaits the sorting process. Since there are twelve bins, the inside twelve sheets are collated first. Approximately 100 of each page can be loaded at once. Turn on the collator, fingers push up one of each page to a belt which carries the group of twelve pages to John's waiting hands. Pull off the first group, the electric eye says it's time for another group to collate -- fingers up, belt across, twelve more pages. Reload, collate; reload, collate...

Since there are three more pages and a cover to complete the magazine, the second gathering has the collator loaded with a cover and the first three pages; cover and first three pages and cover and first three pages. This fills the twelve bins. Reload, collate; reload, collate... 

Now comes the making of the books... 

A cover and first three pages are placed on top of the twelve inside pages. Tamp the pages together and place in the front end of an electric booklet maker. Press the green button.... The flat book is drawn into the machine, stapled in two positions, folded and pushed out of the back end of the booklet maker. Counter at front reads "Book #1." Only 1699 more to go! The finished books are stacked on end and enveloped together awaiting the final operation. 

John then takes the completed books to the trimmer. He pulls apart twelve copies of the magazine, stacks them and squeezes them to make sure they are folded and properly stapled. The stack is backed into the cutter, the gate is turned down on the group of magazines securing them so that the same amount of raw right edge on each magazine shows. This is what is trimmed off so that the magazine looks neat and clean. Buttons are pushed and an extremely sharp blade comes down to take off the excess paper on the end of each book.

John can actually tell by the tension on the gate and those tiny little trimmings if something has gone wrong with one of the copies.

Something as hard to detect as an extra page that has been collated or that a page has been misprinted. He tries to make sure none of these copies get into the mails. 

Readied for the mails... 

Carol has some extra help with this. Upon completion of the magazine, the data base of subscribers is sorted and the mailing labels for the month are generated. When Carol took a full time job three years ago, she needed assistance in the mailing. Her friend, Linda Shramm, takes the completed magazines and affixes the labels and stamps and inserts the renewal slip reminders into the first class magazines. The second class subscribers require only the renewal slips and are rubber banded and bagged according to the Second Class mailing procedures. Crown Jewels of the Wire is audited by the postal authorities once a year to be sure that it complies with U.S. Postal regulations. Verification of subscription payment and deposit of randomly selected subscribers, number of magazines printed and distributed and other postal requirements need to be met. Carol is always relieved when that it over!

Into the Post Office at St. Charles, Illinois.... Where, when and how it gets to you is in their hands. Should you not receive your magazine or it arrives damaged, please let us know. A lot of love and hard work goes into getting those 60 pages to each one of you every month. John and Carol plan to take Crown Jewels of the Wire into the 21st century. Thank you for your continued support.