Early in the summer of 2006, a couple local bottle collectors dropped in one morning to visit my father and I. They had heard that we had a few bottles and that we were insulator collectors and they thought they would stop in for chat. While talking with the guys, one of them mentioned finding a couple pieces of threadless insulator on a dirt road close to our home in Nova Scotia. He had mentioned that he had hung on to the pieces and that they looked like a "hat" style insulator. We were initially intrigued, but having gotten our hopes up before only to have them dashed by false stories, we remained a bit skeptical. They each invited us to their homes to check out their collections and to also come see the pieces of threadless that had been found.

 
(Fragment of a cobalt threadless placed over a drawing of the same
 insulator in one of John & Carol McDougald's books.)

Before getting to visit each of the guys, another friend of theirs stopped into our home one evening and showed us the two pieces of threadless that had been found. To our astonishment and delight, he pulled out a "hat" style blackglass piece and then the show stopper..... a cobalt blue "hat" style piece!!!! We were unaware which CD number they were, but we were excited to say the least. The friend informed us that the finder of the pieces said that we could have them as we were collectors and that they should be with someone who would appreciate them.

(Another 737.5 fragment, this one in amber blackglass.)

We then began researching the pieces and trying to find out the CD number for each of them. After some quick measurements and some checking in the reference books, we found that they were CD 737.5's!!!!!!! Each was unlisted as there was no listing for amber blackglass or cobalt blue.

Our next step was to call our new found bottle collector friend and get some more detailed information on where these pieces were found. He gave us a great description of where he had located them and we headed off on our first overland telegraph line hunt.

We checked the areas that he had mentioned and had no luck finding anything else. We then moved on down the road where there had been some dirt removed by machinery for road repairs. As soon as we drove up I to the spot, we could see the glint of glass in the sun throughout the area. We popped out of the truck and I made my way towards an aqua piece of glass, my father yelled and told me to move to my left as their was some green glass. I bent down and pulled up half of a CD 126 NE Canada in an unlisted green color. We became excited and started scanning this area for whatever else we could find. We didn't end up with anything whole, but we did come across a great selection of CD #'s. Some of the pieces were NE CD 136.4's, older styles of NE CD 143's, CD 127's, purple CD 102's, and several unidentified pieces. We continued along the road to see what else we could turn up. We turned up more of the same CD's as well as turning up two small shards of cobalt blue glass in two separate locations. We left the location after a few hours of scouting and returned several times to see what other evidence we could find, however being summer there was a lot of growth along the road. It was decided that the spring or late fall would be a great time to return to the location and possibly turn up a whole insulator.

Eventually we made our way to visit the finder of these pieces and this great potential "gold mine" for great glass. He then showed us a few other pieces he had come across on this road. He showed us an amber CD 154 Dominion-42 he had found split in half and had glued back together. He informed us that he had found amber glass along quite a stretch of the road. He then also showed (and gave us) the top part of what appeared to be another threadless insulator. We have been unable to identify the piece as of yet, but are convinced that it is a threadless piece as the top of the pin hole is present on the piece.

Right: Mystery piece Is it a threadless? If so, what's the CD?

We have done a fair amount of research on this line, but have not found any information as of yet. We have since discovered newer pole stumps on the opposite side of the road as the older glass was found. So it appears that at some point the line was switched to the opposite side of the road.

It is quite an exciting experience for me and my father to have such a potentially great spot for locating some great glass so close to our home. We never would have thought that CD 737.5's would have been used in Nova Scotia. I guess you never know what glass is going to show up where. We will return this spring to do an extensive search. Wish us luck, and remember, get to know your local bottle collectors/ diggers as they may just have a treasure waiting for you.

Another view of Jason's fragment of a CD 737.5 in cobalt blue.