Maybe it’s their age or their classic shapes. Or maybe it’s because I’ve walked some of the lines where they were used, actually found one, and imagined the messages their wires must have carried. For whatever reason I just like the old ramshorns and other ‘hooks’. I’ve been ultra-fortunate to have acquired a Leffert’s in the original wood, two Kenosha’s, the Patent Office Model of the Batchelder & Farmer’s 1858 patent and a number of variants thereof, an 1864 Brooks’ patent, four different colored Mt. Washington’s with wood blocks, and many other specimens of Brooks’ 1867 patent, not to mention some made of composition and asbestos in wooden arms. (See additional photos in the September 1994 Crown Jewels of the Wire, p. 20.)

(Left to right) Leffert's, Batchelder/Farmer and Mt. Washington
ramshorns all in original wood.

Size comparison (without their wooden casings) between the 
Mt. Washington, Leffert's and
Batchelder/Farmer (a.k.a. Goodyear) ramshorns.

The Batchelder/Farmer style (1858) hook has many variants.

Two of the three known "Kenosha" hooks. Both of these were
found at Kendallville, Indiana. Note the different hook shapes.

Original "woodworks"
Top arm contains asbestos composition coated hooks
which is a very scarce material.

As a result of my interest in this “branch” of collecting I picked up a couple of Brooks’ 1867 style ramshorns from a table at the recent Bakersfield Show. One was the scarce unembossed style which I had only recently been able to acquire. The other one was embossed with a marking which I did not readily recall (which is no great surprise since I have trouble recalling anything that occurred before the last time I slept!) I bought the piece on the chance I didn’t have it. As it turned out, I didn’t. Since I don’t like buying things I already have, I decided to do an inventory of the markings on the nine Brooks specimens I already had so that I could take it to future shows.

I turned to the only source I knew which had a listing of the markings; Gerald Brown’s book: Unique Collectible Insulators. I found that some of the seven markings in Brown were in error and then learned that another source had even more variants listed. In David and Marilyn Delling’s book: Before Threads, nine different markings are listed (see sketches).

Illustrations of Brook's Ramshorns
(Unique Collectible Insulators, Brown, 1975, p. 42)

Illustrations of Brook's Ramshorns
(Before Threads, Delling, 1971)

Brook's 1867 (left) and 1864 (right) patents
reveal a significant size difference.

In my collection I have Delling’s styles “a”, “b” “e”, “f”, and “i”. I also have a variant of style “h” but I can’t make out the entire embossing. Mine appears to have the “CP” and “RR” upside down. I have never seen the remaining styles but am sure they exist based upon the literature. The big question in my mind is “Are there other markings out there that aren’t on the list?” So, I’m conducting an informal survey. Dust off those old hooks and check the markings against the sketches. Let me know if you have anything different and if you have any of those which I haven't been able to confirm (i.e. styles “c”, “d”, and “g”). I am also trying to locate and obtain photos of the following specimens:

(1) Brooks ramshorn with the side auger for tree mounting (Brown, p.41 & 43)
	(2) Any style ramshorn where the horns face in opposite directions to one another. (Brown, p.43)
	(3) The “La Bastie” bottle insulator (Brown, p.45) with Oct. 8, 1867 & July 1870 patents.

Mike Guthrie's illustrations of Brook's ramshorn
and their glass insert colors.

The photos of “hooks” in this article are examples of insulators dating to the threadless era and before.

This ongoing effort to document and share the body of knowledge about insulator specimens is only possible with help from the collecting public. I would greatly appreciate information, photos, drawings, etc. which any reader possesses on this branch of insulators. Any new information received will be submitted for publishing at a later date. Please send what you can to: Mike Guthrie, 1209 W. Menlo Ave., Fresno CA 93711-1477. Thanks in advance!