NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

There have been six new glass insulator finds on the foreign front recently and this month's article will introduce them to you. All but the first one have new CD numbers, so let's start with that one.

An Australian Brookfield?

Dave Sztramski loves to dig in the Brookfield dump near the old factory site in Old Bridge, New Jersey. Who can blame him because he lives in nearby Cranford and almost always uncovers a few good insulators, or at least pieces of them. As we all know, the fun is in the anticipation and Dave's anticipation has certainly paid off. One of his most recent discoveries was a group of seven CD 152's in green aqua. Each had the "BROOKFIELD" embossing on the skirt and a number "1" on the dome. Four examples were intact but all that remained of the other three were the crowns. So it's the Brookfield dump and you'd expect to find these, right? Wrong! Being a thorough person, Dave checked the pin holes and noticed that they had an unusual number of threads - seven per inch instead of the usual four he expected to find. Now that was exciting! 

He couldn't wait to call N.R. "Woody" Woodward and report his find. Woody was even more excited than Dave and was pretty sure those threads were Australian. There is no proof and we may never know what actually transpired, but he thinks that Brookfield may have made some of these fine threaded 152's as samples and sent a case or two of them to Australia, unsolicited, hoping to get an order for more. Brookfield introduced the 152 in 1911 and if all this is true, Woody would place the time frame for that shipment somewhere between 1912 and 1916. To our knowledge, Australia never used this style at all so they would probably have turned the offer down flat. The examples Dave found in the dump may have been left over from the batch of samples. He agreed to loan me the insulator you see on the previous page. It is screwed onto an authentic Australian pin and mounted in a cedar block. I'm sure it feels very much at home. Keep digging Dave, and thanks for sharing.

Two new styles from Italy

Our newly assigned CD 520 is skirt embossed "MIVA // BT 2-P". The glass color is deep green, almost blackglass. It's a chunky little fellow and unusually heavy for its size. The glass is very thick through the skirt area, measuring 1/2" at the base! There is no petticoat. It measure 2-7/8" across the base and stands 3-1/2" tall. This insulator belongs to Fred Padgett of Livermore, California. It was brought to him from Italy by his friend Nathaniel Dorsky, who lives in San Francisco. Fred loves this insulator and he wanted to make sure that Nathaniel got credit as the source. But Fred deserves credit too, for loaning me the piece. In pretty quick order, Woody assigned it a new CD number, I took the photos, and from my measurements and shadow profile, Elton Gish made a scale drawing to be included in a future update of "Glass Insulators from Outside North America". This "Texas Team" appreciates your efforts, Fred.

CD 648 is another newcomer from Italy. At the present time only a small number of these are in collections this side of the ocean. Known examples have been found in either light blue aqua or straw. All are dome embossed - some show "MIVA // T-5", and others have only a single number. The insulator has a base diameter of 2-3/8" and measures about 2-5/8"in height. This particular style is used on buildings for low voltage electrical service.

Bernie Warren finds three new
CD's in France

CD 588 is a beautiful double grooved insulator in yellow green It is skirt embossed "FOLEMBRAY // No 233-2A". The base diameter is 3-1/8" and the height is 4-3/4". Removing the metal pin from this one was fairly quick and easy. French cement is almost like Plaster of Paris and soaking it in water (or even a little muriatic acid) makes it gooshy enough to scoop out with an ice pick in a relatively short time. That's the good kind.

CD 644 is an undernourished little "gingerbread boy" in dark olive green. It is similar to CD 643, in that both are the same height and neither has an inner skirt, but 644 is 1/2" narrower at the base and up through the skirt. It is definitely different! Only two of these are in captivity at the present time and they are both scrawny, so we can't blame it on an underpour. Embossed on the skirt is simply the name ISOREX, nothing else. This particular variation is super rare and when Bernie allows me to borrow something like this, it reinforces the sense of trust that I find among insulator collectors.

CD 686.2 was intended for use as a fuse holder. A real beauty in spite of the fact that it had one corner broken off at the time the photo was taken. It is embossed "FOLEMBRAY // No 292", and is a very close relative to the similarly embossed CD 686, which was written up for the October '96 issue of Crown Jewels. The only difference is that the 686 is 1/2" taller and shows a "291" rather than a "292". Both insulators are of the same yellow green glass. Thanks to all of you who help me keep up to date with new finds!