Those Were the Days, My Friend! Part IV

"So close and yet so far!" I frantically exclaimed to myself.

Being behind the wheel by mid-1969 was the dawn of new insulator hunting frontiers for me. It was as thrilling to me as stepping onto the moon was for the astronauts who had just landed there. I carefully surveyed old fire alarm telegraph lines for many miles around. Since I had very few insulator collectors from my area to compete with, unusual insulators spotted ended up in my hands; if I could get them down from service. I had pretty good luck with area linemen who were cooperative in replacing insulators for me. Also, as lines were upgraded, special items were saved for me. On abandoned and dead lines slated for removal, I shared the wealth with an experienced lineman-collector who lived about an hour away. All I had to do is identify where the goodies were and after obtaining the proper consent, we commenced to retrieve some exotic jewels.

What were the pieces we were going for, you might ask? Well, one day in 1970 we had retrieved about fifteen Fall River Police signals; ten City Fire Alarms; two CD 160.7 Americans and an opalescent CD 134 Diamond-P. Not bad for one day’s work! On other expeditions we were able to liberate several CD 134 T-H.E.Co. insulators in deep amber; a few dozen CD 138.2 and CD 157.5 Standards; two CD 144.5 in aqua; a few CD 138.2 Nationals and lots of other nice glass.

On some other dead lines elsewhere I independently found goodies such as a CD 134 Diamond-P in cobalt blue, another in light green completely filled with snow and bubbles, one in delft blue and even a few more in peculiar colors (i.e. light green and vaseline colors). Purple and amber insulators certainly stood out while sitting on their crossarms and perhaps my greatest find was an unembossed CD 134 in medium orange amber during March 1971. I also managed to acquire several purple CD 134 B.G.M.Co.’s and two light purple CD 162 W. Brookfields that were taken out of service in my area.

Among my many thrilling moments of insulator collecting was the day in early 1974 when I discovered three CD 140 Jumbos on an old, abandoned building ready to be razed in an urban renewal area. They were up twenty-five feet off the ground sitting on a huge 6” by 10” crossarm protruding from the building without wires attached to them. “So close and yet so far!” I frantically exclaimed to myself. I went crazy wondering how in the world I was going to retrieve those awesome looking beauties before the wrecking ball got to them.

Quickly running out of ideas, although returning with a ladder and lots of guts wasn’t out of the question), I decided to head back home and give the matter some serious thought. As soon as I got a few blocks away, I took notice of an electric utility bucket truck parked by the side of the road. The crew was having their lunch and evidently were removing some poles and wire in the immediate area. Since I always traveled with photos of my insulator collection in the car’s glove box, not ever knowing when they could be handy and convincing, I put the photos in my pocket as I pulled behind the utility truck. I asked to speak to the boss, who seemed quite polite. I proceeded to introduce myself and my affliction for insulators. He and the other crew members were quite interested in my discussion, particularly with the photos I showed them. The boss replied that he didn’t think they had anything different that I would want, but I was welcome to dig through the junk in back of the truck and take what I wanted. Sensing their friendliness and receptiveness, I got up the courage to put the big question. “You know, a few streets over there are three old insulators on a building ready to be torn down. I don’t think I have any of those and I was wondering if it would be possible for one of your men to retrieve them in your bucket truck for me. They really do look interesting and it would be shameful for the wrecking crew to break them, anyway.” The crew leader paused for a moment, giving what I said some thought. He replied, “Oh, yes, I know where you mean. I know which insulator you’re talking about; they caught my eye the other day when we were working along that street. I guess it will be O.K.”

Boy, did I breathe a sigh of relief! About ten minutes later, before resuming their work, the crew pulled up in front of the building where the Jumbo’s were. Up went the lineman in the bucket. He had to make a long reach since the bucket barely extended alongside the building to the point where he could unscrew the big insulators from their mammoth pins. After a few minutes he had the third one off and down in the bucket came the hard working, gracious lineman as I and the boss watched. I couldn’t believe the size of these insulators as they were handed to me. The boss agreed they were something he hadn’t seen before. “Those will probably look nice after you clean them,” he said. The insulators were heavily sooted with many layers of building paint on them, so you really couldn’t tell at the time what color they were. I thanked these gentlemen over and over again. They replied that they felt good they added something worthwhile to my collection and that it was time to return to work. So, we shook hands and I drove directly home.

I wasted no time in getting my new acquisitions into the kitchen sink for a bath. Washing and scrubbing those three impressive insulators was an unexpected delight I will never forget. The first one turned out to be light aqua after nearly an hour of toiling with lots of cleanser and S.O.S. pads. Additional elbow grease was required to get all the paint and hardened soot off its base, which revealed Oakman lettering. I was very happy about that! The other two Jumbo’s were still soaking away in warm water as I completed cleaning the Oakman. As I started on the second one, which had some base chipping, I noted that this piece had a darker color to it. While half cleaned, I held it up to the kitchen light and was excited to see that it was dark lime green in color! It turned out looking good and spectacularly colored, indeed! Despite the chewed up base on one side, it displayed well from the other. Upon final detailing through its cleanup, I noted no letter on this one. However, the insulator’s beautiful color more than made up for everything else. About 2-1/2 hours had elapsed before I got to scrubbing Jumbo number three. It had soaked well and I decided initially to let this one wait until last because it had a pretty good sized chunk out of its skirt, immediately below the wire groove.

Having made a great color discovery with the second Jumbo, I was rather curious what color my third one was. At first I was confident it was light aqua. However, about ten or fifteen minutes into its cleaning the wild adventure really went into overdrive! Not believing my eyes and certain I was dreaming, I held the partially cleaned insulator up to the light and saw that it was PURPLE!!! I nearly fainted! I couldn’t believe my eyes!! Words cannot describe the euphoria I felt and the incredible rush of excitement of my thrilling, new acquisition! Not long after, the Yankee Pole Cat Insulator Club held their spring show, and having already reserved a display table for other nice insulators I intended to exhibit, the purple and deep lime green Jumbo’s stole the show as onlookers poured over my display. From the moment I spotted my three CD 140’s on that building through displaying them for the first time are among my happiest, most elusive collecting memories.

Since its inception in June 1968, I had been a dedicated reader and regular contributor to the late Frances Terrill’s monthly insulator column in Old Bottle Magazine. I always let her know what my latest, hottest finds were and news of them were included within her columns. I also enjoyed doing a few research articles about insulators in Western Collector, supplementing writings Mrs. McClellan was contributing to the magazines “Insulator Hot Line” section.

I enjoyed corresponding with Frances, and back issues of Old Bottle Magazine (commonly referred to as OBX -- Old Bottle Exchange) will attest to the fact that I added a lot of “new finds” reports as well as research material. In 1973 Frances retired as OBX’s insulator editor and the magazine’s publisher began looking for someone to assume the post of editor of the “Insulator By-Lines” column. In May 1974 he approached me and asked if I would be interested in reinstating the column which had gone nearly a year without an insulator editor in charge. My reply was an assertive “Yes!”

Starting with the July 1974 issue I debuted my column, introducing myself and featuring an article about Pennycuick insulators. My insulator columns continued for the next seven years. This indeed was a most pleasurable and personally exciting experience. During that time I had the opportunity to correspond with more collectors than I ever dreamed possible. In addition, new research information and reports of new finds were enthusiastically written about. My format generally included a feature article each month focused upon a specific insulator style, manufacturer or color(s). Supplemented were photographs and charts I drew which detailed specific variations with values of each insulator type. Questions and answers about insulators and go-with’s also were included on a monthly basis, and putting this information all together was a lot of fun, too! Looking back, contributing as Old Bottle Magazine’s insulator editor was a challenging experience and is among the best highlights of my collecting career. Writing and publishing material about insulators was and still is as exciting to me as collecting them!

Large Image (294 Kb)
Typical insulator identification charts with drawings
created by 22 year old Joe Maurath, Jr. for OBX's
"Insulator By-Lines" column, December 1974.

During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s things within the insulator hobby were changing a bit. Our hobby was growing and the availability of desirable insulators on open-wire lines and sitting untouched for years in utility company back rooms was not quite like it was during the late 1960’s. But the good finds remained out there; you simply had to search harder! For instance, in February 1988, I saw something on an old pole that I thought I’d never see again--an amber CD 134 T-H.E.Co.! This was only a few miles from home and was inconspicuously hidden on a small crossarm with some common pintype insulators. The insulator was out of service, so I wasted no time in retrieving it! What a delightful sight it was to see the insulator’s simmering orange wooden pin glow as the bright winter sunshine glimmered through the insulator’s richly colored glass! Upon closer inspection the insulator had a cute, little, pointed cone of snow symmetrically configured atop the insulator’s crown from the flurries the night before. My new acquisition turned out to be as clean and mint as the day it was made. I’ll never forget its peaceful beauty, though, as it sat on its pin just before it made its way into my hands! Although I thoroughly searched the area for more, none have been found since my 1988 find. However, the pursuit for others still continues!

Insulators made in, or principally native to the Boston area and New England have always fascinated me. Having collected and discovered many fine pieces through the years has kept me most curious about their origin and background. Therefore, supplementing my collecting has been some vigorous research activity. Some of my observations and findings about Boston area and New England insulators have been printed here and there within insulator collectors’ publications during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Although I always wanted to consolidate all of my data and publish a book about these insulators, I never found the time to do so. I’m quite glad about this because a wonderful invitation and opportunity came my way.

In June 1989 John and Carol McDougald sent me a letter describing the content of the insulator research book they were planning and asked me if I would be willing to contribute information and background about insulators from this part of the country. Needless to say, my response immediately was affirmative. After six months of pulling my researched “loose ends” together and lots of writing and rewriting, I was proud to finalize my manuscript as their book was almost ready for printing. Supplementing the information I contributed about Boston area and New England insulators was some interesting material I added which focused upon glass insulators from other parts of the United States too. The collectors and researchers who helped me complete this task were my most important single asset.

Currently, my year long activity has been to organize the “New England Room” at the Marlborough national show THIS MONTH! Within this separate display area will be over a dozen competitive and non-competitive exhibits dedicated to nothing but the fullest spectrum of New England insulators ever assembled under one roof. The invitation of the Yankee Pole Cat Insulator Club to head this project was indeed an honor. It certainly has been a challenge and with some help from other collectors we anticipate presenting the most exciting and educational array of specialty exhibits ever shown to the public. With this accomplishment as one of my most prominent goals for 1995 I can think of no better way to personally commemorate forty years of insulator enthusiasm!