Insulators Found in the Southern United States
Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", September 2001, page 27
Display by:
Jim Meyer
3310 State Road 40
Ormond Beach, FL 32174.-2537
hugo1074@aol.com
WINNER:
1st Place N.I.A. Threaded
My display is limited to insulators found in the southern United States.
There are obviously many more that I could show, but I have picked ones for
either their rarity, their color, or because of where they were found.
T-Pot Threadless
Except for the "baby" t-pots which have shown up
in recent years that were found in Pennsylvania, I believe that all the rest of
the t-pots that have been found were in states that were part of the
Confederacy. I suspect the baby t-pots found in Pennsylvania were probably
confiscated by the Union Army and installed in Pennsylvania. The first baby
t-pot that I ever saw was in 1970 in the home of an early collector who had
found it on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. In recent years a broken baby t-pot
was found in Florida. I am able to document t-pots found in the following
states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana.
All of these were found in coastal areas alongside river banks, bayous or marshy
areas. I believe that they were used in these areas for several reasons:
- The
arms allowed a wire to be strung by draping it over the arm without having to put a tie wire on every unit. It's possible that a tie wire was put on every
third or fourth unit which would speed up the installation.
- By having the
lines strung in an open area, it eliminated most of the chances for a break
which could occur in wooded areas from branches or other falling debris. It a
break did occur, since they were in the open, it would be easy to spot in order
for repair.
- For the above stated reasons, it would allow the line to be
quickly dismantled and moved to another location. The Confederacy did not have
enough supplies so communication lines were dismantled and moved many times. I
have copies of archival material which goes into great detail on the constant
need to relocate telegraph lines, as the tides of war ebbed and flowed.
My belief is that the t-pots and slash-tops and several other units were made
in France and were imported by the Confederacy for the following reasons:
- Colors that the Slash-tops and t-pots come in match the colors of the
French wine bottles of that period.
- The slash-top had a small pinhole such
as the French insulators still do, since they were cemented to a steel pin which
allows for a smaller diameter.
- The general appearance reminds me of French
insulators such as nosers, t-bars, and the small waist and top groove on the
slash-top.
- I have copies of original invoices that list insulators, wire and
chemicals used for the batteries that the Confederacy imported.
The Richmond Dig
I had not been collecting actively for some number of years
due to other priorities. After going to the Allentown National, my interest was
rekindled and I contacted some of my old friends and asked them to keep an eye
out for insulators.
Shortly after this I received a call from an old friend in
Richmond. He described some threadless insulators he had recently purchased from
some relic hunters. He asked if I was interested as there were a few more
available and wanted to know if he should buy them. I told him yes and I was in
Richmond by the evening of the next day. After speaking with the relic hunters,
I was told these were found in a construction site where new utilities were
being installed. They assured me that I had in my possession almost all of the
ones that had been found, as they were not into insulators and only kept a
couple for themselves. I went to the construction site to take photographs and I
discovered that the site where they had been found had been covered over and the
construction work had moved further along. After asking around I found the back
hoe operator, who had dug the insulators. He stated that except for the ones he
had in his cab he had given the rest to a couple of relic hunters who had been
hanging around the construction site. I asked if he thought there were still
more in the ground and he stated there definitely were. After assuring him that
I would pay him "x number of dollars" for each insulator found and
that I had the money to pay cash, he agreed to meet me the next morning before
dawn.
As soon as it was light enough to see, we started digging and the
insulators started coming out of the ground. We were able to dig for
approximately a half hour before the other workers came to work. This was on a
Thursday and after talking it over we agreed to meet on Sunday morning as we
thought there would be no one around and we could dig the whole site out. Since
we were digging with a tracked power hoe, he thought we would be able to dig the whole site out within two hours. We
agreed I would call him Friday night to finalize the plans and when I placed the
call he advised me a gas line had been broken and all work had ceased for a day
and a half. He thought that everything had been repaired and we agreed I would
meet him Sunday morning with the understanding that if everything was all right
we would resume digging.
On Sunday morning we were half way through the third
trench when one hundred yards away a car stopped and a supervisor from the gas
company appeared with an electronic sniffer used to detect gas fumes. He walked
around taking readings and occasionally looked our way. After he finished and
walked back to his car he paused and looked our way again. He got into his car,
drove closer to the area where we were digging and got out and walked over and
asked what we were doing. Even though his readings checked out fine he told us
that he didn't think it would be a good idea digging and left. While we had been
digging, one of the original relic hunters showed up and watched while all of
this took place. The backhoe operator was reticent about digging anymore in case
his job could be in jeopardy and it was decided the digging needed to cease. We
left the site but I had previously gotten the name and phone number of the relic
hunter. About three days later after returning home, I called the relic hunter
and he informed me that he and his friends had been digging the site at night
and had found several cobalt blue insulators which had previously been unknown.
He stated he was willing to sell and I arrived two days later. When I arrived
the word had gotten out and there were approximately a dozen people digging the
site during the day and I was told several dealers were going to be in town that
evening. I bought some more glass and decided it was time for me to leave town.
If the gas company official had not shown up on a cold Sunday morning at 7:00
a.m., I probably would have been able to obtain almost all of the insulators
from that site. As they say, "Now, you know the rest of the story!"
Listed below are the relative scarcity of the colors from my observation [Rarest
to most common of the CD 701.6 Confederate egg]: Apple-minty green; cobalt blue;
yellow olive amber filled with seed bubbles (maybe less than the cobalts; aqua;
dark teal green (that passes light); different shades of blackglass.
At this site there was also found CD 737 and CD 735 glass top hats, porcelain
eggs, porcelain t-pots and a few examples of other threadless.
Boston Bottle Works
Even though single units have shown up at various places
across the country, the majority of these insulators have been found in the
southeast and northeast. The Bostons in my display have been found in the
following states: Virginia, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, the majority of which
came out of the state of Georgia. In every case in Georgia and Alabama, they
were all found in close proximity to the Central of Georgia Railroad.
The amber
CD 158.9 first appeared at a small antique show in Daphne, Alabama in 1971. A
man walked in the door carrying three insulators -- the amber CD 158.9, a purple
CD 154 Whitall Tatum and an aqua type unknown. There was a woman at the show
that knew I collected insulators and told me that the man that had brought them
in had the insulators in one arm and a young child in the other. She offered him
a price which he did not accept and after none of the other antique dealers were
interested, he returned to her and she purchased them. Even though he never
stated where he was from, she got the feeling that he was from the general area. I believe that
it came from somewhere in Alabama. After purchasing the insulator she called me
and asked if I was interested in buying it from her. I told he that I had just
returned from the 2nd National in Colorado Springs and didn't have the money at
the moment to buy it. I asked if she could hold it for a few months until I
could get the money to purchase it. After several months I still wasn't able to
come up with the money, so she took it to the old Flea Market on the Mobile
Causeway where many good pieces of glass changed hands. A local collector saw it
and bought it. It remained in his collection for about 24 years until I
purchased his collection.
There has been a lot of conjecture on why the CD 158.9
is made the way it was, especially the threaded top. Here is my theory on how
the CD 158.9 came to be.
Mr. Samuel Oakman was involved in the production of
insulators of many years and was responsible for many innovations and the holder
of several patents. Boston Bottle Works was in production for a short period of
time, but it was the time period when threaded insulators were starting to be
used and many threadless lines were being rebuilt and upgraded. I believe the CD
158.9 was the first style being produced.
Over the years there have been a lot
of theories about a cap made out of glass, wood or other composition material. I
don't believe there was ever a cap or any intention that a cap be used. I've
climbed many a pole in the old days and have never removed a CD 158.9, but I
have climbed poles on the lines where some have been found and in most cases the
wires used were heavy gage iron. The CD 158.9 has a traditional wire groove and
I can't think of any purpose that a cap would be used. I believe that the CD
158.9 was designed for a replacement on a threadless pin, so that the cross arm
or pin would not have to be removed. I believe that Mr. Oakman developed the
plunger to make the segmented threads, not so he could have an improved plunger
but in order that he could form the segmented threads. If you are familiar with
a tap and die set, the threads in the Boston resembled how the die looks. I
don't believe he thought you could cut nice clean threads on a threadless pin,
but I believe he knew that you could take a segmented thread and it could cut
into the wood on a threadless pin enough to make a good tight fit. I believe the
reason for the threaded bolt was so a lineman could take a block of wood that
had a threaded hole which could then be screwed down on top of the CD 158.9,
then the insulator with the attached block could be set on top of a threadless
pin. Then, by lightly tapping on the top of the wooden block, the threads would
wedge on the threadless pin. At that point a wooden spandrel wrench could be
applied to the hex top and then turned until the insulator was wedged tightly on
the pin.
In 1971, I found an old country graveyard where they had used white
quartz and insulators to line the walkways. The insulators found in this
graveyard were 1870 patent beehives, CD 133.4, CD 127, CD 126 and Boston Bottle
Works. There were approximately seventy-five to one hundred CD 158.9s. There
were four that were mint, three that were about mint, and the rest were in
various states of damage. I had permission to go into the graveyard as the last
person buried there was in the 1920s. The farmer who owned the land said that
about every three or four years some people would come from out of state and
would clean up the graveyard. Many of the broken insulators were sitting in
their original position and were broken where they set. There were also
insulators outside of the graveyard along with the debris that had been cleared
out of the graveyard. In one of the broken Bostons which had had the outer skirt
broken off, I found part of a threadless pin that had been wedged in the
pinhole. After that I tried turning some of the Bostons on a threadless pin and
found that they could be turned down tight enough so they couldn't be removed.
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