The somewhat plain, white and moderate in size, porcelain insulator U-1135 bears the dome incuse words "Gisborne Pattern." Such a humble insulator belies the significance of the great man of enterprise and energy who designed it.

Born into a well to do family in England, Frederick Gisborne was extensively schooled and excelled in mathematics, botany and civil engineering. His ancestor, Sir Isaac Newton, would have been proud of the young man's scholastic achievements, but books and formal studies could not hold Frederick's attention forever. In 1842, at the age of 18, he undertook a three and one-half year around the world journey to further advance his understanding of the many areas of interest that swirled in his mind. But eventually the rugged demands of world travel took its cost and Frederick settled down, for a period, to farm in the Province of Quebec.

By 1847 Frederick had graduated with honors from the first Canadian school for telegraphers and was quickly hired by the recently formed Montreal Telegraph Company. His knowledge of the workings of the telegraph soon propelled him to head the main exchange in Quebec. The rapidly expanding telegraph industry was always on the lookout for new talent and so it was natural that Gisborne came to people's attention. The "British North-American Telegraph Association" lured Gisborne away with a position of general manager. His mandate was to promote the establishment of connecting lines from the Maritime Provinces with the rest of Canada and the United States. Under his personal direction, lines were established east from Quebec City towards the Province of New Brunswick and from Halifax, Nova Scotia west towards New Brunswick. 

From 1849-1851 as superintendent and chief operator of all government lines in Nova Scotia, the serenity of married life and his dormant wanderlust for travel battled. Taking a leave of absence, he moved to the Island of Newfoundland and with governmental assistance began to explore the uncharted interior, scouting for a suitable path for a planned telegraph line to run from St. Johns to Cape Ray. The topography was brutal, alternating between bogs and marshes to sheer 2,000 foot, heavily fractured tectonic plates forming impenetrable valleys. Chunks of inner earth littered the wind swept barrens. None of the six man exploratory work party could complete the initial 400 mile trip except Gisborne himself and it was three months before he completed the survey at a mere cost of $2,000. 

The task of completing the Newfoundland line was so demanding on his time that Gisborne resigned from the Nova Scotia telegraph and worked on the "Newfie" line full time. However, even the optimistic Gisborne was unprepared for the tribulations to complete this line. Before long this telegraph project had bankrupted Gisborne and he had to relinquish much of his control in 1854 to his new-found and moneyed partner, Cyrus Field, of Atlantic cable fame. This reversal of business fortunes, compounded by the sudden passing of his wife would have laid most men down for the count. Yet, by the end of 1856, not only had he finished this telegraph line with the aid of his partners but had laid the first under water line on this side of the Atlantic, between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. He realized his dream of extending the line all the way to England was out of his reach due to a lack of the massive financial backing that such a project would require. Now Gisborne sought out new conquests for his seemingly never dry reserve of energy and ideas. 

Always an inventor at heart, Gisborne developed a system for paying out line during underwater construction and an insulation that resisted salt water. He also designed a chisel-scoop post hole digger which was acclaimed throughout North America. Other inventions included a flag and ball semaphore signal for ships, an electric recording target, an anti-induction cable and improvements to gas illumination devices. Numerous international scientific awards were presented to Gisborne for his achievements and telephony. But books were only books and the lure of world travel called once again. In 1859 he was off to New Zealand studying geological and mining opportunities only to return to England by 1862 and represent various mining interests. Unable to settle he returned to Canada to become chief engineer of a large Nova Scotia coal mine to build two railway systems in the province. It was during one of his frequent arduous field explorations that he suffered a near fatal gunshot wound. Maybe now was the time to slow down a bit!

The magic of telegraphy, however, never left him and in 1879 Gisborne was hired by the Dominion Government Telegraph and Signal Service to serve as a district superintendent. His adventures in this position, while personally inspecting the lines across Canada, are another story in themselves. For the next 13 years, besides fulfilling his normal duties, Gisborne was in demand lecturing at universities and continuing to patent telegraph, telephone and electric devices. Of particular interest to insulator collectors is Canadian patent #22449. In this 1885 patent, Gisborne advanced the idea of using tubular iron telegraph poles and cross arms. These proved to be most useful in the treeless prairies due to problems with fires, buffalo rubbing damage and travelers and teamsters tending to use the wooden poles for fuel. The higher initial cost of the 16 foot poles was offset by the reduced transportation costs, since each pole weighed only 42 pounds. By 1888, some 3,500 iron poles had been erected with further orders placed. Only a limited number of these iron poles have survived the world war scrap drives.

Gisborne has been involved with several insulator styles. The rare iron insulator (pictured above and below) is owned by Mike Moon (Manchester, MI) appears to be a Gisborne insulator based on reference material from an electrical and Civil engineers review of Gisborne's work dated 1888. These insulators were used extensively in Prince Edward Island around 1852. 

Pictured (center) is the "Granddaddy Gisborne" flanked on the
left by the more common, smaller Gisborne Pattern insulator U-1135 
and on the right by the large U-981 Flint Elliott Hat. L. B. Elder of 
Edmonton, Alberta is the proud owner of the "granddaddy."

Turning the "Granddaddy Gisborne" a few degrees 
clearly shows the "hole-through" in its dome.

A view of the top of the dome shows the 
wire groove and the hole-through design.

Another comparison photo depicts the size 
of the pinhole of the "Granddaddy Gisborne".

A 2-1/2 inch pin could be accommodated by the pinhole.

The incuse embossing on the side of/he insulator reads:
GISBORNE PATTERN

The common U-1135 white porcelain insulator has an incuse marking above the wire groove in three different styles; one is the same as the "Granddaddy"

Another is also a one line marking with the "G" and "P" being twice the size of the previous block letters:

The third variety has the word "Gisborne" over the word "Pattern" with the letters being large block letters of about double the smaller size: 

The "Dwight Story" in the January, 1989 issue of Crown Jewels connected the similarities of the CD 143, Style 2, "Dwight/Pattern" insulator and the U-1135. It is my belief that Mr. Dwight liked the basic style of the Gisborne insulator and copied it for his own applications in the early 1900's. The U-1136 and U-1137 are very similar in overall style to the U-1135 and retain the same characteristics "Gisborne" base indentation. The U-1135's are usually found in either white or off-white underglaze color tones. Unincised varieties are also found as above plus a scarce chocolate brown underglaze.

Permission granted by author for use of drawings to illustrate story.