Posted 6 years ago
AnnaB
(85 items)
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here are 3 of my many other rather common insulators. I'm posting these ones because i have questions about each of them, and hoping that someone here has answers.
1. Emerald green insulator marked Brookfield New York has what looks like D1 on top. What is it? Why does it look like it was applied by hand vs. molded as i think most of them are? What does that mean?
2. White porcelain insulator- marked H A105- what company is it? Unfortunately i wasn't able to find much about it.
3. Brown porcelain insulator- unmarked- is a mystery. I see a few similar ones on ebay and they are also unmarked. Any idea what they are, how old, etc?
Thank you!
Happy St. Patty's Day to you as well Anna!! Your insulators are great!! I'm sure our CW friend fortapache will like seeing these.
I do like seeing as will SB. You can't go wrong with green. Probably 100 years old.
The green insulator, the mold cutter was having a bad day when he cut the mold number into the mold. Or maybe he was new or hungover.
Hi Anna! Hope you had a Happy St. Pat's Day! These are pretty! I particularly love the white porcelain one! Looks like we're going to dodge this next Nor'easter. Hope I didn't jinx things by saying this!
Scott, thank you for stopping by with your kind compliments, always happy to see you!
Fortapache, thank you for your comment and love, wow, i didn't expect it to be that old!
Flashlarue, thanks for explaining the mold appearance. Does it make this insulator somehow special because of this, or inferior?
Laura, thank you kindly! Yes, i find the white one unique as well. I don't think you can jinx thing this time around, the storm looks like all but gone from the radar, i think we dodged this one. But i'm still not liking this weather. We need Spring!
Spirit, thanks for stopping by and your love. I was hoping you can share your thoughts... =)
Thank you so much for stopping by and your appreciation, Thomas, Roy, buckethead, bottle-bud, Phil, TassieDevil, Jenni, AnythingObscure,
Anik, officialfuel!!
The rightmost one looks fairly modern. Probably after 1940. The white one is unknown to me, but it could be 1930s or it could be 1970s. I dug up a 1970s one of larger size, with different markings. The green one is from the last 20 years of Brookfield, and they were out of business by 1923. Though the angle of the photo naturally distorts certain shapes, I think it's a CD-133.
The shop number on top looks like they repaired it in the mould. It wasn't cut deeply to begin with.They were given standard moulds, and someone in the shop would add their shop-number to it-- he wasn't trained to cut moulds, so they usually look pretty bad. A shop was a 2-3-man (often, a boy was involved) team that made the insulators in the moulds. They got paid by the insulator, not by the hour, hence why they added their shop-number (or letter) to the mould. That might have been a whole 1/10th of a penny for them.
Spirit, thank you! This is really fascinating! When you say "could be 1930s or 1970s" you mean as early as 1930s or as late as 1970s, or are you saying you don't know? Just curious why you mentioned those two dates and not other. Thank you for the in-depth description of the Brookfield one. I have a crate full of insulators i got at one estate sale almost for nothing. I'd be curious to know if there's anything special there. I'll post them in batches sometime soon. Too bad they mishandled them and many of them are chipped.
Charcoal, iggy, vetra, pw-collector- thank you for your loves, much appreciated!
That would be my best guess in period for the white one. In the mid-1900s, they tried making them blend with the sky. Some came in blue. Some came in white. Some came in grey. I'm not sure why it mattered if they blended better or not. Big ugly telephone poles and wires block the view anyway.
If they're Hemingray 42's, they're really common and were made after 1930 and into the 1960s. People turn them into light fixtures, because there are still literally millions. The next most common are Hemingray 40's, which came just before the 42's. I put them on fence-posts to catch the light.
Good point about the ugly poles and wires LOL I went through most of the crate, and yes, a coupe of them are Hemingray 40, while others just have a "B" on the side and other letters on top. One clear glass insulator is by Pyrex- interesting! Didn't know they made insulators. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, as always, it is very valuable to me.
Mike, valentino, Sean- thank you for your loves, much appreciated.
Hi AnnaB. I used to collect these and there was a great site with loads of info on it and it's changed by now but here may be the same site. If not, it looks as if it does have lots of info!:
https://www.insulators.info/
Just a 'B' is a later Brookfield marking. You see it on a lot of their Beehive insulators.
Pyrex also put out what I think is the only iridescent peach insulators that are not modern modifications. I think they had something to do with avoiding interference with radio waves (as for who thought of, or figured out that, insulators interfere with radio waves....???) Just saying what I've read from trusted sources.
the old country the emerald isle the beauty of this piece is mesmerising an hypnotic delight
and can insulate from the harshness of life , giving not taking in a momentary gaze
thanks ever so much annab for sharing the magic !!!!!!!!
Malkey, if i know anything about poetry, your comment sounded like a beautiful poem! Thank you ever so much for taking the time to compose such wonderful comments and for your love!
Spirit, i think i saw one of those iridescent peach insulators at a garage sale. The seller wanted $40 for it and i think he would settle for $35, but it was still a little steep for me, although it was gorgeous. Very interesting about radio interference...i though they created this type as a collector edition. And thank you for explaining the "B" marking.
Shareurpassion, i'll check out the site, many thanks for sharing! You said you "used to collect" them...why not any more?
Mani, nice to see you stop by! Thank you for your love!
The reproductions come in all sorts of varieties-- candy-cane stripes, carnival glass, 'junk filled' (coins, nails, etc)-- whatever looks interesting and intensifies certain aspects of originals (as many insulators have swirls, a few were iridescent, and sometimes they do have 'junk' in them).
That white one must be a treasure, superior find !~