Pin insulator – Fine-brick texture – china Wood texture
Categorization
All glass pintype insulators have been assigned a “Consolidated Design” number – or CD number. The CD numbers are a hobby-specific creation derived by collectors and for collectors. This system is/was never used by insulator manufacturers. The manufacturers of insulators (past and present) have no association with the CD numbering system. The first step in identifying an insulator is to find its CD number. Once a CD number is known, an insulator can then, normally, be further categorized by the embossing it bears (designed to be placed there by the company that made them). If embossing is present, it is normally the company name; and/or company symbol; and/or location of the manufacturing facility.
At present there are literally thousands of people in throughout the world that collect insulators.
Color and shapes
Another sampling. The green one is a CD162 in 7-Up green
Colors such as Depression Green can be found
High power insulator – CD216
A very rare color (called Pea Soup Green) for An H.G.CO (Hemingray Glass Company) beehive
Another rare color for an H.G.CO. – Light Sapphire Blue
A CD136.4 Canadian made insulator with no embossing
Clockwise starting upper left. A Cobalt Blue CD 162 “HEMINGRAY -19″; A light purple CD 162 H.G.Co; a Yellow CD162 CALIFORNIA; and a very rare CD133 CREB (CRown Embossed Brookfield) in purple
An unusual and beautiful Beehive (CD 145) in a shade of Apple Green – circa 1900
Pre-1870s CD718 in Cobalt Blue – Prior to 1870, there were no threads in the pinhole
A nice amber swirl in this one makes it more than an identical piece without the impurities
A showcase displaying a variety shapes and colors
An insulator from Italy
Company embossing
Some people collect insulators made only by a certain company that (along with bottles and other glass items) made insulators. Some collectors try to obtain one of each of the variety of interesting shapes (these shapes have been categorized into a system attributing a”Consolidated Design” [or CD] number to each style).
Eye-catching impurities
Insulators, at the time they were being produced, were viewed simply as another tool and were not meant for spectator analysis. Therefore the production of insulators was not usually the prime concern of a glass company making them. These glass items were commonly “sideline” products. Quality control was not always an important concern.
Companies melted glass and poured it into metal molds to make insulators. The temperature of melted/liquid glass is so high that many foreign objects introduced into the molten glass melt down and diffuse through the “batch.” Upon cooling, the impurities cause a discoloration in the finished item. Today, many collectors thrill to this lack of quality control since impurities (adding unique character) make a prized possession from what would normally be a common, low valued insulator. UFO’s (Unidentified Floating Objects), amber swirls; “milk” swirls; graphite inclusions; two/three-tone insulators; and (rarely) identifiable objects such as nails, pennies, screws, etc. are known to be imprisoned within the glass of an insulator.
Communications – historical value
And still others appreciate the fact that when they are holding one of these pieces of glass, they have in their hands an item which helped to transmit information of day-to-day, as well as historical events.
A sparkling CD145 or “Beehive” insulator – from the telegraph era. Made by the Brookfield Glass Company circa 1882 yet affordable at an approximate price of $2.00
Companies
Possibly the company which produced the most glass insulators during the 1800s and early 1900s in the USA was the Brookfield company. Brookfield must have had poor quality control (or simply did not care!) as Brookfield insulators seem most prone to be found with swirls, etc. .
Amber impurities make beautiful swirls in a CD 162.1 Brookfield
Firebrick from the kiln flaked off into the glass used when making this insulator. The result is a very “snowy” CD145, CRown Embossed Brookfield insulator (CREB) – The “crown” meaning the sides of the dome
The same snowy CREB 145 sitting on its side
The Hemingray Glass company probably made the most variety of colors. A small sampling of colors this company’s produced are yellow, golden yellow, butterscotch, glowing orange, amber, whiskey amber, “root beer” amber, orange-amber, red-amber, oxblood, green, lime green, sage green, depression green, emerald green, olive green, Yellow-olive green, aqua, cornflower blue, electric blue, cobalt blue, sapphire blue, glowing peacock blue, and many, many others. These were not produced for their beautiful colors. Rather, the company made these colors so two (or more) companies with their lines strung along the same set of poles would be able to quickly identify which line was theirs by the color of insulator used on those lines. One company may have a string of amber insulators, while another, on the same poles, might have theirs in cobalt blue. They probably had no idea that, close to a hundred years later, these colors would be a main reason why people would collect/display these bright colored pieces of glass.
Other major companies from the USA which can be found embossed on insulators. A few company names found embossed on insulators (and by no means a comprehensive listing) are A T & T, American Insulator, Armstrong, Brookfield, California, Good, Hawley, King City Glass Works (K.C.G.W.), Kerr, Lynchburg, McLaughlin, N.E.G.M Co., Ohio Valley Glass Company (O.V.G.C.), Pyrex, Sterling, Twiggs, Western Flint Glass, Whitall Tatum, and many other names from companies in the States. Canadian companies included Diamond, Dominion, Hamilton Glass Works, G.N.W.TEL. Co.and others. Other manufacturers include Telgraficos Nacionales (Mexico), Zicme (South America), Miva (Italy), Isorex (France), Agee (Australia), and many more.
Although the majority of collectors collect mainly glass insulators, there are a number of people who collect porcelain ones as well. These also come in a vast variety of shapes, sizes and colors.
References
US Glass Insulators Reference Site
An incomplete history of pin insulators, which is heavily US biased
Categories: Power cables | Electricity distribution | Ceramic engineering
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