Lightning rod balls

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Oldihtractor

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Pulled 6 of these off a barn n house in Pa last week.. They were just About to hit it with the Excavator!! Told me if you can get up there they are yours.. So built a rickity ladder out of some demolition lumber and up I went got all 6 copper rod and the glass balls and copper ground cable..

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RED Matthews

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Hi Oldihtractor; Nice Moon and Star LRBs. Were they all alike? The next question is did any of the rods have brackets for side hanging pendents? Did all of the balls have a cap on the end lips? Did you get any cable insulators when you took the cable off the buildings? Which type of rods did they have, straight rods or spiral rods? Anyway you look at it, it was certainly a good find - and well worth your time!! RED Matthews
 

Dean

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I received these in a bottle collection that I purchased. They are both 5" tall and the paneled one is 3 1/2" dia. and the round one is 5" dia. The paneled one has 10 panels around with 10 panels on top and bottom. Including the rod holes, I guess this makes it 32 sided. Both are a nice sun colored amethyst color. The paneled one has an embossed diamond w/ D&S enbossed within and two bottom panels have PATENT/ PENDING. No embossing on the round ball. Thanks, Dean

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Dean

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Another view

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Just Dig it

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wow...that one with the stars is breath taking...good job on saving them..that always makes them worth more on the heart....Beautiful Finds .Eric mass
 

Brains

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a long time ago i saw some purple stars that were like yours, if i remember correctly, at an auction. Someone there payed around $100 for the lot of them, didnt think they would sell for that much. Nice find, i allways like to look at them when i look for insulators.
 

Oldihtractor

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Red All were a like straight pointed copper rods with three leg steel mounting brackets. steel ball ring / colllars No brackets for side hangers.. no insulators on the cable.. I have a pretty good collection of lightning rod stuff.. spiral rods glass insert vanes cow and horse vanes. Always on the look out for more.. being in thefarm equipment biz i get to a lot of old farms with buildings with this type stuff... Made me late to the trade show for set up that I was on my way to. But very worth it !!

Nice ones Dean

Brains I also have the star one in amethyst
 

RED Matthews

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Hello again; I noticed a post a little above this for a glass tube type lightning rod cable insulator by Craig98, that had an elongated D i.e. [_), I couldn't make the upper closure. This type was held to the barn with a large flat topped staple.
I collected lightning rods, balls, and weather vanes for several years and still have many of them. I guess I need to start selling them off. I have some books on them and I know that the Fenton family of Fenton Glass in West Va., had some of the original molds in their mold collection. They even made some marked repro's, but I guess the collecting interest lagged. I think the 10 multiple sided one in this thread, that Dean posted, with the D&S, was a Deitz &S item.
I have one light blue pendent hanging here in my office. The lightning rod ball was to be broken by the hit of a lightning bolt. There were often decorative pendent balls, that were strawberry shaped that hung on lightning rods with four armed hangers. They were strictly for decoration. Unfortunately the design was not engineered correctly. The ornament had a threaded top on it and a metal screw cap with a retaining nail head inside a hole in the cap and then bent into a hook on the top of the cap that hung on the hanger. Rain would cause water to leak inside the pendent and rust out the cap and/or collect in the ornament and freeze in the winter so they usually ended up broken. I have looked for these pendents for a good 30 years and only found one that I could afford, a nice light blue milk glass one - and it has some ice caused fractures in the glass. Oh well - it is just one of those things.
RED Matthews
 

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