Couple more insulators for my collection

[BillinMo]

I'll guess you're looking at an old Western Union line. Both those insulators were their standard type for a while -- beehive from about 1884 through 1911, and the Hemingray 42 would have been from the 1920s.

Kyle's given you great info on cleaning. I prefer lye myself, which is usually available at any hardware store, Home Depot, etc. I make up a fairly weak solution and let it soak for at least 24 hours or more. The lye or oxalic acid will soften the black soot and let you scrub it off.

Be sure to use a scrubber that won't scratch the glass. Ordinary green Scotch-Brite can abrade glass. I use the blue "no-scratch" Scotch-Brite.

More info on insulator cleaning here: http://www.insulators.info/care/cleaning.htm

 

[Exactly_vague]

I haven't done it with insulators, but I've had success with bottles using hickory nut shells as an abrasive that won't mar the glass. I got the idea because they use pulverized walnut shells in sand blasters when a more delicate piece is being stripped. I use hickory nuts because I don't care for walnuts and every time I go for a walk I bring back a pocket full. I don't have a spinner, I just put them in the bottles and shake the hell out of them and it's worked well so far. I'll have to figure out a way to apply it to insulators.

 

[madman]

ORIGINAL: nydigger

Next is a pile of busted ones I dug up

im interested in digging up insulators along old tracks are they really under the poles?

 

[carobran]

^^^^^^^^^me too!!^^^^^^^[8|][]

 

[Bixel]

Are you asking are they really buried in the pole holes?

 

[carobran]

ive heard they were buried under the poles...........is this true???[8|][8|]

 

[Bixel]

OK. Lets tackle this question from a couple different angles.

Q: Are insulators buried under poles in the hole where the pole is buried?

A: There have been accounts of poles being taken out, and the insulators are thrown down the pole hole. In some cases, they removed the pole or pole stump and just filled it in with dirt. In some cases, they put another pole in the same hole, so these insulators would be in the hole if you pulled the pole out. I think this is something that is commonly known about, but the practice of this I believe to not be common. It is also unlikely that they did this along many railway telegraph lines as normally they just cut the old pole off near the ground, and put a new pole up a couple of feet away. This also meant they normally left the old pole stump just sitting in the ground.

I have heard of this happening along rural telephone lines along roads in the country. In those cases, they threw the insulators, crossarm, everything in the holes, and used a little dirt to fill it in. It would be mightly hard to find those holes now.

NEXT!

Q: Are insulators buried under the ground around the area under where a pole stood?

A: YES. In most cases along railway telegraph lines, lineman would remove insulators, and just toss it on the ground where it would sit for years. Over time, depending the soil makeup of the area, the insualtor would be covered up by dirt, leaves, etc so over lets say, 75 years, the insulator may now be 1 or 2 inches under the surface, or more. In some areas, its not uncommon to find the insulators are now 5 or 6 inches under the surface. To find these, you need to either probe around the pole sites to find them, or just dig the whole area up.

That being said, unless you know exactly what types of insulators were used on poles, normally just randomly digging around under the latest generation of pole does not find you much other than Hemingray- 42s.

Hope this clears up some of the questions everyone has!

 

[nydigger]

The pic of the ones I piled on the stump were about 4-6 feet from the pole about 3-6 inches down. Maybe Western Union, Its along a stretch of the old Erie line that hasn't been turned into a walking path. Its a shame about the emerald beehive, those emerald greens look fantastic in the window. When did Brookfield stop using their address on the insulators?

 

[BillinMo]

Mind you, this is off the top of my head without the book in front of me... around the mid-1890s Brookfield stopped putting the office address on the crowns and went with a simpler W. BROOKFIELD / NEW YORK embossing on the crown. That lasted only a short time and by 1900 embossing was on the skirt.

I don't have the exact dates here, but the earliest address was 55 Fulton St, then 45 Cliff St in the 1880s, then 83 Fulton St in the early 1890s. The address was the Brookfield offices in Manhattan. The glass factory was actually in Brooklyn at the time.

 

[nydigger]

So it could be safe to say that the Brookfield I found this weekend is circa 1880's? It has the 45 Cliff St. on the crown. Oh I wanna thank you guys for all the info, I still consider myself a noob when it comes to this stuff.That would in fact make it the earliest I have if your memory serves you right.