Hemingray No.12

[surfaceone]

I dug this little guy out of a box of assorted treasures that had been banished to storage for many moons. He's a little dirty still. Looks like some fried wire residue, perhaps. But underneath is some nice streaky crudeness.

Being the insulator dunce that I am, would one of you please educate me a bit on this one.

I figured that you get extra points for patent dates...

Is this indeed a CD 113, worth a whopping dollar?

 

[BillinMo]

Is this indeed a CD 113, worth a whopping dollar?

Yup, you nailed it. And, um... you might be hard-pressed to get an entire dollar for it. I'm guessing the yellowish swirl is surface dirt? If it's actually in the glass, that might make it much more interesting. It would be worth seeing this guy cleaned up!

It's a telephone exchange, commonly used on local phone lines. The two grooves allowed line construction to avoid the "cross-talk" resulting from having two wires perfectly parallel.

The Patent May 2, 1893 patent was for the drip points on the rim.

 

[surfaceone]

I'm guessing the yellowish swirl is surface dirt? If it's actually in the glass, that might make it much more interesting. It would be worth seeing this guy cleaned up!

Hello Bill.

Thanks for the rapid response. I believe the streaks are in there. Have you got any crud removal suggestions. The Chuckles Method is not gonna work on this guy.

 

[sparrow75]

soak the insulator in mixture of water and wood bleach (oxalic acid). you can buy a small container of wood bleach at the hardware store. Make sure you mix the wood bleach and water in a PLASTIC bucket. You can also buy Bar Keepers Friend in powder form and mix that with water (it has oxalic acid in it). That's how I do it, and works for most gunk on insulators. Actually, this is the part i enjoy most about insulators....finding them dirty and cleaning them up. It's fun when you clean a dirty insulator and find some cool amber swirls, milky stringers, bubbles, etc hiding under all that grime. Good luck