Ceramic Insulator Identification

The 55 4 is the ansi style.

Ceramic insulator identification.

Paul greaves spent countless hours verifying the many different fred locke markings on porcelain insulators. The u chart was developed by jack tod and published in 1971 porcelain insulators guide book for collectors his 3rd edition book was published in 1988. There are a large variety of insulators in existence. Return to the national insulator association page.

Collectors interest has been focused on some specific areas and style numbers have been created to assist in identification and cataloging styles. In north america glass was always the predominate material for communications insulators but porcelain has become the standard for power distribution due to its greater strength and surface resistance. Cooper power systems the 99335 may be a catalog number. As technology developed insulators were needed for telephone lines electric power lines and other applications.

Click on an insulator above for more information. For 50 years crown jewels of the wire has been the leading publication for glass and porcelain insulator hobby news history articles with columns devoted to worldwide insulators show reports in depth research articles meeting announcements photos and other insulator information. Similar to their glass counterparts porcelain insulators date back to before the civil war for telegraph wires. Different fonts and sizes of letters and numbers were used.

In the mid 1960 s a few people began collecting these glass and porcelain insulators. Go back to main page. Found on porcelain insulators. Today there are over 2000 collectors and insulator clubs national shows and good reference books are available.

Glass insulators were first produced in the 1850 s for use with telegraph lines. Link to other types of insulators. Evidently the 1 to 4 line marking stamp did not securely hold the individual letters and numbers and sometimes a few letters shifted. Vintage insulators are most commonly made out of porcelain or glass materials and they come in a wide variety of colors and shapes making each item a unique piece that can make a great addition to a collection.

Tod died in 1989 and in 1991 his wife granted permission to elton gish to assign new u numbers as new styles were reported. Circa early 1920 s to circa 1930 cooke wilson e. Jobber of electrical supplies. 2 vintage brown ceramic porcelain insulators locke thomas.

Cook porcelain insulator corp.