# Insulator dump



## appliedlips (Jan 25, 2009)

Yesturday,I went back to check a dump we found in the summer but didn't do much digging in.Turns out in one layer there were hundreds of insulator's.Unfortunately,most were broke but we managed a few good ones including several cd 123.4.Most were just Hemi #12's which are pretty much worthless.The criers were 3 or 4 purple #12's and yellow green AM INSr CO. cd 145.I went back again this afternoon and this is a picture of some of yesturday's shards.It started snowing hard and so didn't get anymore pics.

   BTW Josh, I found listings for both the H.Brooke's and AM IMSr Co.'s in aqua and they aren't nothing special.


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## Bixel (Jan 25, 2009)

[] NICE!


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## cyberdigger (Jan 25, 2009)

MASS GRAVE[][]


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## Rockhounder55 (Jan 26, 2009)

Why do you suppose they were all dumped there? Was that common practice by the maintenence crews to just bury them? Is it along a power line or where one was at one time?


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## beendiggin (Jan 26, 2009)

> Why do you suppose they were all dumped there? Was that common practice by the maintenence crews to just bury them? Is it along a power line or where one was at one time?


 
 I found the same type of dump a few years ago. Had about 300 or so in it, and most were damaged, but I kept around 80 decent looking ones.  Mostly AT & T,  Brookfields, a couple of Lockes, a couple Whitall Tatums, and some no namers.  There was an old railroad spur that had gone through that area and I suspect it was torn out for the iron in the 30's or so, also there was a small household dump on top of 'em that dated to that era.  It was a fun dig but man those things get heavy fast!


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## Dragon0421 (Jan 26, 2009)

great find hopefully some of them could be saved. Common are not i have never seen that many in one spot before.


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## appliedlips (Jan 26, 2009)

These were all used as telegraph & telephone insulators and were near a railroad.I am sure they were dumped there just because it was a good spot.   

     I saved all I found except the #9's & #12's.I had to quit because it was becoming to dangerous due to massive stones stacked on top of the layer. I moved several but didn't want to have the whole hillside wash away,there are houses at the top.


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## Brains (Jan 26, 2009)

nice to see all those insulators, if those are in ohio you should consider yourself very lucky to have found even a piece of an American insulator co insulator.  I think all the american insulator co's are special, they may not be rare (you can still find them in new york) but good luck finding one in ohio. Post some pictures of the things you find when your done.


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## craigc90 (Jan 26, 2009)

Thats a great picture Doug .


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## appliedlips (Jan 27, 2009)

Thanks for the replies everyone.

        Bryan,

        There were several broken AM INSr CO.(base embossed) in there.I did find one complete example,although it's pretty beat up.I just had a hard time googling them so I didn't know if I had something really rare,turns out no..If you would like the aqua one I found and are going to be at the Columbus show,its yours.


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## Brains (Jan 27, 2009)

i will be at the show this year and i'de be more than happy to add an ohio found american insulator insulator to my collection, interesting to think that somewhere in ohio used americans.  I have herd of purple hemingray 12's, but never americans.


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## kastoo (Jan 28, 2009)

I'm waiting to find a dump like that.  There's one insulator in particular that worth thousands in this area.


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## Stardust (Jan 28, 2009)

I like to see them after a nice heavy rainstorm or would they still just look muddy?


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## appliedlips (Jan 28, 2009)

Rain would have cleaned em up a bit but they are reburied now so others wouldn't easily stumble across the site.I hope they don't notice the intact crocks I forgot to grab when we left in the hurry. My wife had called and said a police officer was calling the house about a suspicous vehicle parked on R.R. property.I suppose it was a distraction to the good folks in the crack house next door.


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## SergioWilkins (Jan 28, 2009)

That is absolutely incredible. I was actually just pondering, while looking through some of these awesome privy digs that have been posted lately, about how insulator collectors never really have the luxury of finding a dump with tons of insulators in it, whereas while bottle digging, we all find tons and tons in one place. You sure proved me wrong. 
  Did you hold onto the damaged rare specimens? Even the damaged ones can be worth a LOT to collectors. I'd like to see photos of what you found washed up. Once again, that is just plain incredible. Congrats on a good find, even if they were mostly broken!


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## appliedlips (Jan 29, 2009)

Thanks Barrett.I saved a few shards but nothing too exciting,broken or whole was found.I would say the best was the yellow green Am Insr.Co..Been digging any good threadless?


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## SergioWilkins (Jan 30, 2009)

The yellow green American Insulator Co. piece does sound pretty neat. Snap a photo of it if you've got time.
  Nothing lately - we've got 16" of snow on the ground around these parts. Ooh how I long for warmer weather!


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## cyberdigger (Jan 30, 2009)

When I was a kid I used to go down to the train tracks and climb the telegraph poles and unscrew 'em myself.. there were some I got were dark red glass... wish I could remember what happened to them !!


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## appliedlips (Jan 30, 2009)

Barrett,Here is a picture of the shards next to the aqua.The bases are embossed AM INSR Co. PATD SEPT. 13 '81.  Is this a rare mark?What is the exact CD?What would the green one have been worth?

   I said before we found several 123.4,I meant 124.3's..


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## appliedlips (Jan 30, 2009)

better picture of color


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## appliedlips (Jan 30, 2009)

Charlie,if you seen dark red insulators you better go back and get them.


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## RED Matthews (Jan 30, 2009)

Hello,  I just wanted to see if you insulator people are familiar about how to tell if the screw threads in an insulator were put in by a manual screw advanced plunger or a machine advanced screw plunger.  The hand pressed ones are the only ones I get serious about keeping.  The earliest glass insulators were square. 
 The threadles round ones are very expensive - I only have one of them
 The hand pressed round ones, did not have a good way of measuring the dropped in gather of glass.  So the step ring  below the thread will usually not be filled to a formed shoulder, but over fed or under-fed with the exact capacity of the mold for the insulator.    RED Matthews


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## capsoda (Jan 30, 2009)

Great finds Doug. Man, that is a pile of insulators.


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## RED Matthews (Jan 30, 2009)

Appliedlips;  That broken green one looks like a hand pressed one.  RED Matthews


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## cyberdigger (Jan 30, 2009)

> ORIGINAL:  appliedlips
> 
> Charlie,if you seen dark red insulators you better go back and get them.


 
 Oh, how I wish I could!!! This was around 1981.. some kids from my neighborhood passed the time by throwing railroad track rocks at the poles, trying to destroy the insulators.. this bothered me, so I tried to rescue as many as I could, and the ones I got I kept in a secret hiding spot in the woods.. then one day we moved to a different town and I never got back there.. but I'm sure the "secret spot" is under a housing development by now.. the red ones were small and simple in shape, maybe A T & Ts.. young and foolish I was!!![]


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## Bixel (Jan 30, 2009)

I believe those are CD 134's. An aqua one is worth 15-20 bucks, and the shards look a light yellow green which would be worth 600-700 it looks like. Barrett correct me if I am wrong.


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## SergioWilkins (Jan 31, 2009)

Kyle is indeed correct. Those three are all CD-134s, the light aqua one pricing in at $15-20, and the light yellow green fellows at about $600-700, were they intact. 
  RED Matthews - I don't know that there's any definitive way to identify a hand-pressed insulator by sight, other than sheer crudity - if the pinhole is off-centre or skewed, the threads are malformed, or if the insulators tend to occur in varying heights caused by different glass pourings, then they would tend to have been hand-pressed. Essentially anything earlier than the turn of the century will likely be a hand pressed piece.
  When you say "square insulators", I assume you're thinking of glass blocks, but they are only arguably the earliest insulators. Glass block styles were made right up into the 1910s, or so it is hypothesized, as Brookfield listed them in their catalogue I know until at least 1908. It is believed that some of the earliest insulators known, are these specimens in the Smithsonian:

  http://www.nia.org/si/Objects/181409.html
  http://www.nia.org/si/Objects/181409a.html

 But some glass blocks would certainly be among of the earliest, dating back into the 1840s, along with some of these "ramshorn" styles:

  http://www.insulators.info/articles/early/lefferts.htm

 There's a lot of information on insulators on these sites:

  http://www.nia.org
  http://www.insulators.info

  All the best!


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## Brains (Jan 31, 2009)

thought you were talkin about a green 145 american, a green 133 is much harder to come by.  I dont think i've ever been lucky enough to see one, not even with all the shows i've gone to.  Favorite american style would have to be the 156 and 156.1, ut i've never sene a 156.1.  Not even an aqua one, just pictures.  Odd as the book lists it as a somewhat common insulator.

 Regarding hand pressed insulators, i've got one where when the plunger was removed they rattled it out of the pinhole giving it the appearence of having 2 sets of threads, one crooked one and a streight one. Nice insulator 

 Oh, could you also post pictures of some of the 124.3's?


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## appliedlips (Feb 1, 2009)

Brian, I will try to post the 124's later.Most have some chipping to the base of the skirt.There are 3 different embossing variants.

http://www.nia.org/general/cd_text/cd156_1.htm
     When I check the NIA site and look at the 156.1 it says made by the American Insulator Co..They didn't make insulators,correct? I found a site talking about all the shards of these that were dug at the Lyndeborough glass house site in New Hampshire.

      I am not a big fan of any theaded insulators unless they are very crude,AND in a good color.My favorite type would be a confederate egg even though they are common after they found piles of them in Richmond.They are the crudest hunks of glass going.I wouldn't mind 718 Tillotson in good shape.

      Shout me a PM a day or two before Columbus and remind me to grab that Insulator


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## Brains (Feb 1, 2009)

I'll remind ya just before the show.

 Yep, the Americans were made by the Lyndeborough glas works but the styles and all of the insulators features are made by eater American or Oakman.  Los of American insulaors show Oakmen patents.  
 Theres also 156's and 156.1's embossed with postal, not sure who made those ones now that i think about it...
 As for the 718's, i think they are far from common.  True, they did find lots of them in some warehouse but they were all melted and busted. I consider the ones found in the warehouse uncommon, and somewhat rare.  Now if you find one in a dump or along a railroad those are the rare ones.
 If you like cd-718 Tillotsons your in luck, thers a line here that used them.  I'll find a chunk of one of them someday when i have the patience to dig for insulators.  Diggin just isnt nearly as fun as gettin em off a pole.


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## SergioWilkins (Feb 1, 2009)

Brian said: " Diggin just isnt nearly as fun as gettin em off a pole.                                            "
  Well, now... that's not all true. Some of us hate taking our feet off the ground. 

  Those confederate eggs are a real piece of work. I'd love to get my hands on one some day, but thus far, they haven't been in the cards. We don't find too many in Canada, so don't take them for granted!


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## appliedlips (Feb 1, 2009)

Brian & Barrett,  I mean no disrespect when I use the term common to a insulator or a bottle.My definition is different than others.I consider something  relatively common if it is something I could easily find and purchase at about any time.It doesn't mean I wouldn't have to pay good money for the item.There are bottles that are valued in the hundreds that would fit this description to me.If and when I ever dig a confederate egg it would be priceless to me and you are right it would be a rare find.

    As far as getting them off of a pole that doesn't sound like much fun to me,kind of like shooting a sitting duck.Besides 99% of the good ones have been picked,I doubt if 1% of the buried ones have been found.


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## SergioWilkins (Feb 2, 2009)

I couldn't agree more, Doug. (It is Doug, right?) My days of pole-climbing are long over now. Nothing like plunging your arms into mud to pull that priceless jewel from it's 100+ year burial.
  I couldn't agree more about there being less than 1% of the buried stuff having been found, as well. A bit of simple math using Montreal Telegraph Company stats from the 1870s will tell you that Canada's most common threadless style, the unembossed CD-742, was probably manufactured in the range of 100,000+ pieces. And yet, probably less than 700-800 exist in the hobby today, that figure including many, many repaired examples. Those numbers, on both counts, are of course vague estimates, but you get the point.
  Keep looking down!


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## NSL8RS (Aug 11, 2011)

Do you still have any insulators? I'm looking to add new ones to my collection. Thanks!


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## carobran (Aug 11, 2011)

[sm=lol.gif]my grandfather said hes got a couple of pinnkish ones somewhere[8|]


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## BellwoodBoys (Aug 11, 2011)

I like this old post![] thanks for bringing it up again[]


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## VTdigger (Aug 11, 2011)

Yeah! this is a good thread, never heard of an insulator dump, I've only "dug" one  whole insulator so far and even taht one had chips.  The rest, I find on the surface, and mostly I don't save them, as there the same Whitehall Tatum ones I already have a few of.


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## NSL8RS (Aug 12, 2011)

The picture of the chartreuse "shard" made my jaw drop. First of all, I think this particular shade is an "unlisted" color. Secondly, I would price it at $1,500-2,000+ if complete or intact. Even what you've found is historic from the hobby perspective. I've never seen one at a show! By the way, I love the bottles I've seen here too! I have a few myself, but truly envy you "diggers" because a dug aqua common means so much more than a bought cobalt or amber.


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## carobran (Aug 14, 2011)

> ORIGINAL: BellwoodBoys
> 
> I like this old post![] thanks for bringing it up again[]


 no problem,somebody was viewing it in the active user list,otherise id have never saw it[]


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