Posted 7 years ago
bottle-bud
(159 items)
My main interest in collecting has always been soda pop bottles, new and old and anything from St. Louis, Mo.
I have returned to work as a seasonal work for the parks department and one particular job we had to do was in a remote part of the park between some railroad tracks and the Mississippi river. We had to walk by some tops of old telephone poles that had been left to rot in the woods near the tracks. On one top or crosspiece I seen this insulator still attached to the peg. I thought, cool I found an old glass insulator and carefully removed it from the peg and brought it home. After cleaning off the mud and yuck I noticed it wasn't glass but ceramic and had the initials O.P. Co. printed or embossed on the side, no other marks to be found. So today I did some research and on one website found that O.P. Co. stand for the Ohio Porcelain Co. (circa 1910 - 1913) and that this is a pin-type insulator. Another website had an almost identical insulator. Calling it a beehive style (a U-148) that had a SOO mark on the dome. Mine does not have the SOO mark as far as I can tell.
I never realized how many different styles there are and all the great colors. Its a whole different great world of collecting.
I posted the same insulator with and without a flash to try and show the true color.
I am curious to find out if this insulator is truly from the 1910 - 1913 era. Looks newer to me. Also if this would be rare or common type of insulator.
The U-number is just a catalog number based on design. Many companies would have made the design, and, because each had their own number for it, modern collectors assigned them a U-number. I cannot say it is or isn't a U-148, as I only deal in glass insulators. But it's a very close one. The dome on yours is narrower, but there are always variants. It's the basic design that matters. Soo should not be present on yours.
As for the age, yes, I think they were only around in the 1910s. If I recall, they went idle and got bought out as the owners couldn't stand their poor productivity (it happened to a lot of them, for some reason).
There is an insulator collector on the bottle forum. If you post it there, he might chime in with more.
Thanks SpiritBear, insulator collecting is all new to me
Thanks to all for the love taps
What a great find! I've never seen one like this, looks very special.
Thanks Anna, hopefully it is.
they cleaned up beautifully!
I was told that collectors called these "crocks". I acquired a bunch of glass insulators way back and have since sold them, but I kept the crocks. Four or five different ones. Now I don't know where to look for them. I also have some rubber insulators that say something "telegraph". Should post them on here to share.
Found out on another website that this insulator is actually a U-152 and the O is really a G and the company is General Porcelain Co. Measurements add up to a U-152. The insulator would be considered hard to find but not rare. Thanks BillinMo!
Mystery solved.