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photo by Angie Long
Roy Hale of Alabama Power shows off the unusual "Mickey Mouse" glass insulator that is part of his collection. A member of the Dixie Jewels Insulator Club, Hale shared details of the history of the once-common glass utility insulators and their current value with members of the Greenville Lions Monday.
Once-common item now a collectible
Published Monday, March 1, 2010
They once served a much-needed purpose - insulation of first telegraph, then telephone and power lines - and probably cost no more than a few cents each.
Nowadays, these glass items are collectibles, worth anywhere from 50 cents to as much as $5,000.
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Roy Hale, a member of the Dixie Jewels Insulator Club, brought some of his own collection of insulators to share with members of the Greenville Lions Club Monday.
"They started out with wood as an insulator for telegraph lines, but by the mid-1800s, they found glass was the best insulator," Hale said. Threads inside the mold-poured glass allowed them to be screwed onto wooden pins that held them in place.
During the '60s and '70s, when utility poles were being moved and discarded, people started seeing the glass objects as bits of history, Hale said.
"That's when the insulators started becoming collectors' items. And they come in an amazing variety of shapes, sizes and colors - blues, greens, oranges, purples, browns, blacks, and more," Hale said.
He said a fellow collector purchased four glass insulators at a flea market in Cherokee, N.C. and paid $40 for the group.
"A couple of weeks ago he sold one of them for $5,000. Now, that will never happen to me," Hale said with a smile.
He said his own collection included the "very common" translucent blue and green insulators, which go for 50 cents to $1, along with one in a more rare "7-Up green" shade that was worth $7 to $10. An unusual insulator dubbed the "Mickey Mouse" (due to the ear-like shape of its top) has a higher value of $50 to $60.
Hale also has milk glass and porcelain insulators in his collection, along with a large insulator that looks like an old-fashioned lamp.
"This would have been used for a high voltage situation, up to 44,000 watts," he said.
According to Hale, porcelain insulators of a different shape are being used with utility poles today.
The employee of Alabama Power says he enjoys meeting other collectors and seeing what else is out there in the world of insulator collectibles.
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Posted by Elybesa (anonymous) on March 2, 2010 at 8:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I love these things and have a few of them. I've found that some of the larger insulators make unique candle holders -- attractive especially in casual settings -- and real conversation pieces.
Posted by BF2C1 (anonymous) on March 2, 2010 at 10:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Those over the age of 50 should remember the above ground telephone lines. If my memory is correct the telephone companies started to rapidly take the lines underground in this area in the late 1960s. One telephone pole would probably support as many as many as 40 glass insulators. And it was interesting to see how the older glass insulators looked next to the newer ones. Some of the older ones looked reddish or purple. The new ones had the glass Coke bottle look (they were not nearly a pretty).
The railroad rights of way were a major path for the telephone lines. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad actually continued to use telegraph in this area up until the end of passenger train service through Greenville. The telegraph lines were usually below the glass insulated telephone lines on the same poles. My guess is that telegraph remained simply because of a long held tradition.
My great uncle was a telegrapher at the now long gone depot in Bolling, Alabama.
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