Porcelain things that look like huge insulators

My neighbor gave me these a few years ago. We posted them on the ebay boards back then and, I contacted some insulator collector websites. Nobody was able to identify what these are. One of the collector sites thought maybe these were from a foreign country.

I think I have 6 or 8 but all are stored in the attic so I don't have the exact measurements. My old photographs shows them next to a Campbell's Soup can so that should give some reference as to size. Very heavy! The person who had owned them worked for Boston Edison and collected all things electric. Any idea what these are and/or how they were used? Thank you.

 

So... if the letters are an indication... they functioned with the small knobby ends on top... hanging? So tempting to me to imagine a lighting-like function...

 

They look like incoming telegraph insulators to me, little oversized, but still...

 

Thanks Gila and Makanudo. Off to look at telegraph insulators.

I found these foreign insulators on the web that are porcelain but the shapes are wrong.

http://www.cjow.com/archive/article.php?month=10&a=10Foreign Insulators.htm&year=1980

 

To me, they're really pleasing shapes... just from a decorative point of view!

 

Heres one link, its not in english, but try google translate
http://www.staritelefoni.si/telegraf/leta-1833-prva-telegrafska-linija

 

Hey, Big Mak, I think you got it!

 

Mill Cove,

A typical insulator would only have the threaded insert that you see in your larger one. (Screw in a lag bolt or rod) What has me stumped is the piece screwed into the one on the left. I would say they fall into the insulator category but not in the sense most people think.

The piece that is screwed in, the bolts that appear on the sides, do they happen to have holes in the middle of them?

 

Gila, about pleasing shapes, look at these, they look like they came from a zen garden.

http://www.allinsulators.com/photos/Porcelain/M/

 

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I mean...
OMMMMMMMMMHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

Mill Cove,

Interesting link, I was just searching to see if yours are a Multipart insulator

 

The letters on them are probably stamps of approval.
It is not easy to make a porcelain insulator, even today. It has to be flawless

 

This is so interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Flawless... wow.

 

Desperate - I just found one on the shelf inside the garage that did not make it into the attic. It's also filthy so the photo is dark, I didn't want to bring into the area where I take my photographs. It doesn't have all the bolts like the first one I pictured above. There are no holes in the bolts. It looks like the bolts screw down to tighten a wire in place. One of the bolts on this one looks like it has a split lock washer.

 

Makanudo - that website link is Slovenian. The translation was a little garbled. It talked about the first insulators being made of wood and how they didn't work very well or, for very long. I think the rest is the progression of shapes and manufacturing.

 

Thank you for the pic and info. Ill keep pondering it.

 

Heres a translation of the last paragraph from that page:
"In the pioneer period telegraphy we have invested a lot of effort in isolating naked telegraph wires. As long it took to have invented an appropriate insulator. Trial used a tube of glass, porcelain, clay and gutta-percha. Insulators are fastened to the pole and wire wrapped around them. At the big humidity it was also such a deteriorated insulation. Thus, at the beginning of insulators covered with a canopy. The solution has proven to be bad, because on the isolators is bad weather coming by appearing and the sinks. Always harder it showed the need to make one part of the insulator completely protect against moisture. When the circumflex get the insulator is get the image of the bell.In 1852 they began to fasten the bell insulators on poles. These have not been practical, but they are well isolated bare conductors. From them he has developed a new insulator shape resembles a bell in the bell. They called it a double bell. During telegraph lines formed a large number of different insulators, which by design derived from a double bell. With time on them fooled dust, soot and dirt, especially along the railroad. So dirty insulators especially in bad weather causing drains. Therefore, they have occasionally washed and cleaned. Guides at the beginning of using a copper wire that was soft and is often torn. To improve the mechanical properties are starting to use hard copper alloy, copper, phosphorus, silicon and chromium. The Austro-Hungarian Administration of telephone wires is used silicon bronze. Since then copper was expensive, it has happened several times that people wire harvested and sold. Therefore, in some cases using a galvanized iron wire, which is less costly, but had poor conductivity."

 

Nothing to do with telagraphy. These sat on a power transformer. Old design that has not been used for some time. Very little value.

 

Agree......thet are very large

 

How were they held in place on high power lines?