Sluggo's Insulator Collecting - Featured Insulator

Featured Insulator: CD 142 - Hemingray and No Name

Photos

Story - History

I purchased this insulator on eBay and it turned out the be the toughest cleaning project I have ever tackled.

The glass part was mostly clean and a quick soap and water wash was all that was needed to make it sparkle. The photo on the left above is the original eBay auction photo. Notice how dark the skirt looks as a result of the blackened liner. The photo on the right is after cleaning. Notice the nice copper colour showing through the skirt from the liner.

The copper liner was completely black with soot, grime and accumulated crud. Luckily, the copper liner was loose enough to unscrew from the glass so I could clean it separately. After three weeks of soaking in every cleaner, solvent and chemical I could think of and much scrubbing and even wire brushing, I had barely made a dent in the black layer on the copper. I tried Varsol (paint thinner), lacquer thinner, methyl hydrate, and several copper cleaner/polishes, with virtually no results. I finally ended up using a sanding disk in my Dremel tool to literally sand the black coating off of the copper. After the black was gone, I used a felt pad with buffing compound in the Dremel tool to polish it up. A final cleaning with a commercial copper polish brought out the colour and shine to finish it off.

The now sparkling insulator sits proudly on the shelf with the rest of my Hemingray and Pyrex carnival pieces. At 4" tall and 3.25" in diameter, it is quite a hefty chunk of glass.

More Photos

Embossing, Colour and Price Guide Listing

CD 142 NO NAME
- [010] (F-Skirt) TS-2
  {Inside of skirt is threaded and fitted with a copper liner} {Hemingray product} RDP
  - Carnival (with copper liner), Carnival (without copper liner) $40-50 US
CD 142 HEMINGRAY
- [020] (F-Skirt) HEMINGRAY (R-Skirt) W.U.T.CO. / TS-2
  {Inside of skirt is threaded and fitted with a copper liner} RDP
  - Carnival (with copper liner), Carnival (without copper liner) $40-50 US
  - Ice Blue (without copper liner) $200-250 US
- [030] (F-Skirt) [Numbers and dots]/[‘TS-2’ blotted out]/HEMINGRAY (R-Skirt) W.U.T.CO./TS-2
  {Inside of skirt is threaded and fitted with a copper liner} RDP
  - Carnival (with copper liner) $40-50 US

Colour

The only listed colour for this insulator is "Carnival". The dome is clear with the carnival coating getting darker as you move down towards the skirt. The skirt also picks up the copper colour from the liner. There is also a rare ICE BLUE colour listed under the HEMI [020] embossing.

The term "carnival glass" insulator results from the fact that such insulators were treated with a thin coating of tin oxide, which was the same process used on glassware given out at carnivals in the 1920's and 1930's.

The purpose of the tin oxide coating was to reduce interference with radio reception caused by high-voltage disharges from power lines. This "carnival" treatment allowed the electric charge to leak off of the insulator without causing static.

Condition

The condition of this insulator is essentially MINT, with no marks on the glass at all. The copper liner does have some pitting, corrosion and a pinhole on it.

Market Place Musings

This insulator regularly sells on eBay for $40 to $50+ US. The Hemingray versions usually bring a slightly better price than this No Name version. The desirability and value seem to be slightly less if the copper liner is missing. This insulator is not particularly scarce, and does come up for sale occasionally. I can recall seeing maybe 3 or 4 for sale on eBay in the past year.

I have heard some people refer to this CD as the "ugliest" insulator ever made, but I disagree. After all the time and effort that went into cleaning it up, I wouldn't sell this one for $100 US.

A while ago, I finally managed to add the Hemingray embossed version of this insulator to my collection.