Porcelain Insulators R=Infinity
Unipart,
Multipart Pin-Type & Miscellaneous
Porcelain
Insulators
This site is dedicated to collectors of UNIPART, MULTIPART,
and other Porcelain Insulators.
This site was last updated on:
March 1, 2023
Click on the insulator links below to enter the world of beautiful
Unipart and Multipart Porcelain Insulators. This site belongs to
Elton Gish. If you have question, please feel free to email me
by clicking on the Letter Box below. I will
try to answer any of your questions about porcelain insulators.
NEW Book
2nd Edition
Collector’s
Guide Book for Porcelain Insulators
NEW Book
Value Guide for
Unipart and Multipart Porcelain Insulators
NEW Book:
2nd Edition: Collector’s
Guide Book for Porcelain
Insulators (Unipart Pin-type)
This 2019 book is the newest Guide Book for unipart (one-part)
pin-type porcelain insulators. It is like no other book about porcelain
insulators. This is the culmination of more than 45 years of research and
nearly 5 years of work to write and photograph all known unipart styles.
21 new U-number styles have been added. The 1028 pin-type styles in the
U-Chart are shown in COLOR
using reference photographs of
actual insulators. The Unipart Chart has been reduced by 20% by removing
most of the trimmer variants and styles assigned from catalogs that did not
match actual insulators. All the new U-numbers assigned since the first
edition was published in 2015 are included in the 2019 second edition. It has a very detailed history of each
manufacturer with nearly 500 historic and other photographs many of which are in
color. Every aspect of unipart pin-type porcelain insulators is discussed
as well as examples of 286 types of markings that have been reported. Mike
Spadafora wrote an Appendix section summarizing his decades of hunting and
researching Fred Locke insulators and digging in the Victor plant dump. He
tells how you can determine the approximate year of manufacture by glaze and
manufacturing characteristics.
The book is 278 page book is spiral bound so it will lay flat
when opened. The size is 8-1/2 x 11. The book is available
NOW!
Price is $45 plus $7 U.S. shipping. (Canadian
orders please contact me for shipping cost.)
You may send a personal check, money
order, or use PayPal. Elton Gish, 5415 Lexington Circle, Lumberton, TX
77657
If paying with credit card or Paypal, shipping will be added
automatically:
(must
have
new Guide Book,
too, for U-Chart
and U-numbers)
[Value Guide can NOT
be used by itself — alone — without the Guide Book]
Value Guide
(3rd edition) for
Unipart and Multipart Porcelain Insulator
The 126-page
Value Guide lists manufacturer, marking, catalog number, color, rarity and value
for 4354 different unipart pin-type styles and 1201 different multipart pin-type
styles. In addition there are color photos showing 10 new U-numbers; 82 new
M-numbers; 4 pages of color photos showing various glaze colors and typical
descriptions; and 2 pages of color photos showing some rather odd and
interesting examples of glazes. The 8.5 x 11 spiral bound 3rd edition Value
Guide has a heavy weight cover for better durability. Price is $29 plus $4
shipping ($33 total). Add $16 for Canada ($45 total).
For those of
you not familiar with the porcelain Value Guide, the bulk of the iconic
photo-illustrations of each U-number style are NOT in the Value
Guide. You will need the new 2019 Guide Book ($45
plus $5 shipping). The bulk of the M-number styles for cemented multipart
styles are NOT in the Value Guide. You will need the book
Multipart Porcelain Insulators ($25 ppd). All books may be order on this web
site (www.r-infinity.com/Books_Porcelain_Insulators.htm)
or send personal check or money order to the above mailing address.
Canadian
orders for the Guide Book and Value Book combined, please contact me.
Do
you need reference Books About Porcelain Insulators ???
I have several reference books available for purchase.
These are the only books about U.S. porcelain insulators. To learn more
about them and details about purchasing the books, please click on the BOOK
image below:
BOOKS about Porcelain
Insulators 
BOOKS about Porcelain Insulators
Unipart Porcelain
Insulators:
Multipart Porcelain Insulators
(Click on the link at left to start or links below for specific
manufacturers)
Porcelain Suspension Insulators:
-
Locke
Duncan Suspension – This is a link to an
article by Carver Mead. Here is a link to the full Duncan
patent. -
Remnants
of the Southern Power Co. Part 2 –
Another
excellent article written by Carver Mead and Barbara Smith that appeared in
the Spring 2004 issue of Power Line Explorer Journal. It is about
their hunt for the very rare 14″ diameter Thomas 2-part suspension
insulator. -
The
12th (—) of Christmas – Another
excellent article written by Carver Mead and Barbara Smith that appeared in
the April 2004 issue of Crown Jewels. It is about their hunt for the
12″ diameter flat Thomas suspension insulator. The title of their
article has several meanings. -
Hewlett
Suspension Disc Insulators –
Learn how the Hewlett suspension
and fish-tail insulator was developed and see some strange and rare suspension
insulators. -
Hewlett
Suspension Disc handwritten
markings – Unusual handwritten markings scratched
typically on the underside of the disk.
Other
Porcelain Insulators:
Historical
Reference Materials (Includes
all forms of glass, porcelain, and foreign insulators):
-
Insulator
Company
Listing (both US and Foreign
manufacturers and distributors of Glass and Porcelain insulators and some
markings found on insulators that are company name abbreviations) -
Insulator
Catalogs (This is a list of
catalogs currently in the IRS – Insulator Research Service – files.) -
Insulator
Manufacturer’s
and Markings: List of company markings
found on porcelain insulators. -
Fred
M. Locke web site: Dedicate to just
porcelain and glass insulators made and sold by Fred Locke. It also
includes Lima Insulator Co., recent hunts and finds, advertisements, patents,
family and factory history, and much more.
You can spend thousands of hours reading,
searching, and researching your favorite insulator, manufacturer, etc. -
The
Insulator
Gazette at:
http://reference.insulators.info/publications/
This is a searchable database of over 13,000 articles from hundreds of
newspapers and trade journals published since 1850. The content is all about
insulators in some way. The people involved, the companies involved and the
insulators and how they were manufactured, tested and used. You can spend
hundreds of hours reading, searching, and researching your favorite
insulator, manufacturer, etc. -
Insulator
Patent Library at:
http://reference.insulators.info/patents/
There are more than 3,000 patents relating to insulators of all kinds including
design patents.
Old
Company Photos and Postcards
Old Videos Showing How Insulators Were
Made
Lapp
Museum at LeRoy, NY (May 1993) When I was doing research
for the Fred Locke book, I went to Victor, NY in May 1993. Part of the
trip was to the Lapp factory in LeRoy, NY with the sole purpose to visit the
Lapp Museum, which was set up by Brent Mills. Click on the link to see the
photos of the museum.
Pittsburg
Date Control Markings:
-
Pittsburg
Date Markings Very
few porcelain insulator made by Pittsburg High Voltage
Insulator Co. were marked with the name PITTSBURG.
However, many insulators were marked with manufacturing dates and various
date control markings. Click on the link above to see the current
listing of these types of markings. If you have any that are not on
the list, please contact me using the email link at the top of this page or
send you reports to the address shown in the book section below.
Miscellaneous and
Insulator Shows:
1. Pass
& Seymour
2. Fred Locke,
Imperial
3. Electric Porcelain
& Mfg. Co.
4. Fred Locke M-2796
and Pigs
5. R. Thomas &
Sons, Lima Insulator Co.
6. Macomb, Square D, and Peru Electric Mfg. Co.
7. New Lexington High
Voltage Insulator Co.
8. Misc. photos and
advertisements
Insulator
Related Patents: We now have a database with
over 2,260 insulator related patents and design patents including an extensive
listing of Lightning Rod related patents. There are several dozen
trademarks, too. If you are looking for a particular patent, chances are
it is already in the database. Please feel free to contact me via email or follow the link below for Insulator Research Service. The
insulator patent database can be accessed by clicking this link: Insulator
Patents
Insulator
Research Service: If you have an insulator you would
like to learn more about, please feel free to contact the Insulator Research
Service (go to www.insulators.info/irs).
I can send you links to make your own Patent copies. The IRS is a good resource if you are designing an insulator
display and would like additional research or copies of advertisements (over
1200), trade journal articles (over 1000) and patents (over 2800). No fees are charged if you are building a display
or doing research for future article. Please be aware that no patents were
granted for threadless insulators and very few specific insulator CD
styles. Click on the IRS link above to see a nearly complete list of CD styles covered by
patents or click on this link to go to the patent database: Insulator
Patents and do your own searching. The IRS has copies of more than
2800 insulator related patents which includes more than 300 patents dealing with
Lightning Rods: Points, Insulators,
Ornaments (lightning rod balls), Conductors, and Rod Supports.
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