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| A roughly 100-year-old glass insulator I found alongside the road. |
It has only a few scrapes and chips, and the bubbles in the glass give it great character. The writing around the bottom skirt reads "AM TEL & TEL Co."
I've walked along that stretch of road many times and I'm sure I would have noticed it had it been visible. Perhaps it just heaved out of the soil.
I did some research and learned that this style of insulator was made by a company called Brookfield. According to one collector on an insulator forum, "These were used when American Telegraph & Telephone Company expanded their 'Toll' or Long Distance operations clear across the entire country in the first part of the 20th century. This style CD 121 or 'Toll' insulator was produced by several companies and over a long period of time. They can be found from one coast to the other, North to South."
Glass insulators like this "were first produced in the 1850s for use with telegraph lines. As technology developed, insulators were needed for telephone lines, electric power lines, and other applications" (this according to the Glass Insulators Collectors website).
Today there are insulator collectors' clubs, reference books, online auctions, and conventions, with many subspecialties (particular manufacturers, say, or insulators made in a particular year, or only green insulators).
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