Glass Insulator

[19and41]

Nice looking insulator.  I've always had a soft spot for glass ittems of that sort.  The area I grew up in had many glass making factories and a few insulator manufacturers among them.  We also had railroads that ran through the area with communications lines with many insulators on each pole.  Seeing them reminds me of those times.

[FABphones]

I've never given these a second glance, but there are more scattered around the place, mostly chipped     
I took photos of some today for you to see anyhow.
The white porcelain one has no damage - and the four up the top of that concrete pole are probably pretty good too. 
Somehow I doubt my ability to reach those. 

[19and41]

I went on the Bing search engine and entered "european glass insulators" and there are some pretty interesting images of them, and it also looks like there are some collectors groups as well.

[HarrySmith]

From what I heard at a phone show lots of insulators have been dug up alongside train tracks. Apparently they just chucked them in the weeds and they got buried over time.

[19and41]

The Railroads near my home town each had poles along them with around 30 to 40 of them on each.  They started tearing them down in the early '70s.  All of a sudden there were thousands of insulators in everybody's yard and garage.  They had some value before that, then they were ballast.  Some folks would rebuild the poles in their yards and stretch aluminum laundry wire between them, to dry their clothes.  That era died out about the same time as collecting beer cans.

[Jim Stettler]

The insulator collectors say that many times the linemen would  replace poles and throw the old insulators in the old pole hole that is typically adjacent to the new pole.  If you see an old insulator next to a pole there are probably more beneath it.
Jim S,

[19and41]

For a long time, the clear insulators had the smallest value.  it was found that some clear ones had the ability to develop an amethyst hue when exposed to bright sunlight or grow lights for a period of time.  That would change their value considerably. 

[FABphones]

This thread is an education. I never knew people collected these.

This is quite a large piece of glass. Should I remove the metal bracket?
I have no idea if/how they come apart.

[19and41]

There should be a threaded stud the insulator screws onto.  You can see the threads within the insulator.

[Jim Stettler]

This thread is an education. I never knew people collected these.

Here is the link for the National Insulator collectors Association
http://www.nia.org/
This club is US based but insulator collecting is an International hobby, There is an amazing variety of color insulators that were created.
Some insulators sell for a few thousand US .

Telephones can be cheap at insulator shows and insulators can be cheap at phone shows. Shows are are great way to get an education about either hobbies.