I’m Jack Peebles. I was the one who created the ‘buzz’ within the insulator community when I published my book on insulators and the use of the pictures got complicated. I will not go into that issue right now but the issue has been worked out. That book is no longer in publication. I am now working on insulator blogs and a new book on insulators with my own pictures.
I know of 3 different kinds of insulator companies. The companies are Whitall Tatum, Brookfield, and Hemingray. All 3 of these glass insulators are suitable for collecting. They come in many colors and shapes.
I highly recommend collecting insulators to other interested parties because of 2 reasons- they are cool, and they are nice to look at and share with friends.
Here is a little valuable information about insulators.
The first glass insulator ever made was dated in 1844.
It was darkly colored in a sheen of red, and looked somewhat small compared to the ones at this day. The ridges on the insulator were smooth, shiny and lobed instead of flat. It also had a small dome. The insulator was milky and bubbly. Its skirt is short, too. Ezra Cornell was the maker for that insulator. One of the first telegraph lines containing insulators went from Paris to Lille and was made in 1793. Samuel F. B. Morse also built one of the first commercial lines from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. in 1844.
If you look inside of an insulator and see tiny bubbles, they may be carbon bubbles locked inside at the time of the pour.
Glass insulators on power lines are more and more often being replaced with ceramic insulators. But glass insulators are still found on telephone lines and communication lines. There are lots of glass insulators in circulation for purchase.
When you start an insulator collection you may find most insulators in antique shops, where glass insulators are more common than ceramic ones, generally.
On huge power lines called overhead power lines, these beehive shaped insulators are called cap and pin insulators. They take a high voltage and come in ceramic and glass. Cap and pin insulators are really like plates that have a pin sticking through them. At this rate they are able to attach to each other to form a long string. There are also insulators for antennas that are shaped like eggs that have a hole in them.