Ginny Way, an insulator collector, holds a dark blue glass insulator at the Polecat Insulator Club meeting. Photo by Diane Church.

For more than a century, glass and porcelain insulators graced the tops of most utility poles. Now that they are no longer used, they have become collectors' items. One group of insulator collectors, called the Polecat Insulators Club, recently held a meeting at the Enfield American Legion Hall, drawing collectors from as far away as Canada.

Ken Willick of Lima, N.Y. said he got interested in insulators when he was young. He and his family happened to live near three porcelain and glass works that specialized in them.

"There was Lima Insulator Co. and P.I.N.C.O. Insulators right in town," he said. "Nearby was another one, called Victor Insulator Co. So there were three major insulator makers within 20 miles of my house."

The Lima and the Victor companies were founded by Fred Locke, who developed the first high voltage insulator in 1894. He had both glass and porcelain insulators manufactured to his designs by other companies before building his own factories in 1898 and 1904.

Insulators were first used for telegraph lines, then for telephone and electrical wires. For over a century they played an integral part in communications and utility transmission.

According to the website glassbottlemarks.com, glass insulators were first used around 1846. They were necessary to help prevent electric current loss during transmission. Insulators had to be made of low conductivity material, such as glass, to support a charged conductor and electrically isolate it.

Each insulator was attached to the pole with pegs or screws. A steel or copper tie-wire was attached to the insulator and connected with the communication wire. Over the decades, manufacturers made different designs and improvements.

Starting in the 1960s, many old telephone lines were dismantled as technology advanced. The glass insulators were replaced by ones made of plastic or porcelain. Modern insulators are heavier, high-voltage types used in electric power line transmission. Most modern telephone lines now use cable that is insulated, eliminating the need for insulators. Underground wires also do not need insulators.

The Polecat Insulators Club meets every year. The collectors enjoy talking about insulators and meeting others who share their interest. Willick said he has met collectors from as far away as Alaska and England. Many also buy, sell and trade insulators at their club meetings.

Although most of the insulator collectors were men, there were some women. Ginny Way's late husband was an avid collector, so she picked up the hobby.

"The insulators were color coded for phase and power capabilities," she said. "The largest weighed 30 to 40 pounds and were used for high-voltage wires."

Insulators are found in a variety of colors, sizes and shapes. Most insulators were made of blue, green or aqua glass, known as bottle glass, but other colors were sometimes used. Clear glass was used primarily after about 1935.

Dan Gora of Massachusetts said he specializes in insulators from Italy.

"I like to do research," he said. "When I buy an insulator, I research the region it was from and the voltage it carried. It's really interesting.

"Today I saw a red Spanish insulator," he added. "Red insulators are very rare. Now I can say I saw one."