Continuing...Joe really started to make a killing trading off his extra amber T-H.E's during later 1967 into 1968. As conservative as he was about letting them "go", the first one to leave his hands was in October 1967. It was sold to the late John Tibbitts of Sacramento, CA for a paltry $10.00. Most of you know John's books. That same insulator got a respective place in John's collection as well as mention in his forthcoming insulator book published (1968). His was about the very first about collecting insulators. Anyway, Joe has always loved to type his correspondence (he still does it ..and with *one* finger!) and had ongoing letter writing with Mr. N.R. Woodward since June 1967. Plus with many, many other insulator-collector-pen pals who followed! Joe always printed his penmanship in a neat configuration but always preferred to type. So he took the $10.00 he received from Mr. Tibbitts for the amber T-H.E. and rock and rolled writing to other insulator collectors all over the US and Canada on that same typewriter until he wore it out and replaced it in 1974 (he still has the 1967 original, which is a Sears!).

Getting back on-topic! Joe knew there were at least 15 more amber T-HE insulators in Rockland and a few more in Abington. They were in service and it took a lineman to get to them. In 1970 he became good friends with lineman-collector Phil Harding who lived about an hour away. Phil carefully swapped out the pieces Joe had spotted. They split up the booty.

By 1971 Joe had thought they had gotten them all. But others were lurking! For instance, there were two on the *same* pole Joe spotted in 1975. They were dead-ended on buck (double) arms on one pole with a Gamewell pull-box down below. In a very busy, tight (and watched!) neighborhood! For some reason those two insulators slipped through the cracks. A few more were acquired by electric utility guys who spotted them through the years. The latter was from a deceased Brockton Edison Co. guy who lived in Hanson, MA and a CT collector/dealer sold them to others in the hobby.

Given what Joe, Phil Harding and others have found...there probably are no more than 30-35 amber T-H.E.'s out there. Many had base rim chips. There was an electric utility that served the towns of Abington and Rockland (MA) until 1946. It is possible they sold off excess CD 134 insulators to the adjoining towns' fire signal departments. Other notes...these insulators likely were made from excess molten glass from beer bottle production (by Brookfield) and thus not intended as a line "marker". Having a bunch of them at hand throughout the 1970s, Joe found it hard to "peddle" his amber T-H.E's for traders via Crown Jewels and Old Bottle Magazine ads. The insulator-public thought the market was either being (or was) going to be flooded with these insulators so Joe let them go upon his own best advisement with trades and sales. Unfortunately, he never kept his stash and nor did the collecting community actually realize how "few" these insulators really were! Just like the City Fire Alarm and Fall River Police Signals, these items came from ONE community and are long gone from the lines! The two latter will be detailed later from Joe's notes and it is so unfortunate that it took so many years for these insulators to be "respected".

Moving on! The next to last amber T-H.E. Co. was found by Joe Maurath, Jr. in Rockland MA in 1988 and retrieved from an abandoned signal loop. The last allegedly was scooped from (literally!) "the bottom of the barrel" around 1990 at the Randolph (MA) Fire Department Supply Room (at the ancient Town Hall) by a phone company worker who had "access". It was missed by the prelude of digging in that dark room that yielded all of the colorful Diamond-P insulators there in 1975. All of this is from Joe's notes. Please refer to the Diamond-P photo sections for more information. And if you need to ask any questions, contact Joe at jmaurath@mindspring.com.