Cap is marked CEGELEC, 10 inch brown porcelain low profile. The skirt has 7 digit number . May be Canadian or French manfacture. Unknown at this time. The marking on the porcelain appears to be a seven digit number, 200XX69. ( the XX may be letters. They are slightly taller marks than the other numbers. Best guess is 68 or bd ). Other samples show the first 3 digits are random numbers, the last four are all the same, with XX being unreconizable but the 69 distinguishable. Speculation - It may be that 69 is the year of manfacture at the Canadian location which opened in 1963-4, XX may be the plant ID, the first three digits the production batch lot. [id=268066828]

Lis did the research on Cegelec and sent me this.

Briefly: CEGELEC was part of Compagnie Generale d'Electricite of France (CGE). CGE was founded by Pierre Azaria (1865-1953) Born in Cairo, Egypt. Lived and educated in France. In 1898 he set up the Compagnie Generale d'Electricite that became an empire. In 1904 CGE started manufacturing porcelain insulators at the Ivry-Port (Paris) site (1910 catalog substantiates this info) Had competition from Parvillee et Freres et Cie, the French pocelain insulator giant and from German competitors. In 1913 CGE had an electrical enginneering branch that became an independent company (CGEE) Compagnie Generale d'Entreprises Electriques that later became CEGELEC. CGE later became Alcatel Alsthom. Source: Alcatel Alsthom "The History of Compagnie Generale d'Electricite".

The Long version;

The book "The History of CGE is 500 pages of very heavy reading. In the initial set up of manufacturing insulators at the Ivry-Port site the insulators were generally small in size and the division went under the name of CGE "Appareillage et Constructions et Electriques". A 1910 catalog of this division shows the model numbers all begin with a "9." indicating that they were perhaps using another company's molds. In this same catalog it also shows that they made glass insulators. Their glass insulator model numbers all correspond with the model numbers that appear in a 1911 Verreries de Reims (Charbonneaux) catalog. Another document of CGE with no date called " Les Porcelaines Electro-Techniques "pour toutes tensions" – also made at the Ivry-Port site. Although not a catalog and showing no date it shows cables, suspension insulators, high tension power pieces, accumulators etc.

By 1914 CGE's insulator division was now an S.A. (Societe Anonyme)(shareholders) and now went under the name "Compagnie Generale d'Electro-Ceramique". I have a catalog with no date but probably early 1900's. I did not connect this company with CGE but the catalog shows many designs of their suspension insulators so it is possible that yours is one of these. There are 5-6 with diameters of 254mm (approx. 10")

On reading further into this book "Alcatel Alsthom", another important acquisition into CGE was Sprecher & Schuh's French subsidiary "which enabled CGE to develop into a manufacturer of high-quality electrical engineering equipment. Under-utilization of the Ivry site in the early 1910's and sluggish performance of the lamp and ceramic businesses led CGE to diversify into the manufacturing of high voltage equipment.

From the Chronological Table at the back of the book "Alcatel Alsthom", I see the "setting-up of CGE-Maroc in 1947, Cegelec subsidiary in Argentina in 1948 and one in Canada in 1963 *. None in "foreign countries".

But to add to this bizarre array of acquisitions and mergers in 1968 the B.S.N. share of SEDIVER was taken over by CGE group via the Compagnie Generale d'Electro-Ceramique (CGEC). 1970 fusion of CGEC with SEDIVER. The Safam foundry (cast iron caps), belonging to CGEC, became part of the company. The new company takes the name CERAVER. In 1988 CGE cedes 51% of CERAVER to Fidenza Vetraria (Italy). The share becomes 100% in 1992. CERAVER becomes SEDIVER again. This last paragraph comes from the SEDIVER history.

* - Established in 1964, AREVA T&D Canada inc. (Formerly: ALSTOM Canada Inc. / GEC ALSTHOM Canada / Cegelec Industries Inc.) La Prairie, Quebec, manufactures a complete range of HV electrical equipment for transmission and distribution networks....