First finds of 2022

By Colin Jung; posted January 7, 2022

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First find of 2022 are this pair of wooden trolley feeder line insulators made and used for the San Francisco trolley system-- a true western insulator. Presented are the two main types: the cable top and the round dome type. Both are in an unfinished, not cleaned state. A wonderful book telling the story of these insulators: "Wood Amongst the Wires - The Temporary Solution" was written by Fred Padgett and Walter P. Ruedrich. The insulator composition is Lignum Vitae wood-- an oily, dense tropical wood found in the Bahama Islands and turned on the lathes in a San Francisco trolley machine shop. The book authors theorized that these wooden insulators were meant to be a temporary solution to replace other trolley line insulators destroyed or damaged in the Great Earthquake of 1906; however, recent insulator history research now indicates that these woods were known and used before the 1906 earthquake and were in some respects superior to other insulators used during that time.

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