Chicago Insulating Company

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It is known that the Chicago Insulating Co. incorporated in November 1882.

The CD 109 & 135 design wire groove was applied for patent in July 1883, and was granted July 27, 1883.

Leonard Glass Works from Detroit Michigan made insulators for the Chicago Insulating Co. It is unknown what particular embossing styles.

Leonard Glass Works filed suit in February 1885 to recover $8,000 owed to them by Chicago Insulating Co.

A September 1887 newspaper reported in part about the lawsuit "The bill charges that the stock was never paid for and that the directors of the Insulating Company managed the affairs of that company so recklessly that it became insolvent. The court is asked to compel the stockholders of the defendant concern to pay the amount of their stock and to dissolve the corporation" It swould seem that the company was bankrupt by 1887, and possibly even before the lawsuit was filed in 1885.

The lawsuit between the two was dragged througth the courts until at least June 1892.

Another east coast glass company may have also made some of the Chicago's, but there is only have circumstantial evidence at this time.

The "Chicago Insulating Co." seems to have been related to Homer Brooke through manufacture. Homer was a machinist and took a special interest in glass insulator molding. Chicago Insulating Co. was a distributor-type operation that had their insulators made (or "jobbed") for them. Through glass qualities and molding techniques, we know that somewhere in the twain these two did meet, wholly or partially. From the very distinct colors to the extremely brittle glass to the crisp, sharp mold edges, and the rather peculiar transition where the skirt meets the threads, these pieces are very much the same in thinking and manufacture. It may have been so limited as to simply doing business with the same glass house and nothing more.

The two marked Chicago Insulating Co. designs are the CD 109 pony and the CD 135 signal.

Unmarked pieces of likely relation are CD's :

• 120 marked "PONY", PAT APP FOR, and H. BROOKE'S
• 125 PAT APP FOR
• 132 marked "2" with PAT APP FOR
• 133.1 marked "3" with PAT APP FOR

H. Brooke pieces such as the 127's are NOT included in the statement. These are clearly different. One will note that the 109 is not known in the colors associated with the others, being a typically ordinary mid-range aqua, and is possibly/probably from a different manufacturer.

References

• Stahr, Bob. ICON Digest, 11/23/2008, Msg 16.
• Burger, Brent. ICON Digest, 11/24/2008, Msg 7.
• Burger, Brent. ICON Digest, 11/25/2008, Msg ?.