Johnson and Watson self tying insulator

VALUABLE [missing text]

BY PITTSTON [missing text]

John A. Watson Member [missing text]

That Has Devised and Patented

a Self-Tying Insulator for

Electric Wires.

A new device for use principally in telephone, telegraph and electric light construction is about ready to be placed on the market, having al­ready reached the demonstration stage. The invention is the result of the combined skill of C. C. Johnson, of Scranton, and John A. Watson, of this city, who have been conducting experiments for more than a year and who have spent considerable money in perfecting an article which they believe is a decided improvement ov­er insulators now in general use. The inventors call their device a self-ty­ing insulator, as it does away with the necessity of tying a wire line to the insulator with a small piece of copper wire, as is the practice now. It is estimated that this wire tie costs from one and one-half cents to three cents for each fastening. With the new insulator, the transmission wire is simply placed in grooves at the top of the glass, the fastening being so strong that the inventors claim it is impossible for the wire to become loose. Good results have been secured from the device in winter, when the heaviest strain is placed on wire lines, owing to accumulations of snow and sleet. Demonstrations have proved that the new insulator does away with much of the trouble caused by wire lines becoming loose from the insulators. A public test of the device was made in Scranton last Monday. Fifty persons were in at­tendance, including experts in wire line construction from several cor­porations and a large number of local linemen. The test was in made on poles of the Consolidated Telephone Co., and those who witnessed it were free in their expressions of opinion that the inventors had in their possession a very valuable and practical article.

Messrs. Johnson & Watson have also invented a machine that turns out insulators automatically. It is said that the machine has a record of turning out twice as many insu­lators in a given time as any other machine now in use for this purpose. It is the intention of the owners of the devices to establish a factory for their manufacture. Both articles have been patented. Arrangements are now being made for a public test of the self-tying insulator in this city within a few days.