Railroad Record speaks of Brooks insulators

Brooks' Paraffine Insulator.

THE Railroad Record, in speaking of the Brooks Improved Paraffine Insulator, says:

"The insulators most in use by the telegraph companies of this country are the common glass. Twenty years since this style of insulator was generally used in Europe, but porcelain was substituted to so great an advantage that in five years - say fifteen years ago - there was scarcely a glass insulator in use, and European telegraphers now look upon the era of glass insulators as among the dark ages of the telegraph. Porcelain, though inferior to the BROOKS, is vastly superior to glass. The only reason why glass has been so much used by telegraph companies is on account of its cheapness, or rather less first cost.

"If telegraph companies had been organized for the simple purpose of doing a legitimate telegraph business, glass insulators would not at this day be used; but a different object was in view, and that object - speculation. The money subscribed to build lines went into the pockets of the originators of these schemes, except a very small portion, and this portion was expended for the cheapest of material. If the money subscribed had been honestly applied, telegraph stocks would have proved a better investment.

"The Western Union Telegraph lines were an aggregate of these flimsy and ephemeral structures, but they are now being rebuilt in a very substantial manner, and this improved insulator used with great success.

"The same can be said of the railroad companies using the insulator. Their wires are put up for the purpose of telegraphing, and not as a speculation."