Locke steel pin and insulator

Indestructible Insulating Pin.

The storms during holiday week played havoc with pole lines in many localities, and again directed attention to the desirability of a more secure construction for this vital part of telegraph, telephone and electrical supply systems. Among the devices that have been offered for this purpose none are better known than those made by Fred M. Locke, of Victor, N. Y., and we illustrate herewith his indestructible steel insulating pin, the cut also showing several of the modes in which it is applied to a cross-bar or pole. Amonth the advantages of this pin are the evident ones that it is unbreakable and does not rot, and that it does not weaken a cross-arm as constructed with a steel bolt passing from the top of the pin through a half-inch hole in the cross-arm, and is securely fastened on the under side by a nut and washer. The iron cap between the top of the insulator pin and the cross-arm serves as a brace to resist the strain of the pull on the pin, and at the same time covers the pin hole in the cross-arm, thereby keeping out water and moisture and preserving the arm. The pins have been extensively used as corner pins and on long-distance transmission lines, where very high potentials are used. They are convenient to replace broken wooden pins, or when extra pins are needed between wooden pins already in use. They can be used bottom side up on the underside of a cross-arm when it is desired to add wires to a line without increasing the number of cross-arms. For iron pole fittings a 3/8 inch by 5 inch pin is made, which can readily be attached, and when in place is neither cumbersome, expensive nor inconvenient, as is the case when ordinary blacksmith fixtures are used. The pins can be attached to the top, bottom and sides of the cross-arm, or to pole-tops, break-arms, or to cross-arm braces. Wherever placed, they present a neat appearance, and may be depended upon to resist all reasonable strains of line construction. The illustration also shows the Locke patent break-arm in position under and on top of the cross-arm, also the Locke large triple petticoat porcelain insulator, triple petticoat glass insulator, transposition insulator and cable insulator.

Methods of Applying Insulating Pin.