Porcelain and Glass Insulators

Porcelain and Glass Insulators.

To the Editor of the WESTERN ELECTRICIAN:

I find in the columns of your esteemed contemporary, the Electrical Engineer of New York, an editorial commenting upon F. W. Jones' appeal to porcelain manufacturers, concerning the introduction of porcelain insulators for overhead electric lines, in place of glass insulators.

The editorial ends with the following remark: "With the need so well recognized and with the ability to supply it so well manifested, there should be little delay on the part of porcelain manufacturers in this country, in finding a new market in the telegraph field."

The writer laid this matter before a number of experienced people in telegraphy in the United States, many years ago, and the main argument then was not the question of price, but the doubt whether porcelain insulators would be preferable to glass insulators for the reason that it was claimed that certain insects would use opaque insulators for their abode while they would avoid transparent insulators which the light of day could easily penetrate.

These "old timers" claimed that opaque insulators, of either porcelain or other material, had been used quite a number of times, but that these lines always showed a great leakage to earth due to dense webs built by these insects under the bell of the insulators.

As the writer does not know whether this is true from his own experience, he lays this before the readers of your paper, hoping that somebody will either verify the above statements or that they may be referred as a fable to the nursery.

I might mention another advantage of glass insulators of a certain type. There is undoubtedly to-day a tendency in the United States toward using oil insulators for high potential currents. It seems to me that in such a case a transparent material would be preferable to porcelain, as the contents of the cup containing the oil could be more easily inspected, and the cups refilled.

Truly yours, F. B. BADT.