Gilbert's telegraph insulator

Gilbert's Telegraph Wire Insulators.

A piece of wire about 6 inches long is placed alongside the line wire and the ends bound with fine wire and soldered.   In this way for 6 inches the line wire is practically double. This is spread apart by an instrument carried by the lineman and slipped onto a grooved glass insulator. For terminals of telegraph and telephone lines a glass ball having two grooves at right angles to each other, around one is placed a loop made in the end of the line wire, in the other a loop fastened to the pole fixture or insulator. By an extension of this method using a number of glass insulators, great freedom from leakage is obtained.