Lot 190
Price Realized: $198
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Lot 190: Cooke's earthenware "barrel insulator" [ UPDATE: the color is more Pumpkin than Yellow] Description: This insulator is 3" long. Nice rich color. Just a few small flakes on this 175+ year old insulator. It is interesting to note that these have a flat bottom. While technically "pottery," one would be tempted to call it "porcelain". An example was offered in the November 2017 Eagle Cap Collectibles auction and the description reads: "the first insulator ever patented ... two years before Samuel Morse's first telegraph line. The Cooke & Wheatstone Telegraph Company built a telegraph line for the London (England) & Blackwall Railway in 1840, burying the line underground. The insulated wire failed and in 1842 Cooke received a patent for this above-ground insulator. The groove was for a metal staple to hold the insulator to a post, and the telegraph wire was threaded through the insulator." A great piece of early telegraph history! Estimate: $150 - $200 Open: $1 Price Realized: $198 |
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