Have you ever seen these little glass beauties? Perhaps sitting atop a pole? Or perhaps at a garage sale grouped with a number of other random things? Or did you see our post on Facebook?
In 1844 the first telegraph line was installed between Baltimore and Washington. Glass was used to contain the charge made of copper, carbon, or zinc electrodes. When attaching lines directly to the wooden poles the moisture in the wood and air gave poor results. Hence the glass insulator pictured above. Similar insulators were used to transmit both telegraph and electricity, however the bigger the insulator, the more voltage it could handle.
Of course, there were many iterations throughout the years, but a type of glass insulator like this was used all the way until the 1970s. (At some points of history they even used ceramic, a wood/glass combination, and insulators made from animal parts.)
Energy history is neat-o. But since these little delights are no longer helping to support our electricity infrastructure, what can we do with them? Well some of them are quite valuable - check out this one, it's worth close to $500!! Or look at the IDT Energy Pinterest to see some awesome ideas that other energy nuts (or just regular crafty people) have come up with.
As a supplier of electricity, IDT Energy doesn't have anything to do with the lines and meters to your house (your utility still takes care of that). But as energy nerds, we sure to find the history fascinating!
