2/19/19 Report - Treasure Coast Mystery Find For ID. Telegraph Lines, Insulators and Gaffs Back To The Civil War.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Here is an object I found a while ago but never really looked into very much.  The round part is about seven inches in diameter.  It is totally encrusted.  In fact I think the metal has completely dissolved. 

What do you think it is?  I have one idea but would like your thoughts and opinions.

Thanks in advance.

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Civil War Photo Showing Telegraph Lines Being Cut.
Source: See unitedstatesmilitarytelegraph link below.

This photo  is titled,"Cutting telegraph wire and connecting the ends so that the point at which the connection is broken cannot be seen from the ground."

It is in the Civil War section of the photo gallery of the site reached through the following link.  

http://www.unitedstatesmilitarytelegraph.org/insulators/insulators.html

When I started talking about insulators yesterday, I wasn't thinking of telegraph wires until I read about the Brookfield insulators.  As often happens with treasure hunting, one thing leads to another. 

Joe D. and Alberto S. pointed me to an excellent web site on insulators that bear the five-pointed star mark like the one I asked about yesterday.  It seems those insulators are likely to remain a mystery.  Here is what Alberto said.

I looked around and found information related to star insulators and it begins with the following:  "Discussing star-embossed glass insulators is similar to discussing the Loch Ness monster. Everyone has a theory or a belief but records are virtually non-existent. Why they were made, when, where and by who remains open to investigation. Following is some of the accepted information."  Here is the link for that website: 

 http://natsulators.com/misc/stars.php             

Thanks Joe and Alberto!  That does seem to be the top web site on the "star" insulators.

The mystery is part of the fun of treasure hunting, and some mysteries are not going to be  easily solved.

I can always count on my readers to help me out.  Thanks agian.

Also concerning yesterday's post, Sebastian Steve said, A very pretty and appealing collection.  I had a dozen or so as a kid, but you know how that goes.  They were often just laying at the base of the old poles, at least out in the countryside of Wisconsin.  I remember some of them being extremely difficult to spin off the hardwood mounts.  Some you had to chisel the wood out.  And of course if you lost patience during this step....crack.  They sure are pretty in the light....the varied smooth flowing shapes almost infer a type of industrial art work.

I like them too.  I generally like glass.  I like bottles too.  But besides being nice looking, there is also the history involved and even occasionally some economic value.

It appears that some people who collect insulators look along abandoned railroad tracks for the old telegraph insulators.

And back to the photo at the top of the post: The fellow on the pole is wearing gaffs.  It so happens that gaffs played a large roll in paying for my up-bringing.

Here are my father's climbing gaffs.  They look very much like the ones worn by the fellow in the Civil War photo at the top of this post.  It looks they didn't change much in a hundred years.

Pole Climbing Gaffs

I knew that gaffs were used before bucket trucks, but didn't know how far back they go.

If you were a lineman for the electric company, you strapped on these, along with your tool belt holding about 60 pounds of tools, and rubber gloves most of the way up your arm, which on hot days collected sweat that poured out onto your face when you raised your arms.  But that was nothing compared to going up a pole in a thunder storm or ice and snow.

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We're supposed to have a three to five foot surf tomorrow.  The tides are big right now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net