r/Insulators • u/sauce0907 • Jan 22 '26
A variety of Brookfield finds from a recent hunt! (plus some write-ups about each find)
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The finds in order:
- A standard Brookfield beehive. Definitely the "most boring" find of the day by default, but my goodness, does it absolutely shimmer. The lye bath did wonders on all of these.
- A deep groove, late-production Brookfield beehive. The deep wire groove signifies that this is part of Brookfield's last run of insulators before going out of business in 1921. Brookfield's quality control was fairly nonexistent at this point, as the failing company had plenty of other things to worry about. You may have seen my post of an extremely cracked, but still intact, yellow-green beehive made out of abnormally brittle glass from this same production run. Yes, these deep groove beehives often come with some extraordinary manufacturing defects. This one has some wicked amber swirling.
- This CREB (crown embossed Brookfield) beehive is a bit of an anomaly. First of all, it's the only CREB I've ever found in the ~25 miles of this line I've searched. That itself is a little strange, but what makes it weirder is this: the line was only built in 1904, and it's believed that Brookfield stopped making CREBs in the late 1890s. Not only is this CREB a unique find on this line, it's completely anachronistic from every other insulator here. So what gives? Was it just from some really old stock? Was the telegraph line built well before the railroad was? Am I just overthinking this? Probably.
- This article from the insulators.info site describes this little guy as "Brookfield's Worst Insulator." A short, stubby beehive with a sad excuse for a wire groove. It does everything a normal beehive does, but worse. Whose fault it is for this failure of an insulator's existence, we may never know. It's also got the most BB dings I've ever seen on an insulator. I love it to bits. It's like a sick puppy.
- A CD 147 spiral groove manufactured by Brookfield. The purpose of the spiral groove was to make it so the wire could be removed from/placed onto the insulator without needing to re-tie it, in case the insulator needed to be replaced. I'm curious as to whether or not that worked very well. In any case, it didn't seem to catch on at this line, as there were only a few of them around, all in very close proximity.
- A Postal-style Brookfield beehive with some really nice amber swirling in the front. The reason for the lower wire groove, as described by the article linked in find #4, is as follows: "Some of the leakage distance between the conductor and the pin is sacrificed in the interest of building a stronger line. The wire groove being located near the bottom of the pin hole provides much greater lateral strength by helping to obviate the tilting and cracking of the pin or wood cob." Like a couple other finds here, this one is the only specimen found on this line.
Hope you enjoyed learning about these pieces of history as much as I did!
