BIG News Flash – Happy New Year!
Peru 31 January
2005
It may be winter but the BIG Staff
is still hard at work. The security
staff is on guard 24 hours a day to protect the displays against intruders
(mostly 4 legged this time of year). And
tours are still available if you happen to catch the staff outside or call
ahead.
Also, four new insulators were
received recently which needed to be cataloged and added to the display. The
new insulators included two multi-part porcelain post insulators and two older suspension insulators. They can be viewed on the BIG web site in the
catalog as items PBL9, PB19, and on the new multi-part page as MP1 and MP2. One of the suspensions has an interesting
spider hardware attachment, the other is a smaller
version of the one with separate hardware.
The multi-part porcelains are
predecessors of the Locke post insulators in the catalog. The differences are the lack of a metal cap
and cemented in post. These were made to
be screwed onto a pin for mounting on a pole.
And they have a typical flange on top for supporting a wire and tying it
down. The oldest one was probably
produced between 1910 and 1920 by the Taylor Insulator Company.
The BIG website is now on a new
server. This should allow you to
bookmark individual pages and adds the possibility of new capabilities for the
future such as a searchable database.
This also will permit the BIG webcam to run full time. Visit the BIG web site year round at http://www.berkshireinsulatorgallery.org/. Previous news releases and a calendar of
upcoming events are included as well as a live BIG Webcam.