The Iconic Hemingray 42 By John Barber


Perhaps no other glass insulator comes to mind more than the Hemingray 42 when we think of the glass telegraph/telephone insulator. Introduced in 1921, the  petticoat communication insulator ever produced.


Early Hemingray 42 with fang drip points


       an update/replacement for the No. 40, which had been Hemingray’s front-line telegraph insulator         model rapidly gained in popularity for standard open-wire communication lines, and was soon the most popular and common insulator made for both telegraph and telephone lines. Many railroads used them for their telegraph communications, and the style became the standard for A T & T long 


The earliest Hemingray 42’s were produced with sharp drip points (SDP), which are believed to have been phased out by approximately 1923 or 1924. Subsequent Hemingray 42’s carried round drip points (RDP), beginning about 1924. Hemingray had heavily promoted the water-shedding qualities of drip points since their inception following Patent 496,652 on May 2, 1893, and this feature persisted for the duration of 42 production. (Note: Hemingray 42’s with a smooth base do exist, although relatively uncommon). Tremendous numbers of Hemingray 42 insulators with RDP bases were made, for the most part, in aqua or  Blue color was the result of high-iron sands from Michigan used during their production.


      around 1930.


Insects and, particularly,


spiders were commonly known to build webs and nests under cover of the insulator petticoats, potentially degrading     led at least in part to the introduction       believed that the creatures preferred darker nesting areas. By 1933 virtually all               


Hemingray 42’s dominate the bottom cross arm of  Columbia River Gorge. Photo by Anna Adams.


30 Crown Jewels


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