I'm going to donate two priceless objects to my local museum.

On the second week of June my town has it's annual celebration.Our museum only has a few historical objects on display and I have decided to donate two unique items for the education/enjoyment of the general population.I will donate two out of the eight remaining Glass Insulators from the telegraph lines along ONE of the old railroad grades used for logging in the not so distant past in my area.I know my local museum could use the boost and I would feel bad to horde items of such historical significance(I even left the wire wrappings intact on one of the insulators with this idea in mind).

reply to post by TheWetCoast

Those are cool. I used to collect them. Might we get a view of those two (here), by any chance?

reply to post by intrptr

You will have to go to our museum to view them(unless the curators reject them for whatever reason). I already have them wrapped for transport;they are in very good condition but are otherwise unremarkable.

Originally posted by TheWetCoast
reply to post by intrptr

 

You will have to go to our museum to view them(unless the curators reject them for whatever reason). I already have them wrapped for transport;they are in very good condition but are otherwise unremarkable.

Oh, okay. So I'll show others if you don't mind what those look like? They are remarkable. If dated and rare they are valuable. I don't know about "priceless".

images

reply to post by intrptr


Are those worth money? There is a guy in town that has a box of them sitting in his backyard. If they are I will go tell him. My father in law also has quite a few of them.

Originally posted by superman2012
reply to post by intrptr

 

Are those worth money? There is a guy in town that has a box of them sitting in his backyard. If they are I will go tell him. My father in law also has quite a few of them.

Could be.Depends on era, color, condition (cracks or chips) and whether they are dated or labeled.

Sold listings on Ebay

Originally posted by intrptr

Originally posted by superman2012
reply to post by intrptr

 

Are those worth money? There is a guy in town that has a box of them sitting in his backyard. If they are I will go tell him. My father in law also has quite a few of them.

Could be.Depends on era, color, condition (cracks or chips) and whether they are dated or labeled.

Sold listings on Ebay

Wow why are they so collectable? not really the sort of thing I would expect to see people on ebay in a bidding war for...

Really cool though I suppose.

reply to post by superman2012

Heres a good read on identifying them.

insulators


reply to post by roughycannon

There are clubs that collect just about anything. Once you find the item, you can do a search to see how valuable it is and find the clubs that are interested. That can result in a lot of headache for not much gain.

Or take it to the flea market and get a dollar for it, either way.

reply to post by superman2012

Glass Insulators are hard to find where I live and the area is constantly being logged.I'll get some pictures for everyone as soon as I can obtain a good digital camera.If the museum has a web page I'll post a link later today.Can you take still pictures with a web cam?If so I'll see if the one I have works.

reply to post by intrptr

I think "priceless" is the proper term to use as the insulators I salvaged have more historical significance than monetary value.The two insulators I'm going to donate are small,clear glass,made by Dominion and are dated 49 and 57 I believe.

reply to post by TheWetCoast

Heres a guide to help determine what kind of Dominion insulators you might have.

Dominion insulators

It might not be helpful in determining historical value. And I agree, hometown one of a kindness is unique. If you can document their origin, i.e., the pole they were on, etc.

So nice to be a donator of bits of history...

I got the dates wrong on the two insulators I mentioned.The dates are 1951 and 1947.I also talked to the museum staff and to my surprise they claimed to already have a bunch of insulators.I'll have to make further inquiries because the museum has never put them on display(not in the 15 years anyway). I will try to get a good digital camera so I can post some pics(give me a couple of weeks).

Good on you. You are very generous. May GOD bless you.