U-339b view from the front. The insulator basically looks like a U-611 with a VERY unorthodox top . [id=265062492] to see the top view and marking. This is specimen flawless and so clean it looks like it just came out of the kiln! This insulator most likely has a similar origin and use history as some other other discarded pieces I got from employees at Victor Insulators Inc... Namely, It was likely once used as fill for air passages under the floors inside the plant for the now long gone coal fired bee hive kilns.

"The Loop", as us mud heads call it, is an insulator that was intended to hold jumper wires in sub stations or transformer banks ... This insulator appears in photos of several factory displays, It appeared only in the 1903 catalog [id=461732530]and none have ever been found in use. Interestingly this one has marking 1-8. A different marking stamp then the marking the other marked specimen. Bob Berry's marked specimen was reported with marking 1-2.

There are now a total of six unmarked specimens of this insulator known that are repaired and displayable and two mint marked ones . I suspect a regular production run of these was made and they were not just samples or experimental pieces but no one has determined who used them or where and under what circumstances they were used . There is quite a range of glaze colors in the known specimens.