monster glazeweld U-968

By Michael Spadafora; posted May 30, 2004

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Here is an example of an impressive insulator few have ever seen .The U-968 three part glazeweld by R .Thomas & Sons. (The guttertop is for comparison.) This is the largest glazewelded unipart pintype known. These were only produced during a very narrow window of time from about 1903 to 1905 . There only known original use was on a line in Oregon that was dismantled in the early 1920s . Only four examples of these are known to have survived, all having been found in the last four years. Thomas soon converted this design to a 3 part cemented multipart (M-3230) that is well known to collectors and cataloged for many years. Thomas cataloged a number of large glazeweld designs like this most of which are extremely rare or are unreported. Please see the next photo in this listing for an underside view of this insulator showing its glazeweld joints and a more accurate view of its beautiful butterscotch "Thomas yellow" color

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