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Compiled by Bill Meier
18 January 2004
Jack Kesling comments:
Here are some photos and descriptions of some early finds of Boston Bottle Works insulators.
| CD 158.9 Boston Bottle Works (Screw-Top) |
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This is a CD 158.9 with the inner skirt embossed "Boston Bottle Works - Patent Applied For - " in a rich deep blue color which is different than
the typical aqua color found on most Boston's. A carbon bubble in the glass provides character. This insulator was found on the Central of
Georgia Railway line in the late 1960's. At that time, it was the very first of the Boston "screw-tops" documented. It was found on the top tier of a four arm telegraph pole located on the West side of the railway right-away probably a mile or so North of Byron, GA. It came off the fourth pole South of the I-75 underpass.
It is the 4-segmented and was found on a threaded peg with old rusted iron heavy wire which was
cut on each side of the insulator. I also found another CD 158.9 in light celery green about 300 yard further South close to a peach orchard
near a tank farm. The blue one was kept because the inner skirt has perfect embossing and the other did not. The light green one was trade
to a person in New York for a CD 110 Nat. Insulator Co. The light green one has passed through several hands, but was reunited with it's blue brother at the Allentown, PA show in the mid- 1990's ( see http://www.insulators.info/shows/reports/photos/97nia13.htm for Kevin Lawless' Boston Display for more information about Boston Bottle Works. |
| CD 158.2 Boston Bottle Works (Barrel Style) |
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This is a CD 158.2 Boston Bottle Works embossed "Boston Bottle Works - Patent Apld For - " in blue aqua. It was found on the Central of
Georgia Railway on the West side of the track. The railway goes North out of Byron, GA, but turns East and goes under I-75 and on the other
side of Route 41 turns North again. It was found on a pole near a swampy area close to the Echeconnee Creek which was an area I often hunted Wood Ducks. Again, it was on the top tier of a five tier pole. If memory serves me, it was four tier before Route 41 and shortly
there after there was an extra tier as it ran into Macon, GA. A collector I know has a nice CD 158.2 in deep green in his collection. I'm told
one of his friends found it in an antique shop in Macon, GA and bought it for him. The store owner said he found a number of insulators
including this one along the railway as it came into Macon. This would have been reasonably close to the area where I found my less
spectacular CD 158.2 Boston in blue aqua. |
| CD 145.6 Boston Bottle Works (Pony Style) |
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This is a CD 145.6 Boston Bottle Work in nice blue color (much lighter than the screw top) with considerable milky amber swirls. It's {MLOD} and
has four-segments with the embossing "Boston Bottle Works - Patent Applied For -" on the inner skirt. This insulator was found on the Central of Georgia Railway South of Fort Valley and North of Marshallville, GA. The line was on the West side of the track and the insulator
was on the fourth tier and had heavy old rusted iron wire on it. Note - all up and down the line the top tier was inactive with some of the wire
cut and others still had spans that had not been cut as was the case here. At one time, Ray K. told me that the Boston's were used on a Postal Telegraph line which existed for only a few years. Space was rented on the Western Union Telegraph line - I really don't know why
Western Union would give their competitor any leverage. If anyone has any information on the Postal history in Georgia it might be of interest to the hobby. I did find evidence of a one-tier line on the East side about 50 yards from the track in an area near Byron, GA which had CD 210 Postal and CD 145 Hemingray 21's. This would have to be much later than the early line which contained the Boston Bottle Works. |
| CD 158 Boston Bottle Works (Wide Wire Groove) |
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This is a CD 158 Boston Bottle Works in the wide wire groove variety and is medium aqua in color. Two of these were found on the Central
of Georgia Railway on the West side of the tracks between Andersonville, GA and Americus, GA. These had old heavy iron wire one which had been cut on both sides and the other was connected by a complete span. Again note, that all the Boston's I found, were on threaded
pins and were very hard to remove. I actually degraded the wood with concentrated sulfuric acid. Once the wood was degraded and softened
it was easier to work out the oak pins. Also, I would like to note that I believe the narrow groove CD 158 Boston was the most common
Boston utilized in Georgia. Most of these were found on the line running West out of Fort Valley, GA to Columbus, GA. The line was on the
South side of the track near Fort Valley, but went back to the North side very quickly once the track crossed Route 96. It again moved to the
South side of the tracks on the other side of Junction City. This was a neat line as it used CD 126.3's instead of CD 127's on the Western Union line. This line also contained most of the colored CD 126's in green and olive shades. |
| CD 158 Boston Bottle Works (Narrow Groove) |
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This is a CD 158 Boston Bottle Works in medium aqua blue in the narrow wire groove variety. It is four segment and embossed "Boston
Bottle Works - Patent Applied For -" around the inner skirt. It was found on the Central of Georgia Railway line near Box Springs, GA.
I found six or seven of the narrow groove style Boston's on the line between Fort Valley and Columbus, GA. I kept this one as it was perfect
mint. It has an interesting story as it was the only Boston I found on the ground. This was a section where the line moved to the South side of the tracks. I was walking through a section of pine woods and came up on track. The track had been recently regraded as it was much higher
than the rest of the ground. This insulator was found on top of the fresh ground on the regraded North side of the track. I conclude that the original
line must have been on the North side of the track. Also, this CD 158 did not have a pin and was fairly clean - not much black soot. All the GA Boston's
that I found on the lines were all on "threaded" oak pins and all had very heavy soot deposits on the glass. This suggest that the CD 158 Boston's - at
least on the line from Fort Valley to Columbus, GA - were only used for a limited amount of time. Another interesting note - Bill Rosato, Claude Wambold, Jim Frustieri, and I took a collecting trip down to GA in order to hunt insulator in the mid-1990's - when you get old you forget exact dates. We mostly hunted the line between Columbus and Fort Valley, GA. The older line was gone, but we did find a large number of CD 158 Boston Bottle and threadless glass shards along this line where the line was trenched and put underground. Clearly, there was buried glass along the line. |
Dudley Ellis comments:
| Blue Aqua CD 158.9 Found in Georgia |
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The pictured insulator is a nice blue aqua CD 158.9 Boston Bottle Works Screw-top. This is the shorter version of the CD 158.9s. The insulator was dug by a bottle collector about a year ago from a vacant lot in a known dump in downtown Augusta, Georgia. The digger advised that his research showed that the lot once belonged to the railroad. He could not remember the name of the railroad at the time of my acquisition. I asked him what else he had found and he said that he had found some rare very early 1870's bottles. Given this time frame I can't help but speculate that the CD 158.9 may have been the forerunner of all segmented insulators produced by the Boston Bottle Works. I asked the digger, as he continued to dig, to keep an eye out for anything that might screw down on the top and notify me. I have not had a response. |
| Lt Aqua CD 158.9 Boston Bottle Works found in GA |
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The pictured insulator is a damaged light aqua CD 158.9 Boston Bottle Works Screw-top. This is slightly a taller version than the Screw-top shown in [id=80048694]. Comparing this Screw-top to the shorter one shown in [id=80048694] you will notice that the taller version has five threads on the threaded portion and the shorter version has only four threads. Also the wire groove on the taller version is narrower than the shorter one. The glass in this specimen is also cruder. The top of the threaded projection of this insulator does not have the triangle common to most of this style. The top is concave and pitted. I was told when I acquired this insulator that it had been dug from the middle of town in Columbus, Georgia. |
John Rajpolt comments:
| Triangle on Top Spiral of CD 158.9 Boston |
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Someone asked for a posting of the triangle embossing which appears on the top of the spiral of the CD 158.9 Boston. Well, here it is. My top has what looks like three circular rings and inside the innermost ring is the triangle whose tips hit the smallest ring. Also, there is a dot inside the middle of the triangle. |
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