I have found a T-H 9200 in the wild! In Pelzer, SC. This one's dome is gone but there are a few other along this line in somewhat mint condition! First how these got here. This line is going between the Manufacturing plant and the Distributing plant. The plants name is Gerber. Most of the T-H are gone but there are a few without the wire on the poles. I took pictures of every thing but it would be a little difficult to obtain these. The poles are about 20 to 30ft. tall. I would like someone to get those down and if you do get them down you can keep it because I don't want those shot off. I will buy one that has been taken off this line.

How did the T-H E Co. get here? Ok, in 1881 the Pelzer Manufacturing Company created the town for the workers and that created Pelzer, SC. In 1895, Thomas Edision visited to connect the first electric lights in a SC mill. There are two dams in Pelzer the upper and the lower dam. He connected the Lower dam a built the three crossarm poles to the mill. It explains why there is a second line of T-Hs other than the Rainbow Line. The lower Pelzer dam and powerhouse construction was completed in 1895 and is the first facility to use overhead wires to transmit electricity long distance. The plant transmitted power on a 2 3/4 miles long transmission line to the Pelzer manufacturing plant. This transmission line consisted of 18 number 00 hard drawn copper wires. Three 750 KW 167 rpm generators feed this line at 3300 volts.

Check out how the hunt went [id=238081918]! These CD 245s from SC have a rich history!

Here is the response to a email to Kathleen Edwards asking if she knew about Pelzer. I love this story!!!

Hi Jeff,

yes, I know of these wonderful gems. I presented a display of them at the 2001 National in Atlanta after gathering over 80 of them with the help of an experienced lineman who used climbing spikes! What a spring day to remember! Flowers were blooming everywhere. I saw your pictures posted at insulators.info and they brought back many fine memories of that lovely, sleepy town.

I will never forget how excited we were as each insulator was unscrewed and dropped from the tall old poles to the ground (none broke!). As we walked through the town, we wore hardhats and carried a clipboard and must have looked quite official as we cleaned off pole after pole and crossarm after crossarm completely uninhibited by residents or police. It was a hot day and when we were through, we took a swim, (fully clothed!) in the warm water of the Saluda River. One of the most memorable days of my life. We were hot and sweaty and tired and that water felt sooooo good.

Crown Jewels of the Wire magazine did a write up of my display at the National. However, the Crown Jewels write up contains several typographical and informational errors which were not part of the display or story boards. I think that Carol MacDougald must have been in a great rush when she typed it in. Anyway, it was nice to get so much recognition of this great find. The display won about eight different Awards (and I didn't buy a ticket to the Awards Banquet -- O the anguish). I was up on the interior fifth story balcony at the Rennaissance Concours Hotel, looking down helplessly over the banquet tables as my name was read out over and over again and the MC kept saying, "The NIA will now accept this award on behalf of Mrs. Edwards..."

Finally, I jumped on an elevator and rushed down into the banquet room and slipped in to sit at the base of a large potted indoor tree. Then, a kind friend waved me over to the only empty place at their table, and I was able to accept the rest of the awards in person.

I didn't expect any awards, but won First Place - General, Best First Time Displayer at a National, Best use of Eastern Glass, Best use of Power Glass, The Millholland Educational Award and three others which I can't recall. It was mind-blowing! I'll never forget the man who had a display next to mine wrinkled up his Judges Scoring Paper and left the wrinkled wad at the base of his display -- he had three mint cobalt blobs on a pretty home-made wooden underlit display. Each blob is worth probably over $5,000. He was so mad. But that's not good sportsmanship. Anyway, what a flood of memories this brings back.

Thank you for writing!

Kathleen