Can anyone tell me exactly what this was? I'm thinking a homemade Fuse that works only once and that's it. My favorite picker, Selling insulator Lineman from the 1970 era had this . I went to his son's auction today, he probably kept everything his DAD said was extremely unusual found in Rockford back in the late 60's ..Any value to this one of a kind piece??? Hi,

I think what you have are a couple improvised choke coils. They were typically used with lightning arrestors in the early days, but fell out of favor as not really helping much. Here is another (more professionally made) example:

https://www.insulators.info/pictures/?id=352857493

https://www.insulators.info/pictures/?id=352857533

And a couple pages out of an old book, illustrating their use:

https://www.insulators.info/pictures/?id=325004744

https://www.insulators.info/pictures/?id=325004866

You'll find a couple more examples if you search the picture pages for "choke coil". No idea as to value.

-Paul Greaves