Tuesday 28 May 2013

Roundhouse Objects Conservation - May 21, 2013

May 27, 2013

Back At The Museum

After the winter break (late December to late March) I am now back at the museum continuing work on the Railway Roundhouse demolition objects.  I hope to continue submitting posts on at least a weekly basis over the coming season which will only be interrupted by camping weeks and other breaks over the summer.

Update On Insulators

A reader recently commented on my post  Roundhouse Objects Conservation - December 27 2012 to point out that what I had labelled as a power line insulator was likely a telegraph line insulator.  After some research I found out that glass insulators were introduced in the 1850's for use with telegraph lines but evolved along with the technology for use with power lines, lightning rods, and other applications.  Porcelain insulators had been in use before glass also for telegraph lines but evolved to be used primarily for power lines due to their greater strength and surface resistance.  As a follow up, I asked several local long term railway object collectors and they confirmed that glass insulators were most often used for telegraph lines but were sometimes used for power lines, especially lower voltage.  I will  label these  in the future in general terms as insulators  and comment accordingly.  You can look these up on www.novamuse.ca using accession numbers 2007.012.021 and 2008.005.006 respectively.  Type in these numbers in the search box.

Glass Insulator - telegraph
Porcelain Insulator - power