COUNTYWIDE : Telephone-Wire Insulators Become Hot Collectibles

Most people walk past telephone poles every day and never take notice.

But to Patti and Ron Norton of Ventura, the poles are the source for little-known collectors’ items called insulators, the spool-like knobs that hold together wires strung between telephone poles.

Insulators come in a variety of colors and styles and are made of glass, porcelain, rubber or adobe. They come in unusual shapes that evoke nicknames such as Beehive, Mickey Mouse and Pilgrim Hat.

“They were used on the first telegraph lines in 1844 and are still being used on telephone lines, railroad signal lines and electric lines,” said Patti Norton, who has nearly 1,000 glass insulators displayed in her home.

Unfortunately, some people use them as bull’s-eyes for target practice.

“They have been in danger since the beginning, with people throwing rocks or shooting bullets at them,” she said.

Since the late 1960s, broken glass insulators have usually been replaced with technologically superior porcelain ones, she said.

John Donner, spokesman for Pacific Bell, said people have been collecting insulators for years.

“Telephone employees themselves collected them, especially the ones who worked on the lines,” said Donner, who has a glass insulator at home, a gift from a co-worker.

Insulators come in about 115 colors and 1,000 styles, he said.

The Nortons, who also collect antique spoons and bottles, started their collection two years ago when they discovered several at a local swap meet. Prices in a collectors book ranged from $1 to $100.

“I thought it would be great to buy them for a dollar and sell them for $20,” Patti Norton said. “But my husband doesn’t sell them; he trades them.”

Last year, Ron Norton and fellow collector Keith Auchter started the Rainbow Riders Trading Post, a publication specializing in trading insulators. So far, the magazine has 28 subscribers.

“It’s a publication dedicated to real insulator collectors,” Norton said. “Collecting them is a hobby for us to enjoy. It’s not a money thing.”

Norton said the most expensive insulator he has ever heard of was worth about $5,000. “It was one that somebody just found. They unburied it. It was a fluke, one that nobody had ever seen before.”

When people see the Nortons’ knobs, they ask, “Why would anybody want to collect these things?” Patti Norton said. “But then they see all the colors. After that, they go around looking up at all the telephone poles.”