GC33KVY Old Fashioned Insulators
Type: Traditional | Size: Micro | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Imusttravel2000 @ | Hide Date: 09/05/2011 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 26.823 W104° 00.145 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
   

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Insulators are those glass or porcelain things you see on the tops and crossarms of telephone poles. Their purpose is to insulate the electrical wires they carry, so that electricity (or telephone calls) don't all leak into the pole and into the earth. Without insulators, it would be fairly impossible to transmit electricity to homes and businesses, and telephone calls wouldn't go more than a few hundred feet before you couldn't hear the other person anymore.

Insulators were first manufactured in quantity in the 1800's when the first telegraph and telephone circuits were put in place. A way was needed to prevent the telegraph signal from draining into the earth wherever the wire touched a solid object. Insulators were invented to fulfill this need.

There are hundreds of different styles and colors of insulators today. Many of the older pieces were made from glass or porcelain; however there are some made with wood and glass, animal parts, and other bizarre materials.

Smaller insulators were used on telephone and telegraph circuits, and larger insulators were made for electrical (power supply) wires. Generally speaking, the higher the voltage in the power lines, the larger the insulator holding those lines has to be. This is because electricity can actually "jump" over a fairly long path if the voltage is high enough. Insulators with wide "umbrella" disks and wide lower skirts (the flared-out part on the insulator's bottom) are designed to keep the distance between the wire and the pole as long as possible, so that this "jumping" or arcing (technically it's called "flashover") doesn't happen.

06/29/2019 By mcmwest


Caching in the Agate area today with my partner mcmm1. Signing logs as mcm or team mcm . Thanks to the catchers who placed these here and those who have helped keep them up.
New log needed here

06/29/2019 By mcmm1
Out caching Colorado this weekend. Tftc

05/03/2019 By Unkle Fester
A nice little caching day, to Sunflower Mountain and back.... TFTC

02/16/2019 By EJBHGV
Cold day out in the plains between Deer Trail and Kiowa.
Even got some snow.
But found 31 caches and enjoyed the hunt.
All CO's thanks for hiding and making the game possible.

09/04/2018 By Mean Kitty
Find #49125

Its been a long hot summer in Texas, I've been trying to get out and do a caching trip a couple of times this summer, but it never worked out. Finally managed to get a week off, and am so happy to be out here in Colorado. The weather if perfect, and there is a load of caches that need my name on Thanks so much for the hide imusttravel2000, I really enjoyed finiding this cache!

04/27/2018 By Brewman65
Had a nice visit to Colorado, and found a lot of caches

10/13/2017 By L O S T - S O U L
TFTC

Enjoying another day traversing the countryside, acquiring many miles and boosting cache numbers and others in between along the power trails!
Nothing better than caching along the back country roads of America! Thanks for placing these out here. Most were in good shape in these sections however i did replaced wet logs and broken containers as needed. Initialed logs

10/12/2017 By GanderGoose
We loaded up Katie Geodog and went on a caching adventure today between Deer Trail and Agate. Beautiful weather for a day trip. It was fun to see those old fashioned insulators. It looks like they have new utility poles and lines on the other side of the road. The log is full; however, we managed to squeeze in "GG." Thanks for the placement, imusttravel2000!

04/23/2017 By Rohatx
Caching spree day! Beating my record for most caches in a day. This is the last of the night.
TFTC!

04/10/2017 By langcrick
Found it - #1962 - Wife and I are going on our first geocaching road trip with plans to cache in 9 states in 9 days - States to include Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri. We have also set our goals to reach 2000 finds by the time we return home.

Hitting some caches early in the morning - low 30's and windy - just another great day for geocaching

This was cache 226 found on this road trip and it was found to be in good condition - left signature and headed on down the road - TFTC