by Chris Minicola » Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:32 am
I work for an independent telephone company and I can tell you from what's left here that AM Tel & Tels were used in the hundreds if not thousands at this particular small telco back in the open wire days. It seems there was a very good market for any surplus insulators back in those days. Millbrook Rural Telephone Company started in around 1885. Apparently back in the mid 1980's before I started here nd before I was into insulators they threw out a few garbage bins full of insulators to clean out the basement. There were a few boxes saved though and I've been able to look at them. It's a real mish mash but I'd say out of maybe 10 boxes of insulators saved there was one full box of Am Tel & Tels including a couple MLOD variants. The rest was a mixture almost everything:
102 BTC, BTCO, Montreal, Diamond, MLOD NECAN, Brookfield, etc
106 Hemingray
121 BTC, BTCO of Can, Montreal, Am Tel, etc
143 NN, Dwight
154 and 155 Dominion and Hemingray
There's more but that's all that comes to mind. We have the old records and many of these insulators were bought as surplus or used at very cheap prices compared to new at the time.