How Old Tech Is Becoming The Newest Trend In Home Decor!
July 27, 2024
source: Flickr
This is something I vividly remember from my childhood in the 70s, a workshop of my grandfather who had a strange assortment of colorful glass items, including a set of old glass telephone insulators used on the poles that were no longer in use. These were not mere items from the days when he was a linesman, they were symbols of the past, the evolving communication of the modern world.
Glass insulators of yester years which were in use from the 1850s to the 1970s are not simply antiques; they are landmarks of engineering history. At first, these pieces were utilized in protecting the telegraph lines and later on when the telegraph and telephone systems grew. Every insulator shielded the sensitive electrical currents that ran through the wires to enable quicker transmission of information over long distances.
Thus the types of the insulators increased as the demand for electrical insulation increased. They varied from the clear glass to green and blue glasses and once in a while, the esteemed purple and red ones. Each color and shape meant something, and was usually associated with certain companies and time periods, thus they were excellent collectibles for historical and artistic purposes.
Enthusiasts find collecting glass insulators as a way of relating with history. There are those who look for special and unique pieces and there are those who enjoy the everyday items for their nostalgia. Enthusiasts, in turn, reveal their interests at industry events, Internet communities, and specialized associations telling their stories and discussing their collections.
Vintage glass insulators are considered treasures to those who collect them and they represent advancement and unity. These two films bring to mind the era when new technologies were revolutionizing the social relations between people and the surrounding world. Each of them, produced for the use in severe climates, is a piece of communication history that reminds the present and the future.
It is not just pieces of colored glass; they are pieces of history that show the world when it was slowly opening up to becoming a global village. They make us think of people trying to go further, people trying to convey more and people trying to link up irrespective of the distance involved.