1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> 2<html> 3 4<head> 5<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> 6<meta name="keywords" content="glass insulators, glass insulator, porcelain insulators, insulator collecting, telephone insulators, telegraph insulators, antique glass insulators, Hemingray insulators"> 7<head> 8<title>Bill Meier's Insulator Page</title> 9</head> 10 11<body background="images/amber8.jpg" bgcolor="#FFCC33"> 12 13<table border="0" cellpadding="10"> 14 <tr> 15 <td> 16 <table border="10" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> 17 <tr> 18 <td><b><img src="images/bmeier.jpg" alt="Bill Meier's photograph" width="154" height="200"></b></td> 19 </tr> 20 </table> 21 </td> 22 <td> 23 <h1><b>Bill Meier's Insulator Page</b></h1> 24 <ul> 25 <li><b><a href="#who">Who am I?</a></b></li> 26 <li><b><a href="#collect">What do I collect?</a></b></li> 27 <li><b><a href="#favorite">What is my favorite insulator?</a></b></li> 28 <li><b><a href="#special">What is my most special insulator?</a></b></li> 29 <li><b><a href="#contact">How to contact me?</a></b></li> 30 </ul> 31 </td> 32 </tr> 33</table> 34<h2><a name="who">Who am I?</a></h2> 35 36<p><strong>I was born on November 22, 1955 (11/22/55 !), and married on October 3715, 1989. My wife, <a href="http://www.insulators.info/icon/collectors/jmeier.htm">Jill 38Meier</a> and I are avid insulator collectors. We started collecting (again) in 39the spring of 1989. In addition, we are both very involved in the hobby, at the 40local, regional, and national level. Currently I am</strong> 41<ul> 42 <li><strong>Treasurer and Membership director of the <a href="http://www.insulators.info/clubs/ypcic.htm">Yankee 43 Pole Cat Insulator Club</a> in New England</strong></li> 44 <li><strong>WebMeister of the <a href="http://www.insulators.info/">Glass 45 Insulator</a> Web pages</strong></li> 46</ul> 47 48<p><strong>In the past I have been</strong></p> 49<ul> 50 <li><b>Awards and Recognitions Chairman for the NIA</b></li> 51 <li><strong><a href="http://www.nia.org/">National Insulator Association</a> 52 Eastern Region Vice President</strong></li> 53 <li><strong>Editor of the <a href="http://www.insulators.info/computer/">Insulators 54 and Computers</a> column in Crown Jewels of the Wire</strong></li> 55</ul> 56 57<p><strong>I also received the <a href="http://www.insulators.info/shows/reports/photos/97nia45.htm">NIA 58Outstanding Service Award</a> in 1997.</strong></p> 59 60<p><b>Jill and I received the <a href="http://www.nia.org/handbook/judging.htm">NIA 61Lifetime Membership Award</a> in 2001.</b></p> 62 63<p><strong>For almost twenty years I was a Principal Software Engineer with <a href="http://www.digital.com/">Digital 64Equipment Corporation</a> working on developing networking software and file 65servers for personal computers and main frames. Now, I have started my own small 66consulting company, <a href="http://www.getcreativenow.com/">Creative Computer 67Consultants</a> doing custom CGI programming, database design, and web page 68design and web site hosting.</strong></p> 69<h2><a name="collect">What do I collect?</a></h2> 70 71<p><strong>We collect anything produced or related to the Hemingray Glass 72Company. We have a large and diverse collection of Hemingray insulators, including early telegraph, telephone and 73eletric power insulators. They range from minor embossing and base variations to a rainbow of colored 74insulators from common to one of a kind, as well as a broad range of CD's. We 75also like "Hemingray Dump" items; these are often unique, and provide 76some insight into insulator research and production at Hemingray.</strong></p> 77 78<p><strong>Many people just associate "Hemingray Insulators" as those 79"newer" insulators embossed with HEMINGRAY. However, insulators 80produced by Hemingray include those with the following embossings:</strong> 81<ul> 82 <li><strong>HEMINGRAY</strong></li> 83 <li><strong>H.G.CO.</strong></li> 84 <li><strong>PATENT DEC. 19, 1871</strong></li> 85 <li><strong>PATENT MAY 2 1893</strong></li> 86 <li><strong>KIMBLE</strong></li> 87 <li><strong>CHAMBERS</strong></li> 88 <li><strong>SURGE</strong></li> 89 <li><strong>V. G. CONVERSE</strong></li> 90 <li><strong>and some others</strong></li> 91</ul> 92 93<p><strong>In addition to our large collection of insulators, our collection of 94Hemingray glass products also includes <a href="http://www.insulators.info/go-withs/water.htm">Water 95Bottles</a>, <a href="http://www.insulators.info/go-withs/fruit.htm">Fruit Jars</a>
96and glass blocks.</strong></p> 97 98<p><strong>Take a look at our <a href="http://www.insulators.info/wanted/">want 99list</a>; we offer generous trades or cash payments for insulators on this list. 100Help us build the "complete Hemingray reference collection"!</strong></p> 101 102<p><strong>In addition, with the help of other collectors, including <a href="http://www.insulators.info/icon/collectors/bstahr.htm">Bob 103Stahr</a> and <a href="http://www.insulators.info/icon/collectors/egish.htm">Elton 104Gish</a>, we have assembled a large amount of research material on Hemingray 105including old advertisements, catalogs, and patents. We eagerly share this 106material with other collectors at no charge.</strong></p> 107<h2><a name="favorite">What is my favorite insulator?</a></h2> 108 109<p><strong>This is a question many insulator collectors are asked, so I'll make 110an attempt to answer it! To us, all of our insulators are special in some way, 111but there is one that stands out in my mind... A <a href="http://www.insulators.info/photos/images/1124-amb.jpg">CD 112112.4</a> HEMINGRAY No 8 in Golden Amber. Wow, quite a piece! We got this in 113September, 1990 only about a year after we started collecting. This piece was 114also acquired through one of our very first trades. We traded a nice CD 257 115"peacock" Mickey, a CD 113 Hemingray No 12 in purple, and some cash to 116Duane Davenport for it. At the time, it was also the first insulator that we 117owned that was valued at over a thousand dollars. But it's not how much we paid 118nor how much it is worth that makes this piece extra special for us! It's the 119story of how we got it and the friendship with Duane that developed. I call it 120the "AMBER8", and have even named my computer's node name after it!</strong></p> 121<h2><a name="special">What is my most special insulator?</a></h2> 122 123<p><strong>Some insulators you trade for, others you pay for. Over time, you may 124forget where you got them, or how much you paid. For me, there is one special 125insulator I will always remember.</strong></p> 126 127<p><strong>It was Saturday evening at the banquet at the 1995 National in 128Marlboro, MA. First, the NIA awards were given out, and then the club awards. 129Crown Jewels of the Wire (aka <a href="http://www.insulators.info/icon/collectors/jmcdoug.htm">John</a> 130and <a href="http://www.insulators.info/icon/collectors/cmcdoug.htm">Carol 131McDougald</a>) started a new tradition in 1993 when they decided to give out a 132"pre-judged" award to someone who had made significant contributions 133to the insulator hobby in the previous year. This year, they presented their 134custom plaque to Joe Maurath, for his 40 years of collecting and research.</strong></p> 135 136<p><strong>Before the McDougald's stepped down they went on to tell this story 137about the production of the 1995 Price Guide. And, all the hard work and 138hundreds of hours that Bill and Jill Meier had spent providing computer 139consulting and database work for them. And, the completely automated process 140they provided for the production of the price guide, and also the creation of 141the special "Insulator Arial" font that allows symbols that appeared 142on insulators to be printed as actual characters. No more ['A' in a circle] 143notations were needed!</strong></p> 144 145<p><strong>They called us up, and presented us with a <a href="http://www.insulators.info/photos/images/7322-sag.jpg">CD 146732.2</a> DEC. 19. 1871 <em>threadless</em> Hemingray insulator in sage green! 147It is one of three known. What a thrill and surprise for us! An insulator any 148Hemingray collector would "kill for"! It even came with a cap and a 149diploma, to fit into our "Hemingray University" display. [I wondered 150why Carol had called up several weeks before and wondered if we were going to do 151our "Hemingray University" display that we showed a preview of at the 152spring YPCIC show...] The next morning, we had placed the insulator in our 153display, next to Hemingray University's President; a CD 154 "MR" 154Hemingray, as a "Professor Emeritus". A number of people stopped over 155to see the insulator. Some people not knowing that a small group of these 156threadless embossed Hemingray's were found a few years ago, thought the gift the 157McDougald's had given out at the banquet was a gag gift. You should have seen 158the surprise on these people's faces when they saw it was a <em>real insulator</em>! 159You can even feel the Floyd pinhole inside it.</strong></p> 160 161<p><strong>This will be an insulator we will never forget what, where, when, and 162how we got it!</strong></p> 163<h2><a name="contact">How to contact me?</a></h2> 164 165<p><strong>Bill Meier<br> 166103 Canterbury Court<br> 167Carlisle, MA 01741-1860<br> 168U.S.A.<br>
169<script><!-- 170function m(n,d,s) {document.write('<a safe href="mail'+'to:'+n+'@'+d+'.'+s+'">'+n+'@'+d+'.'+s+'</a>'); } 171m("Bill", "insulators", "info"); //--> 172</script>
172 173</strong></p> 174<hr> 175 176<p><strong>Written by Bill Meier,
177<script><!-- 178function m(n,d,s) {document.write('<a safe href="mail'+'to:'+n+'@'+d+'.'+s+'">'+n+'@'+d+'.'+s+'</a>'); } 179m("Bill", "insulators", "info"); //--> 180</script>
180 181</strong></p> 182 183<p><strong>Last updated 184<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" s-type="EDITED" 185s-format="%A, %B %d, %Y" startspan -->Thursday, April 24, 2008<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="59026" --></strong></p> 186<hr> 187 188</body> 189 190</html>
Line numbers count LF bytes from the start of the resource, as the search results do. Vendor segments are library code the classifier recognised; they are stored but not indexed. Bytes are shown as Latin1 characters, one per byte.