A creative person could install a small globe inside the insulators and make some sort of Steampunk hanging chandelier, some of the colours of the glass is very nice.
+rustymotor you are very right. The different colours would look really nice. I made one from cut down coloured glass bottles and it was amazing but nothing like as nice a colours as those. It would also be a talking point and safe way to display part of collection. Mine hung from a metal ring I bent round a large water barrel made from rebar. Looked cool painted matt White with the glass suspended from white cable. Ended up selling it to a visitor who had to have it. Now hangs in a local art gallery/cafe!
I finally got around to making this video, glad you liked it! You are right about those poles, the Zinc coating is very thick and the metal shows no sign of rusting out. Certainly were made to last and if noone cuts down those poles they will be there in another hundred years.
Very interesting Ian thanks. The single wire working against ground must have been interesting. I've read that operators often could hear ELF phenomena- whistlers and the like, and it must have been pretty chaotic when thunderstorms were around! Great to see the poles and hear a little of the history; I like the different colours of the glass :)
Hi Alan, thank you for your feedback on my video, its good to find remnants of the Overland Telegraph line, many of the poles were taken away after the Telegraph closed and ended up being used for Cattle yards and fence posts. It would be interesting to replace the missing insulators and rewire a few hundred metres of line and use it as a VLF antenna, there is plenty of open country out here that would be fairly free of interface of appliances. I imagine you would be able to get some good VLF reception. I would imagine that Solar storms would also have created problems for the Telegraph operators of that time, induced electrical currents would have been a problem. Lightning strikes too would have been a hazard!
Its amazing how well the poles survived, that Galvanizing sure did its job and hopefully the poles will remain for another century. Thanks for commenting.
That's some heavy galvanizing! Huh, Siemens brothers made the base-plate, eh? Interesting! Looks like the clamp near the top of that second pole has what looks like a manufacturer name and either a patent number or a patent date. Lovely collection, great color range!
Its amazing that those poles could have been standing for over a hundred years and are still in sound condition. You can see that the Zinc coating is very heavy, I guess the poles were dipped in molten Zinc originally. I suppose these days the Zinc is electroplated resulting in a much thinner coating. I was also surprised to see the original base plate still has its makers name cast on it, would have thought it have rusted out by now however the climate out here is very dry.
***** It also helps that cast materiel doesn't rust away as easily as sheet or block iron/steel does, something about the crystalline structure, and yeah it looks like they were dipped in liquid zinc. I think there are both electro-plated and chemically applied zinc coatings now, you can even buy a cold-applied spray can version I think. But yeah, they don't stand up as well over time.
I see this insulator thing infects more then just some old boy like my from around the Ohio river where I grew up.. I have been involved in collecting insulators since 1972. we collect insulator, lighting rods and anything found in old dumps and privy's.. My daughters will have no idea what to do with all the carp Ive horded...lol
Thank you for this video and a awesome glimpse at some of the local birds,, there babbleing is welcome to my ears,, but i imagine they can cover a car on short notice,,
Thankyou for your comments, glad you liked the video. We get lots of Birds out here and many types visit my yard and use the trees to escape the heat during summer. I think that over 15 different species turn up including a type of Owl called a Mopoke, named after its call it makes at night. The birds at end of video are a type of Cockatoo known as a Galah, very entertaining to watch as they are very playful at times.
i know it's a stretch and we could likely find more on national geographic or some odd channel,, but if you were inclined to talk more about home stuff like the birds and plants and things i'd be happy to try and gather video and info back to you from ohio usa
I can do that if you like, I am always interested in the local wildlife out here in central Australia and we have some very interesting birds and reptiles. I will do my best to document some of them if you like. Regards, Ian.
nice collection you have glad some of those old insulators and poles survived here in ukits extremely rare to find old stuff like that. Also I can receive VLF on just 60 feet of wire but mains hum is a. bother out there it would be great hope you experiment with it Ian if you want I will tell you my setup here
I have been interested in experimenting with VLF radio, I think that there are a few good radio circuits on the internet worth building. I am lucky here in central Australia is that I can visit very remote areas in the desert country a long way from mains induced hum that can be a problem. One trip I was on I set up a long wire between some trees at a spot near the Northern territory and Western Australian border and about 700 kms from the nearest city. I was using a crude amplifier circuit and did manage to hear some whistlers and pinging sounds. I would like to get some ideas from you about VLF, that would be great!
The setup I use here is a hi fi phono preamp which has high impedance input which has my aerial and earth connected this can feed into a pair of decent headphones on this setup I hear tweaks whistlers and almost continual barage of thunderstatic and of course 50 cycle hum. This is a pain but I can't do much about it
That is a great idea to use a preamp, I will try that. I guess one way to try and deal with the mains hum is to use a notch filter to block it out. I guess its hard to find areas in the UK that would be away from the mains interferance.
yeah a notch filter would help I'm sure yes your right the only places really away from mains noise are hard to reach usually very rural fields and that sort of thing not easy as I can't drive!!
Nice bit of history there, thanks for the lesson. Very interesting information, you mentioned it was a single wire at first and I saw another person (Alan) commented that it was "single wire working against ground" could you elaborate on that?
The original overland Telegraph line was a single wire running for a couple of hundred between Telegraph stations. The wire carried the signal and used the Earth as a connection to complete the circuit. Telegraph stations were needed to rebroadcast the signal due to degradation over a long distance, Telegraph operators would receive the signal via a Morse sounder and retransmit the signal using a Morse key.
There is a big insulator lying in the bushes near where I live. It's a big round like half the size of a dinner plate. I am going to have to go and get it.
***** Yeah. Its attached to a massive piece of wood and is in the middle of the bush. I still have not gotten it, its in mint condition too. The thing weighs like 15kg. i might drop by and get it tomorrow
i found 2 down at the railroad today and there was a wire around one of em i took the wire off and it snapped in half so i burried it so no animals step in it😀
A selection of those beautiful coloured insulators would make an amazing indoor feature light.
A creative person could install a small globe inside the insulators and make some sort of Steampunk hanging chandelier, some of the colours of the glass is very nice.
+rustymotor you are very right. The different colours would look really nice. I made one from cut down coloured glass bottles and it was amazing but nothing like as nice a colours as those. It would also be a talking point and safe way to display part of collection. Mine hung from a metal ring I bent round a large water barrel made from rebar. Looked cool painted matt White with the glass suspended from white cable. Ended up selling it to a visitor who had to have it. Now hangs in a local art gallery/cafe!
I have multi-coloured mini lights around my glass insulators in a variety of colours in my living room. Its a beautiful sight day and night.
Awesome collection! You have some special ones there! Those galvanised poles definitley look like they can go another hundred years!
I finally got around to making this video, glad you liked it! You are right about those poles, the Zinc coating is very thick and the metal shows no sign of rusting out. Certainly were made to last and if noone cuts down those poles they will be there in another hundred years.
Very interesting Ian thanks. The single wire working against ground must have been interesting. I've read that operators often could hear ELF phenomena- whistlers and the like, and it must have been pretty chaotic when thunderstorms were around! Great to see the poles and hear a little of the history; I like the different colours of the glass :)
Hi Alan, thank you for your feedback on my video, its good to find remnants of the Overland Telegraph line, many of the poles were taken away after the Telegraph closed and ended up being used for Cattle yards and fence posts. It would be interesting to replace the missing insulators and rewire a few hundred metres of line and use it as a VLF antenna, there is plenty of open country out here that would be fairly free of interface of appliances. I imagine you would be able to get some good VLF reception. I would imagine that Solar storms would also have created problems for the Telegraph operators of that time, induced electrical currents would have been a problem. Lightning strikes too would have been a hazard!
here in the U. S. A. you can go by the railway tracks and find glass ones everywhere.
100 years old those galvanized iron poles! Wow they made them good back then.
Its amazing how well the poles survived, that Galvanizing sure did its job and hopefully the poles will remain for another century. Thanks for commenting.
Nice collection!
That's some heavy galvanizing! Huh, Siemens brothers made the base-plate, eh? Interesting! Looks like the clamp near the top of that second pole has what looks like a manufacturer name and either a patent number or a patent date. Lovely collection, great color range!
Its amazing that those poles could have been standing for over a hundred years and are still in sound condition. You can see that the Zinc coating is very heavy, I guess the poles were dipped in molten Zinc originally. I suppose these days the Zinc is electroplated resulting in a much thinner coating. I was also surprised to see the original base plate still has its makers name cast on it, would have thought it have rusted out by now however the climate out here is very dry.
***** It also helps that cast materiel doesn't rust away as easily as sheet or block iron/steel does, something about the crystalline structure, and yeah it looks like they were dipped in liquid zinc. I think there are both electro-plated and chemically applied zinc coatings now, you can even buy a cold-applied spray can version I think. But yeah, they don't stand up as well over time.
I see this insulator thing infects more then just some old boy like my from around the Ohio river where I grew up.. I have been involved in collecting insulators since 1972. we collect insulator, lighting rods and anything found in old dumps and privy's.. My daughters will have no idea what to do with all the carp Ive horded...lol
what a great collection. I would love to trade with you but i don't have anything as nice as those. thanks for the video mate,
Thank you for this video and a awesome glimpse at some of the local birds,, there babbleing is welcome to my ears,, but i imagine they can cover a car on short notice,,
Thankyou for your comments, glad you liked the video. We get lots of Birds out here and many types visit my yard and use the trees to escape the heat during summer. I think that over 15 different species turn up including a type of Owl called a Mopoke, named after its call it makes at night. The birds at end of video are a type of Cockatoo known as a Galah, very entertaining to watch as they are very playful at times.
i know it's a stretch and we could likely find more on national geographic or some odd channel,, but if you were inclined to talk more about home stuff like the birds and plants and things i'd be happy to try and gather video and info back to you from ohio usa
I can do that if you like, I am always interested in the local wildlife out here in central Australia and we have some very interesting birds and reptiles. I will do my best to document some of them if you like. Regards, Ian.
that would be great! I do have a short clip or three of just parts of my backyard here if you care to look,, on my channel
nice collection you have glad some of those old insulators and poles survived here in ukits extremely rare to find old stuff like that. Also I can receive VLF on just 60 feet of wire but mains hum is a. bother out there it would be great hope you experiment with it Ian if you want I will tell you my setup here
I have been interested in experimenting with VLF radio, I think that there are a few good radio circuits on the internet worth building. I am lucky here in central Australia is that I can visit very remote areas in the desert country a long way from mains induced hum that can be a problem. One trip I was on I set up a long wire between some trees at a spot near the Northern territory and Western Australian border and about 700 kms from the nearest city. I was using a crude amplifier circuit and did manage to hear some whistlers and pinging sounds. I would like to get some ideas from you about VLF, that would be great!
The setup I use here is a hi fi phono preamp which has high impedance input which has my aerial and earth connected this can feed into a pair of decent headphones on this setup I hear tweaks whistlers and almost continual barage of thunderstatic and of course 50 cycle hum. This is a pain but I can't do much about it
That is a great idea to use a preamp, I will try that. I guess one way to try and deal with the mains hum is to use a notch filter to block it out. I guess its hard to find areas in the UK that would be away from the mains interferance.
Nice scores
nice finds
fascinating!! wish britain still had stuff like this...
fascinating as always.
yeah a notch filter would help I'm sure yes your right the only places really away from mains noise are hard to reach usually very rural fields and that sort of thing not easy as I can't drive!!
Nice video
Thanks!
Do you know if there are many lines in nsw? Mainly Wollongong down past Sydney desperate to get my hands on some
Nice bit of history there, thanks for the lesson. Very interesting information, you mentioned it was a single wire at first and
I saw another person (Alan) commented that it was "single wire working against ground" could you elaborate on that?
The original overland Telegraph line was a single wire running for a couple of hundred between Telegraph stations. The wire carried the signal and used the Earth as a connection to complete the circuit. Telegraph stations were needed to rebroadcast the signal due to degradation over a long distance, Telegraph operators would receive the signal via a Morse sounder and retransmit the signal using a Morse key.
Wow that's really cool, thanks for explaining it.
So are you saying that we can take down old telegraph poles
was that an incandecent light in the outdoor light?
Yes, 100 Watt globe, been there a long time that one.
+rustymotor ahh nice i have some that i bought in Nz and bought back with mel
There is a big insulator lying in the bushes near where I live. It's a big round like half the size of a dinner plate. I am going to have to go and get it.
That sounds interesting, hope its still there when you go back for it.
***** Yeah. Its attached to a massive piece of wood and is in the middle of the bush. I still have not gotten it, its in mint condition too. The thing weighs like 15kg. i might drop by and get it tomorrow
some of your insulators came from America the beehive
i found 2 down at the railroad today and there was a wire around one of em i took the wire off and it snapped in half so i burried it so no animals step in it😀
M