Hemingray Glass Company

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The Hemingray Glass Company was an American glass manufacturing company founded by Robert Hemingray and Ralph Gray in Cincinnati in 1848. In its early years, the company went through numerous and frequent name changes, including Gray & Hemingray; Gray, Hemingray & Bros.; Gray, Hemingray & Brother; Hemingray Bros. & Company; and R. Hemingray & Company before incorporating into the Hemingray Glass Company, Inc. in 1870. The Hemingray Glass Company had factories in Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky with main production in Muncie, Indiana. Although Hemingray was best known for its telegraph insulators, the company produced many other glass items including bottles, fruit jars, pressed glass dishes, tumblers, battery jars, fishbowls, lantern globes, and oil lamps. In 1933, the Owens-Illinois Glass Company purchased the company, but the Hemingray name was retained at the production facility in Muncie.

Hemingray Glass Company
FormerlyGray & Hemingray
Gray, Hemingray & Bros.
Gray, Hemingray & Brother
Hemingray Bros. & Company
R. Hemingray & Company
IndustryGlass
Founded1848 in Cincinnati, Ohio, US
FoundersRobert Hemingray
Ralph Gray
Defunct1972
FatePurchased by the Owens-Illinois Glass Company
Headquarters
Number of locations
3
Area served
North America
ProductsPin insulators

The main plant in Muncie closed in 1972 and the company ceased producing insulators.[1] The complex is now used by Gerdau Ameristeel, a steel production company headquartered in Brazil.

Insulators

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Hemingray was best known for producing telegraph and telephone pin insulators used on utility poles. To give an overview of the large variety of styles produced, the following table contains the twenty most common.[2] The table provides two numbers: the Consolidated Design (CD) number and the style number. The CD number is from a classification system developed by collectors that refers to the shape of the insulator, and is independent of the Hemingray Glass Company.[3] However, the style number (or name) was assigned by Hemingray to each insulator. Due to slight modifications in design over years of production, single styles can span multiple CD numbers.

CD Style Introduced Discontinued Usage Nickname Image
106 9 1890s 1940s Telephone, rural Pony  
107 9 1950s 1960s Telephone, rural Pony  
113 12 1890s 1940s Telephone Double Groove Pony  
121 16 1890s 1920s Long distance Toll  
122 16 1919 1960s Telephone, long distance Toll  
124 4 1880s 1910s Telephone  
125 15 1870s 1933 Telegraph  
128 CSA 1930s 1950s Telephone, long distance  
129 TS 1940s 1960s Transposition  
133 Standard 1870s 1910s Telegraph Signal  
134 18 1880s 1930s Telegraph, secondary power distribution  
145 21 1880s 1930s Telegraph Beehive  
147 1907 1920s Telegraph Spiral Groove  
152 40 1910 1921 Telegraph Hoopskirt  
154 42 1921 1960s Telegraph  
155 45 1938 1960s Telephone, long distance  
160 14 1880s 1956 Telephone, rural Baby Signal  
162 19 1880s 1940s Secondary power distribution, telephone Signal  
163 19 1940s 1960s Secondary power distribution  
164 20 1880s 1940 Secondary power distribution  

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Meier, Bill (August 27, 1995). "Hemingray Glass Insulators - 100 Years Of History". Insulators.info. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  2. ^ Willis, Christian. "Hemingray.info - The Hemingray Database: Top 20 Identified Insulators". Hemingray.info. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  3. ^ Meier, Bill (December 14, 2004). "CD Numbers Explained". Insulators.info. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
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