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[J. Wilhelm]

Plugging away........

After a days work, I ended up with this, an old and very rusty telephone wire steel bracket with ceramic (?) ends......

Ceramic...insulators. The wires, which were probably bare metal without any kind of insulation, cloth, rubber, or otherwise, was tied to those ceramic insulators. It kept the current from running through the metal bracket.

Porcelain insulators are still used in whichever country still uses low voltage (electrical/telephone) wooden utility posts (eg USA, Japan), but they'll be white, not a nice color like that

400 Volt lines on porcelain insulators in Switzerland

[J. Wilhelm]

Oooh! I just had an idea. Why not hang cables from the insulators and hook to a sequence of light bulbs, as an interior ceiling lamp? The "bare wires" don't need to be functional, for safety reasons obviously

[SeVeNeVeS]

Oooh! I just had an idea. Why not hang cables from the insulators and hook to a sequence of light bulbs, as an interior ceiling lamp? The "bare wires" don't need to be functional, for safety reasons obviously

That's a brilliant idea but I've decided to keep the angled bracket, which was very bent and buckled, some time in a vice and a rather large hammer and it's almost 90 degrees and straight again. Keep it original looking.

There is another on the same house, only problem it's flats (apartments) and no permission to remove it, so left in situ.

[RJBowman]

On a road trip down through Illinois, basically Chicago to Bloomington, I saw an old rail line with old telegraph poles with blue glass insulators similar to this photo. It must have gone for 100 miles. Lines were broken and it didn't appear to be usable any more. That was about 20 years ago. If you had wanted blue glass insulators for mass use, you might have been able to make a deal with the railroad.

[James Harrison]

One of the signal and telegraph engineers on the preserved railway I discourage with my support has passed comment on how much upkeep those old telegraph lines require.  Every so often you get someone say, 'why don't you put those old wires back up along the track?' and then they get a lecture about

1) how quickly the posts rot
2) have you tried setting one in, or taking one out?
3) are you volunteering to creosote the posts every year?
4) S&T gear has to comply with current regulations even on preserved lines, it would look nothing like what you remember from the 1950s
5) we have a perfectly serviceable new concrete trench alongside the line for the S&T gear, which is more accessible than a wire 60' above ground thank you very much
6) yes we probably could put a fake line in just for the look of the thing, but would cost money better spent elsewhere
7) I trust you know then where we can source bits like the insulators

Lovely to look at but they passed out of use for pretty good reasons. 

[SeVeNeVeS]

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[Prof Marvel]

Beautifully done my dear Se

Prf mumbles

[James Harrison]

Oh wow.  That's an imaginative bit of recyling.  I'm surprised it was so heavy (but then again, I've never had to man-handle a double glazed door so can't really comment). 

[SeVeNeVeS]

Oh wow.  That's an imaginative bit of recyling.  I'm surprised it was so heavy (but then again, I've never had to man-handle a double glazed door so can't really comment). 

Once I had removed the triple glazed unit from the horrible plastic, weighed quite a bit on its own, by the time the surround was made out of 2x2, 6x2, floorboards and other wood, when assembled it turned out really heavy, so I had to make a concealed hanging bracket for whole lump to sit on. It helped but was still a struggle.

[Banfili]

We have white insulators, clear insulators and green insulators - personally, I haven't seen the medicine bottle coloured blue ones, but I do believe there are some still in use & lying around the countryside. Going home from work one day I picked up three white ones off the side of the road where they had just been dropped and left after being replaced. They make terrific candle holders!!

[SeVeNeVeS]

.

[James Harrison]

Ooh.... is this one of those garden folly kits you can buy?

[SeVeNeVeS]

Ooh.... is this one of those garden folly kits you can buy?

Indeed it is, not very cheap, but purchased from https://www.chapterhousedesign.co.uk/garden-folly-kits-26-c.asp

I ended up buying a set kit with quite a few extras.

[James Harrison]

That's the people I had in mind.  As to cost... *sucks his teeth* and I understand all that they supply are the stone parts?

[SeVeNeVeS]

That's the people I had in mind.  As to cost... *sucks his teeth* and I understand all that they supply are the stone parts?

You have to supply your own bricks, I do a regular search on gumtree for free bricks and Facebook Marketplace for reduced price.

I intend to build it myself, not being a bricklayer, shall we say I expect it to turn out looking rather Rustic 

[Miranda.T]

The bits for my garden folly have arrived and are safely tucked away in my Mums garage for now.



A lot of planning ahead and have to source some more bricks, the cheaper the better as I got slightly carried away with the stone moldings.

Wow, very impressive! Rather puts playing with Lego into the shade. I hope at some point you can post piccys of the finished build (although it seems off to call it that considering it's supposed to look like a ruin.)

Yours,
Miranda.

P.S. we don't need one of these in our garden as, since nobody in the family has the faintest idea about gardening and even less time to do it, the whole garden is a folly...

[SeVeNeVeS]

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[von Corax]

The bits for my garden folly have arrived and are safely tucked away in my Mums garage for now.



A lot of planning ahead and have to source some more bricks, the cheaper the better as I got slightly carried away with the stone moldings.

Wow, very impressive! Rather puts playing with Lego into the shade. I hope at some point you can post piccys of the finished build (although it seems off to call it that considering it's supposed to look like a ruin.)

Yours,
Miranda.

P.S. we don't need one of these in our garden as, since nobody in the family has the faintest idea about gardening and even less time to do it, the whole garden is a folly...

I will gladly post piccies but I can't really see the project completed for quite a while yet, this year at some point I hope. I seem to have grand ideas and very little spare cash to spend on them.

The expensive bits are there so I intend to gather the other supplies as and when I can afford them.

Sorry to disappoint any one hoping for a quick build.

It took a long time to fall to ruin; it'll take a long time to build the ruin.

[mizzarrogh]

Impressive!

Is that concrete molds or is it actual stone?


Where i live everything buildingwaste is rotten softwood timber outside the towns, i can't even find hardwood here (except for birchwood and things like that purely for indoor use, which someone told me for some reason counts as hardwood from a technical point of view...) However sometimes one can find small amounts of old bricks from chimney pipe renovations, i always collect them when i got them for free.

I would totally love to have something like that in my garden!
(Despite the fact i am terrbible at maintain the garden outside the pure food growing session, but i keep adding in plants when i find species from old sites around).
I am certainly not a rich person either, but beauty according to my own premises is a thing i want to set priority on, and compared to what people in general here seem to spend on what to me is pure trash after like five- twenty years, i think it is cheap even if one have to spend a pretty penny to start with.


I would love to have something like that as a small shed with a Victorian or 1700s electrical laboratory or something like that, like my imaginary picture of the Isle of Man electrical therapy station Big Clive are talking about in one episode.

Take all the time You need, but i can only imagine what somebody like You would do with it!! This is genuinely exciting!

[SeVeNeVeS]

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[mizzarrogh]

In my opinion those stone componds actually do age well and takes on a nice patine over time, i fully understand it would be horrendously expensive with cutted natural stone... 
Small follies actually have a special charm, in my fantasies i often imagine a super tiny, compact castle on the seashore of deep in a forest, like the stick huts we used to make as kids, when i visited Spain with my father last years we came across an old folly made from volcanic rocks in a botanic garden, made of concrete in the 70s i think, a not fancy at all, but it was one of the coolest things i seen in my entire life when one did discovered it on the actual site and not just on photos! It was like a hybrid between natural formations and man made perfection, despite the modern materials it felt timeless an had the same mystery as an actual historical site to me.

I think this will be exceptional in Your hands!

[Miranda.T]

Impressive!

Is that concrete molds or is it actual stone?


Where i live everything buildingwaste is rotten softwood timber outside the towns, i can't even find hardwood here (except for birchwood and things like that purely for indoor use, which someone told me for some reason counts as hardwood from a technical point of view...) However sometimes one can find small amounts of old bricks from chimney pipe renovations, i always collect them when i got them for free.

I would totally love to have something like that in my garden!
(Despite the fact i am terrbible at maintain the garden outside the pure food growing session, but i keep adding in plants when i find species from old sites around).
I am certainly not a rich person either, but beauty according to my own premises is a thing i want to set priority on, and compared to what people in general here seem to spend on what to me is pure trash after like five- twenty years, i think it is cheap even if one have to spend a pretty penny to start with.


I would love to have something like that as a small shed with a Victorian or 1700s electrical laboratory or something like that, like my imaginary picture of the Isle of Man electrical therapy station Big Clive are talking about in one episode.

Take all the time You need, but i can only imagine what somebody like You would do with it!! This is genuinely exciting!

It's made of a stone resin compound I think   it's mashed up stone, mixed with a resin, a dye is added for an antique effect then cast in molds, either way each piece is solid and very heavy, so might as well be natural stone.

Uuum, please don't expect anything magnificent here, I've a tiny tiny garden, this is just a minor addition, I am not building some huge kind of cathedral or monastery, it's a few bricks with some added features where I can, don't be surprised if it looks somewhat lacking, I bought a very basic kit, not 6k's worth.   

As mizzarrogh says, I'm sure you will be produce a wonderful evocation of decayed grandeur and I certainly don't mind waiting for the outcome; producing something exceptional takes time.

Yours,
Miranda.

[SeVeNeVeS]

,

[James Harrison]

   Now this I'll be watching with interest.  I've got a lean-to pergola whose days are numbered, you see....

[SeVeNeVeS]

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