Outhouse Surprising Finds!

Michigan Badger

Gold Member
Oct 12, 2005
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Northern, Michigan
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willow stick
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Can anybody give me the history behind this type of insulator?

This aqua insulator is about 4 1/4 by 2 3/4 inches. It has no cracks or chips but does have some bubbles thru out and it shows a little wear from being used and a little rust from being buried. On the dome the embossing has a large 6 then under that is W.Brookfield 45 Cliff St NY On the other side of the dome the embossing has CAUVET and under that is Pat Jul 25 1865 xxx xx 1870 (the xxx is too weak to read) Feb 22 xxxx (year is too weak to read).

Thanks,

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Yours has a very nice color, a unique aqua. Generally glass insulators are worth from 5-10, some a few more bucks depending on rarity. Then there are those "key items" like the Castle CD 206 that look like a fat chess rook (light green or light blue) that could go for a grand.

As for the location of your find, it's not unusual that it was thrown in there on purpose. People dumped their bottles in there in the old days. Bottle hunters love old privvies.
 

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daaaveman said:
My grandma had a collection of these when I was young. I remember being told that they are slightly radioactive. Is this bunk? Has anyone ever heard this?
Your grandma thought these were radioactive, because
a lot of greenish yellow glass (also called vaseline glass) glows under
UV lights because they contain Uranium salts which they used
to color glass yellow.
popularly used since the beginning of the 1800s.
 

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The #1 reason so much glass winds up down the privy was farmers kids did run barefoot and fighting infection was an uphill battle back then for livestock and people a cut foot could mean death easily. Grim is it not? We have it easy these days.
 

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Back before they built the superdome in New Orleans, my Aunt and my two cousins would go and dig the privies in the cleared off areas.
Several of the bottles they found are worth in the thousands of dollars. They built a 20 x 40 foot room on back of their house to display their finds.
Old privy sites can be gold mines.
DG
 

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dg39 said:
Back before they built the superdome in New Orleans, my Aunt and my two cousins would go and dig the privies in the cleared off areas.
Several of the bottles they found are worth in the thousands of dollars. They built a 20 x 40 foot room on back of their house to display their finds.
Old privy sites can be gold mines.
DG
Thats a heming gray!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 

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Actually insulators are one of my other hobbies. You appear to have dug a CD 126 Brookfield (embossing index 310). List for about 5-10 bucks. Been a lot of good insulators and bottles come out of privy holes for some reason. I can understand bottles being tossed in an outhouse, but insulators?? Anyhow, keep an eye out for any threadless pinhole type insulators. They date back to the CW era. Some insulators have sold for as much as $20,000 dollars!!! Check out http://www.insulators.info/ for more info.

Great find,
Jason
 

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