What are those greenish glass caps called that old train station poles used to have?

Question

Found one put tring to find there proper name or a photo of one to explain to someone what it is that I found.

Answer 1

glass insulator

Answer 2

Gas Lamps

Answer 3

those are insulators, they insulate the wire from grounding against the pole.

Does it look like this?

http://www.cyberattic.com/stores/nellie3...

Answer 4

the item you found is a transition insulator, used years ago for a support when running overhead wires on a pole, the green ones were made out of a glass that contained  copper in the sand, it is called depression glass

Answer 5

insulators for the telegraph wire

Answer 6

The green glass insulators are fairly common and might bring a dollar ot two at a yard sale.

But, the purple ones are older, more rare and more valuable.  I don't mean the maroonish, ceramic, high tension insulators, but purple glass.

However, from the nature of your question, we may all be barking up the wrong tree.  The ambiguity is in the words "station pole."

The mast that was found in front of stations near the tracks was an "order board."  The station operator could indicate to trains that there were train orders for them waiting at the depot by changing the position of the blade(s) at the top of the pole.  They were very similar in appearance to semaphore signal masts.

They had green and red lenses on the rounded end of the blades, displaying either red or green, with a light source behind for illumination, so that the crewmen could see the indication from a further distance at night.

These lenses were also similar to the ones used in switch stand indicators and marker or class light lenses of the day.

So, if a telephone pole, it's an insulator, if train order signal, it is a colored lens, but much more dish-like in apperarance and fairly easy to distinguish between the two.

I just wanted to cover all the bases...

Answer 7

Gas lamps. The type in use until c.1970 in southern England dated from c. 1900 and had a 'swan neck' post, from which the lamp was suspended. The lamp consisted of a metal shade, beneath which was a glass globe, containing 2 mantles. A chain pull lit the lamp at dusk which was when railway lamps were required to be lit, as well as in bad weather, and extinguished the lamp at daybreak.

They were painted green and because of their strategic position on the platform they often had the station signs mounted on them as well. These were enamel and of the 'flying bullseye' (pre-1948) or 'torpedo' (post 1948) and were green with white lettering.

Answer 8

Back in the day the railroads used the telegraph to transmit train orders to telegraphers at stations to be delivered to trains.The glass globes are insulators for the old telegraph wires. Some are quite collectible and bring a good price.