Hemingray.info
 

July 4, 2017: Colorado Springs National Here We Come!

Happy Fourth of July everyone! If you aren't already aware, the National Insulator Association's 2017 National show will be held this year in Colorado Springs, CO - July 20-23. If you've ever thought about attending an insulator show, this is the one to see! There will be dozens of insulator displays (including one by yours truly) and dozens of sales tables. I've been thinning down my Hemingray insulator collection, so come see me at my sales tables if you're interested in picking up some unusual embossings!

As I'm also the Information Director for the NIA, I may be seen around the show hall helping out. Come say hi and we'll talk Hemingrays!

To find out more about this show, please visit nianationalshow2017.com! [Note: Link removed as the web site no longer exists.] Hope to see you there!

September 28, 2016: New Error Hemingray Bottle Discovered

As you probably know, I specialize in collecting Hemingray embossing errors. It's really fun to find a new embossing error that's never been seen before. It's even more fun when it's a go-with (not an insulator)!

In the 1890's, Hemingray manufactured Crême de Menthe bottles for the Rheinstrom Brothers. It's a unique bottle design with an eagle's claw for a neck. Each one has hand-painted lettering on the front. What makes this one so special? They misspelled it as "Grême de Menthe"! Take a look at the photos. Perhaps they had just finished painting one of the similar "Good Luck" bottles and weren't paying attention? We'll probably never know, but 120+ years later, it's finally been noticed.

Be sure to check out Shaun Kotlarsky's excellent site Hemingray.net for more photos of this bottle design and other colors it was made in. This bottle is a rather basic clear color, but what this bottle lacks in color it sure makes up for in embossing!

Greme de MentheGreme de Menthe

May 7, 2016: Hemingrays For Sale Updated!

My Hemingray insulators For Sale section has been updated! Since I'm gearing up to sell some of my insulators, this page is now database-driven (it's no longer a manually updated HTML table). This not only allows me to better control my sales inventory, but it also allows me to place my for sale listings within the Hemingray Database itself! So now if I have a CD 128 for sale, it will show up both on my For Sale page, and also on the detail page for CD 128.

February 16, 2016: Time for a New Direction.

It's hard to believe that I've been collecting Hemingray insulators since 1993. Now, 23 years later, I've decided to take my collecting in a different direction. I have over 800 Hemingrays, and over the years I accomplished collecting my top 3 wants (CD 169 Type I, CD 243 Hemingray 88 and CD 291). So, what is there left to collect? Sure, I could keep trying to get "one of everything", but let's be honest... I'm just one of many Hemingray collectors out there, and that's just not realistic. I simply can't afford the most expensive pieces and I'll always be at a geographic disadvantage (Colorado is nowhere near where Hemingray manufactured their insulators!)

Plus, my family takes priority. My kids are starting to grow up, and I need to focus on them. I've certainly enjoyed collecting Hemingray insulators, and I'm not going to stop. But I will be shifting my focus away from the more expensive pieces, and keep collecting what I love: embossings and errors. And maybe even a sub-specialty or two... I have a real soft spot for mine insulators and spools!

Is this the end of Hemingray.info? I don't think so. I'll still update the site with new embossings, and add photos as I can. Plus, I'm still very much involved in the hobby as the NIA's Information Director.

That said, I'll be working on selling off several pieces from my collection. If you're interested, I'll be posting them occassionally on ICON, and at some point I will be creating a sales list and listing them here as well under the For Sale section. Check back in the coming months!

June 29, 2015: More Hemingray Database Improvements

A lot has been happening behind the scenes this month. The following improvements have been made to the Hemingray Database so far:

  • Improved navigation! All Hemingray Database links are now easily accessed via drop-down menus at the top of any database page
  • Advanced Search: Now you can search embossings that have been added or removed from previous price guides
  • Added 74 new and updated embossings from Don Briel's 2015 insulator price guide, including the newly designated CD 280.1
  • New mold variants have been added for CDs 115, 162, 220, 237, 280, 283, 302, and 1049
  • 30 new photos added
  • All new embossings for 2015 are denoted by a "NEW" icon next to each.
  • Personal notes about specific embossings (such as ones that I doubt exist) now appear underneath the embossing.

February 5, 2015 - Improved Advanced Search

It's been long overdue, but I've finally expanded and improved the Advanced Search page! Search criteria has been logically broken into 2 sections (CD and Embossing). The following search criteria have been added:

  • Search CDs by Usage Type (e.g. Telegraph, Telephone, High Voltage, etc.)
  • Search CDs by Rarity
  • Search Embossings Containing Specific Text (e.g. find all insulators misspelled "Hemigray")
  • Search Embossings by EIN (Embossing Index Number)
  • Search Unlisted Embossings

I've also made several improvements to the code behind the search results page. Test it out and let me know what you think. More coming soon!

August 18, 2014: New Rarity Scale feature

A lot of people visit Hemingray.info to find out how common or rare their Hemingray insulator is. Up until now, there really wasn't a way for a casual collector to separate the rare ones from the common ones.

Now, each CD has been assigned a Rarity Scale number, from 1 (most common) to 10 (least common). These are numbers I have assigned based on over 20 years of specializing in these. They may not all be perfect, but they're darn close!

  1. Extremely Common (millions known)
  2. Very Common
  3. Common
  4. Fairly Common
  5. Uncommon
  6. Very Uncommon
  7. Rare (dozens known)
  8. Very Rare (less than a dozen known)
  9. Extremely Rare (2 or 3 known)
  10. Unique (only one known)

Eventually, I will also be adding a rarity scale for individual embossings as well, but that's a rather large undertaking for another time. Also, I will be improving the Advanced Search section soon, to allow for searching based on rarity and other factors. Stay tuned!

July 12, 2014 - A bunch of updates!

A lot has happened in the past couple of months, both on the collecting front and the web site front! Let's start with the web site first.

  1. 43 photos have been added to the database! But wait, there's more: If you click on an image, rather than popping up in a new window, it will now pop up on the same page (known as a "lightbox" effect). And, it gets better: you can use your keyboard's arrow keys to advance to the next picture! I've been wanting to do this for years, and finally found an elegant and simple solution for that, courtesy of this fine gentleman. I was so excited I gladly donated to his project!
  2. I've created a new "special interest" section called Matching Molds. These are insulators that were made from the same mold even though they have different embossings (typically because Hemingray would reuse the molds years later). This makes for another fun facet to collect, and as I find these matching molds I'm adding them here.
  3. A new page has been created for Insulator Nicknames. Over the years, the collecting hobby has come up with some humorous and "colorful" nicknames for some of the insulators, many of which were only made by Hemingray. I figured it was high time to document these! The "Hobby Nickname" field now also shows up on the individual CD profile pages (such as "Teepee" for CD 157).
  4. 42 embossings that were removed from previous price guides (due to them not being verified) have now been added to the database. In the past, embossings that have been previously removed have been re-discovered, so it's valuable info to have readily available.
  5. Bob Stahr asked me to draw the 2014 award for Best Use of Power Insulators, presented by the Greater Chicago Insulator Club at the Farmington National. That drawing has been added to the Event Drawings section.
  6. More insulators have been posted to the For Sale section. If you're looking for some uncommon Hemingrays, check it out!

Now, on the collecting front: I attended the Colorado Springs show in June and the Farmington National just last week. It was especially memorable for me because I got to go on a road trip with my dad Bud! This was the first show we had attended together in years. I was also honored to join the National Insulator Association Board of Directors as the new NIA Information Director for 2014-2016. I'm essentially in charge of promoting the hobby, and I'm excited at the possibilities! More on that to come.

May 10, 2014

Not a whole lot has been going on lately, but a recent search of eBay yielded one of the Hemingray signs that may or may not be fake. That's prompted me to add it to the Fakes & Reproductions page. Even though it's technically not an insulator, it's Hemingray-related, and I think it's important enough to be listed here to warn others about its possible status as a fake.

On the collecting front, I'm planning to attend the Colorado Springs show in June, and the National show in July in Farmington, New Mexico. I'm excited about attending this National for several reasons (one of which I cannot divulge just yet). I'll be doing the artwork for the award for the Greater Chicago Insulator Club's Best Use of Power again (thanks to Bob Stahr!) But by far the biggest reason I'm excited to be attending this year, is my dad Bud will be joining me! We haven't been to a show together in years. Since he's the biggest reason I got so involved in this hobby, this will be an especially memorable show for me. Hope to see you guys there!

September 8, 2013: Mysterious Hemingrays, New Finds Updated, Photos Added

One page I've been wanting to create for a long time is Mysterious Hemingrays, which details several Hemingray insulators that have been rumored to exist since the 1960's, but so far have never been seen. Check it out!

Also, as promised back in March, the New Finds section has been revamped, and several more new embossings have been added! New embossings are now tied to the Hemingray Database, so they only need to be added in one place for consistency. I've also added a "Date Added" column, so Don Briel (the price guide publisher), and anyone else interested in seeing new discoveries, can see what's been added at a glance.

Last but certainly not least, Bill & Jill Meier over at Insulators.info were very kind and filled several holes in my embossing collection, so a total of 31 photos have been added to the Hemingray Database.

More improvements to the database are also on the way, including:

  1. Embossings that were removed from past price guides. Ever wonder why an insulator might have [010] and [030], but skip [020]? Well, [020] was in the price guide once upon a time, but got removed because the embossing was never verified. It's good to have this data around for historical purposes, and who knows? The embossing might be out there, just waiting to be verified and re-added to the next price guide!
  2. Known colors for each embossing. This has been a highly requested feature, and I think it's an important one to add; I've just been trying to figure out the best way to go about it. It also makes updating the web site much more complex each time a new price guide gets released (typically every 3-4 years).
  3. Known embossing styles for each embossing. Are you a hardcore embossing collector like me? Then you'd probably want to know the exact embossing style for a particular embossing (e.g. prismatic, script, stamped, etc.) This is more of a long-term project for me, but the idea is there and it will come to fruition some day!

March 24, 2013: Photos and More Photos

Now that my database is in order at home and all my insulators are photographed, I've added 88 additional photos to the Hemingray database! This has been long overdue, but better late than never!

Also, I'm in the process of revamping the New Finds section. It will soon be database-driven as well, so the page will always be in-sync with the other pages, and will hopefully make it easier for Don Briel (the price guide publisher) to see the newest additions. Stay tuned!