Bottles from CPRR Iron Point, NV

[underc]

My buddy and I have been following the Central Pacific Railroad bed and California Trail for years. We have found a plethora of pottery shard, bottle necks, and old can, but in one day, I topped it all. An old branch of the Humboldt River had dried up and I decided to walk the bed below the old rail grade. I found this old pickle bottle and battery oil bottle laying right on top among the rocks. They couldn't have laid there all of these years, so there must be a dumping spot upstream. From my very limited knowledge of bottles, I have found on line that this is a square ring-neck pickle bottle, 9" tall, post mold, mouth blown, crudely applied bead finish, 1.25" opening, and 2.5" square. The sites I have visited say it was made between 1880-1895.

I haven't been able to figure out the battery oil bottle. My buddy thinks there may have been a telegraph repeater station there, since I found some copper plates and wires as well. Of course, I didn't bring any of those back. Research says they floated oil on top of the electrolyte in batteries to keep the from evaporating. Sounds reasonable.

The insulator just say "POSTAL" on it. There is a small chip where the wire went around it, but is unblemished other than that. Any collectors out there that could date this?

My buddy was pretty jealous since he wasn't with me.

Just wanted to share...

[Fla-Gal]

Great photo snaps of 'wow' stuff---the blue is so clear....wish I could help ID-----but will tell you I have my blue insulators sitting atop iron stakes in my garden----always there to see and reminds me of what fun we had finding them.....keep at it

[Hill Billy]

Cool finds bud Looks like a coin laying at 11:00 from the end of the bottle insitu.