 James Brookfieid - Founder ofthe original glass business at Honeslale, Pennsylvania. Plant destroyed by flood in 1860. Obtained a patent on a furnace for burning hard coal and was the first to use anthracite in glass-manufacturing. Started the Bushwick Glass Works in Brooklyn, New York, and obtained Patent No.103,555 lated May 31,1870, for his invention of a screw machine to make glass insulators. He also helped his son William Brookfield establish the Brookfield Glass Company. He retired in 1880. The history of Brookfield insulator manufacture started in the early 1860's. James M. Brookfield combined his thirty years of glass-manufacturing experience with a brewer, Martin Kalbfleisch, who desperately needed a reliable supply of good-quality bottles. Having purchased a glass factory in 1864 known as the "Bushwick Glass Works," Mr. Kalbfleisch hired Mr. Brookfield to operate it. Brookfield later purchased the company in 1869. At that time, threadless insulators were used to insulate the telegraph wires, but the various methods used to secure the threadless insulator to the smooth pin proved ineffective.
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A carpenter by the name of Louis A. Cauvet patented the idea of a threaded pinhole in the insulator which matched a threaded pin, thus better securing the insulator to the pin. Patent No. 48,906 covering his method was granted to Cauvet on July25, 1865. Figure 1.) Mr. Cauvet brought a threaded metal pin to the Brookfield office to explain his invention, but James and William Brookfield were out to lunch, leaving the chief clerk in charge. He dismissed Mr. Cauvet as having a foolish idea. When James and William returned, they could see the advantage of Mr. Cauvet's patent and they ordered him found. After a couple of weeks of unsuccessfully trying to sell his idea to other glass factories in New York, Mr. Cauvet was finally located by the Brookfields, and they promptly acquired the rights to his patent. Cauvet's patent revolutionized the glass insulator. The threaded Brookfield glass insulator quickly became the standard for telegraph lines throughout the country. James Brookfield's son William apparently had the responsibility of the insulator business. The early insulators were marked on one side of the crown with "W. BROOKFIELD" and a few styles were similarly marked with "WM. BROOKFIELD." James M. Brookfield retired in 1880 and William continued operating the business until his death in 1903.
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