Summer holidays, road trips, impromptu roadside toilet stops, dry dusty earth and the unexpected discovery of discarded treasure.

Once carrying many more watts than a single candle could dream of, old rotten wooden power poles and rusting conduction cables give way to return these pearls to the earth. Why not leap-frog the electricity utilities with their own detritus?

FYI: usually made of wet-process porcelain, overhead powerline insulators consist of a “semi-conductive glaze finish, so that a small current (a few milliamperes) passes through the insulator. This warms the surface slightly and reduces the effect of fog and dirt accumulation. The semiconducting glaze also insures a more even distribution of voltage along the length of the chain of insulator units.” (source)