Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Texaco signs with missing black

At first when I found this several years ago I though it was a fluke. But over the last year I have run across about a half dozen in two versions of this sign. Does anyone know the story on why the black is missing?

A LOT of unfinished Texaco signs show up around Coshocton Ohio. They were made by the Beach Company back in the day. They made porcelain signs. From what I have seen, the white porcelain was put on first, followed by the yellow and red and black was the last layer. I have seen this sign as well as other round and rectangle signs as well as unfinished flange signs. They are old and original, just never finished.

I was thru there years back and was told that there were several found buried close to the buildings where Beach Co. was. Like a trash area. Didn't know rather to believe the story or not. There were several in the area antique malls in the area.

I couldn't tell you how many of these unfinished Texaco signs I found in and around Coshocton, I even know where there's another stack at back home.

JMO, but after reading the different theories, since the last color to be added before the sign was finished was black, the sign was inspected for flaws or damage. If bad, the sign was trashed before the final process. ??? just a thought.
Ed.

I too have a 42 inch texaco sign that has the unfinished black. Do not know why?

As a number of these have turned up over the years I think it likely they are part of pre-run setup and/or mechanical breakdown during a run of signs. By the time these signs were made automation in sign making was becoming common. If you've ever worked an industrial production line job you likely have experienced line breakdown and seen plenty of test-runs. If someone forgot to load a color, or machinery broke down during processing then a series of signs could possibly be produced that would have to be scrapped.

In making such signs I think temperature requirements would also make it near impossible to restart a run if their were a failure in an oven, thus making the signs unusable. It would be interesting if someone who worked at such companies could give a first-hand account of the process.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but aren't all the colors applied on a porcelain sign before the sign get fired? The porcelain signs that show up without the black have been fired that way. Once they have been fired (baked) they can't be re- fired as the process would ruin the previously baked porcelain.
The above post of a missing color seems to have hit it. They went down a line and into an oven unfinished and came out as non fixable scrap.

The way I understand the process, each color of porcelain was fired on in a separate step? I was not there of course but I have also seen unfinished Texaco signs that were only white, or only white and yellow without the green or red or black fired on. I myself think each color was fired on seperate and the unfinished signs were rejected from the process for any number of different reasons.

It still surprises me how Few will search for answers Before asking here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4bMq9gcc98

pretty fascinating that after all these years these signs that were used to sell a product and be designed as collateral damage create so much intrigue and mystery in the modern day. If we could just set Mr. Peabodys way back machine and step back in time for a few minutes.

I think I like this video, a little better...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-tkxAa9o7w

Thanks Dick for the link to the porcelain process. This should answer most questions!

Thanks DB for my Monday morning class. I stand corrected.

I agree, that some of these were rejects from the quality control process. I have also seen some of these signs where the black is a lesser quality product then porcelain. Almost like a black paint base product that simply doesn't wear/last as well the rest of the porcelain sign.