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Interesting.
Here's link to Inner-Tite who does list the trademark but I see no hint of the particular product/fitting. One might presume it was recalled/abandoned as a not-so-good idea, maybe.
At least there's a rational explanation for what it looks like although might be some reason to be at least vigilant if not necessarily nervous.
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My guess is that after the lawsuit, Inner-Tite decided to get out of the business of selling the fittings. I would love to take one apart and see exactly how it works, but of course, I won't be doing that.
Well, here's a new twist on the whole question of what it is. I am having a minor relocation of the meters done (by about one foot up and one foot over to the right). The first street 90 was taken off, but the silver color fitting and the straight brown fitting that it is attached to were left in place. I was not there, but the person doing the work looked inside the supply pipe coming through the wall. He said it is nothing but a hollow steel pipe -- no plastic gas line inside, etc.
So, the person who told me that the silver fitting was a "posilock" that connects to a plastic gas supply line that is inside the steel pipe was mistaken.
It did occur to me that at least one (and probably two) of the 3 properties I have that all had the silver fitting have NOT had any new gas supply service line run into the building in many many years -- at least back to long before they ever began using plastic gas supply lines. The third property that I looked at that also has the silver fitting did have a new gas supply line put in about 3 or 4 years ago, so that one may have a plastic gas line inside of the steel pipe -- I don't know.
But, my guess now is that the silver fitting serves some other purpose -- possibly/probably as an insulator or dielectric device, as others here have suggested.
I am going to keep asking gas company people and anyone else I can find in the future. The mystery remains unsolved for now.
For those who were following this thread, here's a new development and probably the final answer as to what the silver fitting is:
Earlier, I had written,
"They (the gas company) came out today and I asked them what the fitting is. They said it is called a "posilock" fitting. It is used because the old steel gas lines that came into buildings are no longer used for gas supply. Instead, the steel pipe is now used as a conduit. Inside the steel conduit is a plastic gas supply line that comes in from the street. The posilock fitting connects the plastic gas supply line to the gas line that is inside the building that goes to the meter."
Later, I wrote,
"The first street 90 was taken off, but the silver color fitting and the straight brown fitting that it is attached to were left in place. I was not there, but the person doing the work looked inside the supply pipe coming through the wall. He said it is nothing but a hollow steel pipe -- no plastic gas line inside, etc.
So, the person who told me that the silver fitting was a "posilock" that connects to a plastic gas supply line that is inside the steel pipe was mistaken."
Well, the new develoment is that we took the street 90 off again, and this time, I personally looked inside the pipe rather than relying on what the person who was doing the work before said he saw when he looked inside the pipe.
When I personally looked inside the pipe yesterday, I could see that the other person's impression of what he saw was clearly mistaken. When I looked in, I could see what is apparently the smooth inside of the plastic gas line that the gas company said is inside of the 1 1/2-inch steel pipe coming into the building. The inside is smooth and has some fine lines running longitudinally (sp?) along the inside of the tubing; and the diameter of what is in there is clearly smaller than the inside diameter of a 1 1/2-inch steel pipe.
It does looks like the silver fitting and the fitting attached to that are what adapts a plastic gas line inside the incoming steel pipe pipe to the black iron gas piping inside building that goes to the meter. I didn't take those two fittings apart (and I don't intend to), but I have a hunch that the two pieces serve as a pipe ferrule fitting to secure the incoming plastic gas line to the interior black iron gas pipe (somewhat like the fitting diagram shown here
So, as far as I can tell, the gas company person who told me that the silver fitting is a "posilock" that connects to a plastic gas supply line that is inside the steel pipe is CORRECT.
I think that is the final answer on this one.
++++++++++++++++RogerT wrote:
replying to RogerT, David Perez wrote: What you have there is called a Posiloc fitting, what it does is connect the outer steel pipe with the plastic insert pipe. PSE&G would renew/replace old gas services by inserting a new plastic gas pipe in the old steel gas pipe and the fitting you show actually crimp the plastic with a brass ring and allows the plastic to be held in place so that they can then hang the meter using conventional fittings
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