Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-12
Taking Care Of tne 'reiegraph

The work of keeping telegraph poles and wires in order is one of some magnitude, re- quiring a large number of laborers and an outlay of money by no means small At all seasons of the year the work must go on but in the spring general inspection and trial Of poles and wires begins and is continued un- til frost closes the ground Poles are not transplanted from the forest to the railway or public roadway in the winter unless a broken pole calls for successor. Poles are Of two kinds, chesnut and cedar The form. CT lasts the longest, but the latter makes the pest appearance. If we must have such things as poles on our Westminster sidewalk, they ought to be of the trim and true kind known as the cedars of Lebanon chest nut pole may stand and do duty twenty years If its wires are continuous in a straight line
 Ii a pole Is in an angle formed by wires, it's strength may not last for many years, as there Is constant strain upon the base As soon as the frost is out of the ground the
 me men" test every pole in their district
 by placing bikes against 1t and exertine their strength. The wires will allow sufficient swaying of the pole to admit it's breakinp if 1t IS sufficiently decayed to be removed. Sometimes the wind breaks them and the
 wires sustain them in position if the break is
 below the surface of the ground.
 The climber is an important servant to tel egraph companies By what means the tops of poles were reached before the art of climbing came into practice is not remem
 bered by every one, but ladders were in use. and their carrying from place to place caused much delay and inconvenience. The climber of the present day carries his ladder with him in the form of two steel spurs, with nec- essary trappings, which are attached to the feet, one on each foot on the inside With these the climber can walk up a pole as easily as boy can climb a tree. The climber is provided with pair of pliers, a hand wise a ha vic ha broken wires together and splices with the pliers, leaving sufficient slack for contraction In large cities climbers are kept at the cen tral offices day and night, to be sent at a mo- ment's notice in any direction. If pole is down, it's stump is dug out or new hole work much quicker than spades, un- less ledge or boulders are met with. The climbers pay varies from forty to seventy dollars per month. At the present time they are in great demand, as telegraphic and telephone wires increase enormously in every direction. The climber inspects the pole and it's entire topgear, looking out for broken or damaged insulators. The insulat- ors are of glass and cost about four cents apiece. Stone, rubber and porcelain insulat- ors have been devised and used, but glass is as good as any and certainly the cheapest
 The force of repairers and builders is di- vided into climbers and grounders The lat ter are about equal to ordinary laborers but rise in course of time to the higher position of climbers. The grounders dig, plant, car ry and make themselves generally useful. The wires in use a-e generally what is known as humber S,'' although several sizes small CT are used in some cases. The telephone wires are smaller, and to this is attributed the greater damage in last winters storms. To find break or interruption of wires in cities IS an easy matter, but in the country there IS more difficulty. The line men have certain lengths of line to attend to on the tracks of railways A man (who is a climb line. He travels by baggage trains, hand cars, and lately by hand tricycles All line men are under the control of head offices. and can be concentrated at any point where the repair of damage requires a large force On turnpike, or in any across-country di- vision. the length or line under the charge of one man Is fifteen miles. In some places op- orators are line men, and are paid extra for line work
 In the West, where lines stretch across pralries or over mountains, the line man goes on horseback, camps out at night and endures many hardships. In winter he tray els in snow shoes, and during last winter he had the novel experience of digging down to find wires under the snow. To find break on long lines requires some time. At the opening of business at seven in the morning the chief operator in large offices tests wires to the extent of the lipe.. If they work satis factorily there is no obstruction to business If the office at the end of the line does not respond, the operator tries the station next to it. if that fails he tests the next, and so on until an office is called The break is then between the last office and the one at the end of the line, and the repairer is at once noti- fled and proceeds to look for it. When more than one wire runs to one place the interrup- tion is found very quickly by telegraphing from both extreme points, and communica- ting the result on another wire