Los Angeles herald., 1890-09-01

''That's the way cable wears out, .
said President J. F. Crank, of the cable
road, to HERALD reporter on Saturday
as the two peered down in the trench
through which the cable that pulls the
cars to and from the plaza, enters the
Seventh street power house. The bot
tom of the trench was Uttered with
little, glittering pieces OF steel.
"Those are pieces of the strands
which are worn off. 1t isn't the grip
that wears out cable as much as the
curves. Now this rope has only been
in use 180 days and it is about worn out
It's the curves that wear. When you
want to break piece OF wire, you bend
it back and forth; that is what wears
the cable; the curves cause it to become
granulated. This plaza rope turns as it
leaves the house, turns again at the
corner of Grand avenue and
Seventh street, turns again at the corner
of Seventh and Broadway, again at
Broadway and First streets, again at
Spring and First streets, again at the
Plaza, and coming back repeats all these
again. This rope is about gone. We
are sparing it and keeping it going until
a new one comes, which is ordered"
"How much does cable cost?"
This Plaza rope costs 1900 or 30
cents foot. Two cables year means
$4,000 for that division. The other lines
are not so wearing. Here's the Seventh
street CABLE and the Grand avenue
cable, you see almost as good as when
first put in. We generally keep relief
ropes on hand. There is one on that
reel there $4,000 feet long. 1t is for the
Grand avenue line."
The reporter watched the Plaza rope
revolving over the great pulleys. Every
few minutes a ragged, alfworn-through,
damaged place would appear. A man
sitting in a chair intently watching the
rope would peer with increased atten-
tlon at the place, and then as he studied
it appear more satisfied.
"We have that man or his relief con-
stantly watching the rope" continued
Mr.. Crank. "He can tell when worn
place is too thin to go any longer, and
Immediately stops the machinery, the
bad piece is cut out, a new section
spliced, and in five or ten minutes the
wheels 60 around again.
"Crucible steel wire strands, wound
around hemp core. Yes, they are
worth little something when worn
out; about a cent pound, l believe.
How fast? The rope runs regularly at
the rate of twelve miles an hour. The
cars don't always run as fast as that, be-
cause the gripman don't hold the rope
tight. The reason that the cars go
n l.
is because there the men take firmer
hold. But the rope always travels at
twelve miles an hour, and the cars can
not go faster than the cable"
Business good?"
About fifty per cent better than last
year. We run seventy cars all the time.
How many passengers Well, an aver
age of 20, 900 passengers day. On the
Fourth OF July we carried 5000 people
or nearly the whole population accord
ing to the census. 1t does not seem to me
that the census can be right, judging
from our average business. One thing
that has increased our business is the
TACT that we now give transfers from all
branches. We used to issue about 300
transfers a day and now give out about
1000. People are being educated up to
cable roads. 1t is easy to calculate the
rate of speed of a horse car and get on
and off it, but with cable it is different.
People are careless often about crossing
in front of a dummy and stepping off
before the car stops, but our men are
very careful and SO far we have had no
bad accidents"
"What is the shortest life OF cable %
Gone we had in this plaza division only
lasted sixty days; this one has been in
six months, but should have been re-
placed long ago, but for the fact that
the factory which makes them was blown
down bya cyclone in the east some
time ago. There is tremendous for
tune in store for the man who will invent
a,cable which will last longer than steel
wire one."