The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-08-14


from SIG to S1s5 Some Are Ever
Higher in Price-HistoricaI Poles.
A leading manufacturer of fiagpoles, whC
has been in the business since 1850 say,
that the demand for poles has increased
wonderfully within the last ten years
Every builder who estimates on the erec
ton of house is obliged TO include flag
pole in his plans. The poles are made o
wood, usually of spruce or pine. For
length of seventy feet or less spruce is pre-
ferred. Beyond that height pine is chosen
if the pole is a single stick The WOOD
comes from Norway, Nova Scotia and
northern New York. 1t lies under water
for year and is then ready to be hewr
into square piece.
After that it is cut down smaller with Z
draw shave, smoothed with fat plano
and finished with hollow plane. If tn;
pole is not exactly straight it has to be
made so by planning it on one side 1t is
then put in a yard to check" That is, il
gets a chance to crack on the sides These
cracks or checks" are filed with putty
or if they are too large they are filled with
oakum and calked ike the timbers of a
ship
The pole is then painted and fitted with
wooden ball on top. Flagpole makers
say that poles ought 10 be painted once q
year; it makes them last longer When a
pole is put up in two pieces it is Joined to-
gethec by dOvetail splice. This splice is
strengthened by heavy iron bands around
the splicing.
From fifty to eighty feet makes a good
length for pole If it is eighty feet long
it ought to have diameter OF twelve to
fourteen inches at its base, and other
lengths are made in nearly this proportion.
Flagpoles are taken down because they
rot at the base, but great number of
them get struck by lightning every year
After that they are good for nothing but
frewood.
HOW POLES WARP AND LEAN
A flagpOle costs the buyer from s16 to
Sl35. 1t costs the maker from 8 to So
but he has to reject many sticks when he
comes to work them into shape and he
has to put them in position. This task is
often difficult and dangerous. Poles have
TO be put on the tops Of domes, and a cir
cular stairway has to be built around the
sides of these domes to enable workmen to
reach the required point. Then poles are
placed on fiat roofs and peaked roofs, on
steeples, on stone walls, on rocks and even
on trees.
Every fagpole begins to warp as soon as
it is put up. The heat and the atmosphere
seem TO affect it, A curious fact is that if
pole Is set straight it always warps to-
ward the north; that is the top of tie pole
will be found to incline slightly north
ward. One authority says that this hap
pens because the sun rises in the northeast
and acts on the pole when it is damp with
the night dew. HODGES not know how this
theory would apply to poles in cities that
are ia a different latitude than New York.
Another authority says that the wind has
n great deal to do in warping the poles, and
still another expert says that a pole will
bend in the same direction that it inclined
when it was a tree in its native forest.
None of these reasons alter the indisput-
able fact that the flagpole5 of New York
are nearly all bent with their heads toward
the north.
There are few iron poles in this city
The most popular one is probably in Junk
shop by this time. It used to stand on the
Western Union building, in lower Broad
way 1t was on this pole that the famous
time ball" glided up and down. Ball and
time of the fire il the Western Union build
ING.
There are some high poles in New York,
and there are others that are set in high
places. The custom house has three; two
Of these measure 30 feet each, and the
third one is 80 feet In length. The middle
pole of the custom house was put up in
1867. The fiagpole on the Dakota flats is
DIS feet above the ground. OF this height
1865 feet belong to the building, the rest is
pole. This stick cost 500. The fagpole on
St. BarthOlomew's church, at Forty fourth
street and Madison avenue, sticks out of
the tower at an angle of d dogs, when
you see it. When you don't see it the rea-
son is that it is hanging down inside the
tower. 1t Is worked by machinery, and is
drawn in when not in use. There are five
poles on the Grand Central depot. The
tallest of these holds up a gilded eagle
2I feet from tip to tip. The
Manhattan Athletic clubs pole is not very
high, but it attracts notice because it
stands well ont from the building. Union
square is well provided with poles
Madison square has a numerous cluster,
and the new Holland house, at Thirtieth
street and Fifth avenue, has three monster
sticks.
The memory of "Tom Riley's Liberty
Pole" IS still green in the hearts of many
New Workers. This famous pole stood
near the corner of West Broadway and
Franklin street. 1t was erected in 1884 on
Birthday, and lowered up
ward l37 feet from the ground on which it /
stood. Figures were placed upon it at in /
.ervals TO mark its height, and the little /
grass plot on which it stood was the scene (
IF memorable gatherings of fremen in the |.
days of the volunteer department..
Streams of water were thrown toward 1
,he top of Rileys pole, and the engine that /
reached the highest mark received a prize .
rom judges who viewed the contest from
-oofs close by. Riley's pole was struck by .
lightning within ten months after its .
erection. IL was replaced by new one, /
md the latter pole was there as late as .
SIS, when the advance of business caused ,
is removal
FAMOUS FLAGPoLEs.
Every schoolboy can see in his minds
we the daring American who climbed the
Battery lagpole and tore down the British
'olors that had been nailed there when the
English sailed from New York in 1888.
The earliest pictures Of New Amsterdam
how fagpole on this site. The present
me Is not old, its predecessor having been
truck by lightning less than a dozen years
go. The shivered pole fell northward
With terrific crash.
a famous tirepole used TO stand near the
orner OF Avenue D and east Houston
treet. Engine ~ Of the old Live Oaks"
iscd 70 have lis practice trials under this
'ole. Hickory poles were very popular in
lie days of the Old Hickory" campaigns.
number OF them were erected in the