The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-11-24
TRICKS OF LINEMEN.
HOW THEY STRING WIRES WHERE
PEOPLE DON'T WANT THEM

toillnS among the network of wires f;.s-
tened to II high series of cross arms One
bent his eur close to n tiny telegraph in
strument connected with wire. while the
other, under his direction, busily twisted
two wires together.
Hold on" cried the man listening ut
the instrument. "They want TO measure
resistance. Wen have to wait awhile"
The two descended, and behind huge
chimney lit their pipes. Asked Il young
man, who had been watching them with
interest:
suppose you wanted to string IL wire
from this TO that building opposite. how
would you do il?'
That's against the law young man."
responded the taller of the two lincmcn
Telegraph companies never break Tie
law"
''But suppose you wanted TOT"
Young man, il | wanted TO carry wire
across the street from here Id let you 20
down on the sidewalk and watch, and
while You We're watching I'd get the wire
over and you'd never know it. How? Well,
that's Il business secret, but don't mind
telling you that Eve known men TO per
form the feat several ways If wanted
to do it l might take that pilot wire, for
instance, that is composed of two or three
strands | might twist Il bunch of wires to
go across the street till they exactly re-
semblcd the pilot wire to an observer or
the sidewalk. l might cut the pilot wire,
hitching on my bunch and Keeping ttaut
by main strength my man opposite would
slowly haul it over
You wouldn't know it was moving.
When he had wire enough I'd shake out
the wires l wanted from the bunch and
leave the rest to make good the gap in the
pilot. If couldn't find pilot wire OH the
particular roof I'd take the biggest gauge
single wire there and hitch two small wires
twisted together to it, make n fine joint,
and my assistant would haul them over
One would serve to make up the break in
the big wire, the other would be mine If
were driven to it and had to get rope
across the street I'd work either early in
the evening or early in the morning, when
l have heard there are only few police.
men around, and those either asleep or
chumps that wouldn't know what was
doing
~ knew man on Dearborn street who
had one wire in his Office and had to have
another. An enemy sworc he shouldn't,
and hired man and policeman to watch
the corners Of two buildings OH opposite
sides of the street and the sky to see that
no wire was strung. While they were
looking the wire went over. 1t was little
two strand cable, just the size of the single
wire and after it was fastened to the lat
ter and the joint nicely soldcred it took an
hour to pull it slowly over"
IF you were to undertake such n Job
wouldn't you be liable to mistake the wire
get the wrong one? There are n good
many on the roof tops"
Yes, there are thousands of them-tcl-
egraph. telephone, electric light, signal!
fire alarm, public and private, dead and
secrct-but there are scores of lincmcn
fhnfl Inn.
an u dozen men, any one of whom you can
take blindfoldcd on any roof and he'll tell
you the name, number, ownership, use.
destination, origin and age of every wire
in the biggest rack you can find. It's
kind of Il natural knowledge. You either
know it or you don't. know n man who
can't read or write, but he can break open
thirty-two strand cable and pick out The
wire he wants.
at is always fellow who knows the
wire geography of the roofs" he con
tnued, that makes the taps. Are there
many taps? You don't hear Of fraction
of them. 1t is natural that sometimes
people would try to catch the secrets
worth thousands of dollars that 90 over
telegraph wires amt it:'
II was after Il tap the other day and
found 1t i'll our own Office tower. 1t re-
minded me of another in the days of the
hottest war against the bucket shops \
certain Shop was getting quotations. We
made q dozen tests and to,lrs ard fcunl
nothing. Finally, by accident, | discov-
cred the operator in certain hotel had n,
instrument near Il telephone, and shouted
quotations out too loudly. looked ut that
telephone and found that it was kept in
circuit by a little wooden peg under The
lever, which was apparently with the ear
piece hanging in il. That was n good
dodge, but the tappers made it Il beautiful
one by taking that telephone wire all over
town and actually breaking open u 1elc-
phone cable. running it through that Il
piece, then into another cable and finally
taking 1T through IL central tower, all to
disarm suspicion. We located its other
end in IN Office in Il high building on Clark
street, and there sat IL telegraph operator.
the phone TO his car, catching the shouted
quotations Of the other operator and tcl,.-
graphing them over secret wire to the
bucket shop.
"In another case they left blind lead
for us in the shape of II wire half concealed
running into hole in Il brick wall, while
they broke open the linen covered line wire.
fastened their tiny copper threads to it and
ran them down holes bored in the insuator
into II chimney. In another case they
tapped every wire of q certain company
anu rlSSeu up u DaItcry OF lneir own, Thus
making themselves Independent. and babe
defiance to that company for four weeks,
till it dropped on the taps in its own office
In another case they went on n certain roof,
the owner of which swore he would shoot
any man found there stringing more wires,
and kept guard to do it, and while the
guard was on hand they tapped the wire
they wanted. OF course we didn't think of
looking there, and didn't go up there till
we had to. fearing we'd be thrown off. oh,
there are tricks in all tradaa-but our2 -