The morning call., 1892-12-14
RUN TWO CABLES.
That Is SpliCer Steps Owl
Car Plan.
DAY ROPE AND A NIGHT.
He Sees No Obstacle i'm the WAY of
Running the Cars at All
Hours.

Would il cost much extra In the matter
! of cables 10 run cable-ears all nieht?" was
asked of Chief Splicer Step OF the Suffer-
street cable line yesterday.
well" said Mr.. Step, "that would de-
pend on how they were used.
MY idea of that would be to use a clutch
or chaffing-gear In the power-house and
have two cables in the slot so arranged that
the clutch or chaffing-gear could be used to
set one cable in motion and stop the other.
by this means one cable could be worked
| days ard the other nights. in that way CIV
ing time for repairs on both cables.
mo. In the matter OF cables. that would
mot cost much more than under the present
| system, but the new machinery necessary
| for such an arrangement would be rather
costly.
From actual experience / cannot say
whether / think owl cars would pay here
| or not, but il seems to me that besides the
| people whose business keeps them down.
| town until after the last cars have gone
system of night cars would induce a vast
| amount Of night travel not existin under
the present arrangement
Yes, at present, unless there is some
| thing serious happens to the cable which re-
| quIres Immediate attention, we do all our
work after the cable stops at night.
Ut may be OF interest TO know how We
tell where weak place is when the cable
! is about to stop and we want TO get it in the
house to work Oh, so I'll tell you how We
| know.
For instance. there is an old splice need
| ing attention. Well, we know at exactly
what time that splice passes through the
| engine-roon, and we know just how long it
| takes the cable to make a revolution. So
we say, after looking at the clock, ii is so
many minutes past that place, or so many
minutes TO 1t and we know at once whel her
II will be cheapest TO lett 60 on around aud
come back to US in the regular way or re-
verse the engines and bring it in the other
way.
Some OF the spices are patented, but
few OF these are much in use. In fact, the
only one used much is what is called the
split splice
Just step into my workroom and / will
show you how we make split Splice"
The woTkroom was Uttered with bits of
wire and ends of cable and tile benches COW
cred with curiOus-lookiug tools.
Taking an end Of cable from the floor, the
chief splicer took what looked like large
| pair OF tongs, and what be said was his
| shears, aud cut one OF the strands. This
| he UNFINISHED in both directions from the
main body of the cable, leaving the whole
one strand short. Then he drew them TO-
| getheT till the ends Tapped.
After that he took q splicer's needle and
| divided each strand evenly and tucked one
! half of each back among the remaining
! strands of the cable. from which he had re-
| moved the heart Of hemp The remaining
| parts of the split strands he tied together
and cut the ends off. only leaving about two
| inches. These ends he bent back, and then
| the tuckins process was gone through with
again, after which the entire splice was sub
| jected to a shower of blows from the mallet.
Mr.. Step then handed the bit of spliced
cable to the reporter for inspection. and II
looked no different from what ii had before
| the splicing.
'Cable-splicing," said Mr.. Step, sis alto
| gether different from the splicing done by
| sailors. The especial feature of this bust
ness is to make the cable strong, and yet not
| leave il particle larger than the other
| parts. because il it were left Sc there would
| be great danger Of the large place catching
| in grip, and, in such an event, the grip
| man would be unable 70 let go, and the only
means of stopping the dummy would be
| TO stop the cable, and before that could be
| done thousands of dollars of damage might
| be done and perhaps lives lost
How do we know when the rope is
| stranded?
"Do YOU see that collar on the cable up
| there?' and he pointed TO a rod with a half
circle at the end Of il, which hung just over
| the incoming cable.
That collar, as you see, is connected by
wires TO little bell over there by the engi-
| neeT. When a strand is broken the ends Of
! il are bound TO strike the collar, and so ring
| the little bell, in that way giving notice 10
| the engineer, who stops the engines. Then
| we find the place. repair the damage and
| the cars move on again"