The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-02-08
STREET CAR CABLES.
SERIOUS DIFFICULTIES THEY HAVE
TO CONTEND WITH.


cer"-Horny Handed SONS Of Toll Mend
Break. With Ne~tness and Dispatch-The
Zig Broad way New York; Cables.
If one STANDS astride the narrow slot
Hhich is, as ii We're, an artery through
an artery of our great city on Broad
way and watches the snaky cable as it
glides along. he must pause a moment to
consider before he can realize what an
enormous amount Of power it carries
and what experiences it has to go
through.
Before we tell the history of the cable
let us see Of what it is composed. A
strong hempen strand fi~ve-eighths of an
inch in diameter forms the inner core.
Around this are wrapped six steel cables,
which are in turn composed of seven
strands wrapped around with other
strands of steel wire. the whole making
a total diameter of u inches.
A steel rod th~ree-eighths of an inch in
diameter and a foot in length weighs ap-
proximately one pound. The difference
in weight between this cable and a steel
rod of the same size may be realized
when it is known that this cable weighs
but three pounds to the running foot.
The use Of the central hemp rope is for
the purpose of giving acertain pliability.
In order that rust and decay should be
avoided, the rope is kept smeared with
tar and oil. This is what causes the
black shiny appearance. AS one of the
cables which obtains its power from the
Broadway cable house is &C, 900 feet in
length, it il not difficult to determine the
entire weight, which in this case would
be so, 900 pounds. The market price Of
cables being about 40 cents per foot, the
cost of this would be in the neighbor-
hood of IS. 900 for one coil of wire. The
Broadway company maintains six ca
bles, and as the approximate life of a ca
BILE in our busy t~horoughfare is little
more than eight months it would ap-
pear that the expense caused by the re-
newal of cables is not a small item. In
Denver longer cables than these exist.
the one on the main street being 36, 900
feet in length, having a diameter of but
II inches. Owing to the fact that there
is less traffic in the latter city, the work
required from the cable is not so great.
Its life is slightly heightened, and 10
months may be put to its credit.
1t is quite interesting to watch the pc
culiarities of the cable, and when we
stop a moment to think how the grip
men, when they reach the termini of a
line. have the destruction of $1,000
worth of property in their power we
can see that some means is yet to be de-
vised which will perform automatically
the action of throwing off the grip, for,
unless the grip is loosened as the Cal
approaches the power house, when i,
reaches the place where the cable de-
: sends to the driving wheels something
, must give way, and while the cable gen
: orally has the best of the encounter
very often a couple of strands are ripped
which entails considerable work upor
the repairers.
At the Broadway power house Mr.. NJ
Moore is the person who is technical.
known as the ''splicer." He was brough
from Denver, where he had been II
charge of the cable in that city. He ha
about eight or ten men under him, who
with dexterity, make necessary repairs.
- AhD1S l 1Q II kVRoo AN
' have their diseases, and they need thei
doctors. Mr.. Moore is the medical ez
aminer, and from him we received sew
eral points concerning the troubles t
which the cable is subjected.
= In case a cable has become bent in an
- way, it is difficult, in fact almost impo:
sible. to straighten it absolutely. Th
y bend remains, and if we stoop down t
= watch its onward approach it looks lk
" a huge sea serpent wriggling toward u!
;, performing wonderful gyrations as
" approaches. Several of these 'kinks
- ; as they are termed, have been made l
~ the up town cable, which travels at tt
- rate of $40 feet per minute. AS the RAJ
% of the cable is i~nyariable. by simply lool
ing at the clock the man, whose so
=, duty it is to watch the cable, can tell
v. exactly what place the ''kink' is situa
y ed. AS a matter of curiosity we inqul
ed of the watcher at the Fiftieth sire
'N power house when the next "kink" Won
- arrive. Looking at his watch and ha
" tily making a mental calculation. he a
~ swered, Between All and 4:l2.'
fact the 'kink" came in sight immec
ately as the hands of the watch point
to II minutes after 4.
While it is easy to localize acclden,
> it is difficult to assign causes. Howeve
d. recently, for some reason or other, T
ne Bowling Green cable had about 10
W feet of strands ripped off, and the writ
lie ing, curling mass of wire, as it lay up
y the floor of the power house, presented
se most confused appearance, and one won
|" be led to wonder how puny man cou
~ have the power to cope with such an 6
at parently unwieldy mass. With hu
shears, however, those pieces of me
are shipped off, and a new cable must
go put in place of the damaged portion.
The splicing is an interesting ope
'h tior. Unlike rope, the strands are
III tre1nely difficult to manipulate. \
'n- with skill acquired from the contin'
work. each strand is woven into phi
among other strands, heavy pliers a
100 MARINE spikes being used to separate
as- layers. When all is done, about II
3. inches of the end of each strand are
1919 ~, .,hla ovid t,- continued VIZ