Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-05-20

LAYING THE CABLES
THROUGH The CONDUIT SYSTEM OF THE
TELEPHONE COMPANY.
Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Fee! to Be Laid
Down at Cost Of Many thousand Dol
lars-I:s AdVantages-HOW
the Work is Done.
- mr. or eight days OF
C good weather will
~ see all the underground
" cables of the Telephone
(O\%/ Company in place in the
conduits, and very short
" time thereafter will SUI
fee to make the necessary connections
in the Office with the new switch boards,
when the subscribers will begin to reap
tina substantial benefits which will fol-
low the expenditure OF so much time
and money to improve the local service
For two or three weeks past gangs OF
experienced men. under the control oil
NIr Gribben. of Pittsburg, have been at
work along the lines of the under
ground conduits, uncoiling the great
spools of lead covered cables which had
been deposited along the streets by
trucks, and slowly working the long
stretches of insulated wires into the
various duets In the cOnduits. This
work has attracted no inconslderaole
share Of public attention, and Wherever
a man-hoie was open and men al WORK
introducing a cable, there could be
seen a group of deeply Interested peo-
pie, while questions, intelligent ana
ridiculous, were often fired right and
left at the Workmen.
Underground wires are new thing
in Wheeling, but some other and larger
cities insisted upon the removal OF the
overhead wires years ago, and although
the unsightly poles and multitude OF
wire can vet be seen on the outskirts OF
even some of the largest American
cities, their business districts are now
mostly free from the eye'sore and
danger.
Boston was, perhaps, the first Ameri-
can city &c take step Ia this direction,
the telephone company there having
determined, as long ago as 1881, to make
a beginning, and some work, largely ex-
detrimental, was done in that year. AT
that time the problem was new one,
and many electricians insisted that
underground wires were not practicable,
while capitalists insisted in the most
frantic manner, that the cost OF the
change meant certain bankruptcy and
ruin. Both classes were in error.
Underground and submarine cables had,
indeed, been used for telegraphic work
before 1881, but it was known that TO
convey the telephone current under
ground successfully presented difficult
ties wholly different from any that had
ever been met before. 1t was NECESSARY
10 combine a con siderable number or
conductors into comparatively small
space, to insulate them the one from
the other, to cover them In such a way
as TO exclude moisture, and then to pro-
vide suitable conduits, with snbdivs-
ions, known as duets, for each cable.
In those DAYS metallic circuits for tel
ephonic communications were unknown.
The earth was used exclusively for the
return current. Experience immedi-
ately developed difficulties. The wires,
running parallel to one another, al
though separated by insulation,
offered exactly the conditions requisite
TO produce Induction" Through this
agency the talk going on over one wire
was heard by those who were using
those adjacent TO IT,
This was bad enough, but there was
something even worse. The condl-
tlons produced "retardation," that is,
each impulse o. electricity, instead OF
proceeding az . uniform rate, was re-
tarded more and more the further it
advanced In the cable. The result was
that the succeeding impulses, produced
by the voice, caught up and united
with those ahead OF them, and what
started as talk became a tumble OF
sounds. This was difficulty so serious
that it was seen that unless it could in
some way be overcome talking through
cables was out of the question.
Then began long series OF expert
ments directed by the highest attain
able electrical and engineering skill. 1t
is safe to say that no problem has been
the subject OF more careful and patient
study. The telephone cables used to-
day are not the result OF any one mans
work, by any means, nor was IL devised
as the result Of any single invention or
discovery, but 1t represents the state
of the art" as it exists to-day, and is
used successfully over distances which
no one deemed possible ten years
ago, although still limited TO
few miles. 1t consists of
wires iu pairs, each wire
separated from the others by being
wound with dry soft paper. Then these
pairs. each OF which serves one sub
scriber, the whole being upon a metal
lie circuit" basis, instead OF lying side
bv side parallel with one another, pro-
coed through the cable in spiral lines.
Each cable is made up Of number OF
"Uairs" varying from twenty TO one
hundred, the average being sixty, and
is covered with lead to exclude mois
ture and to prevent mechanical injury.
H. er.Nr !,