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

saying that in England rats, with
small Irvine tied to their tails, were put
into the ducts and made TO go through,
carving with them the twine, which
served TO pull in q larger cord, which In
turn was used TO draw in 8 rope, and
that the cable. Here it is done by
means of joInted rods. A length OF rod
is pushed in, another length is screwed
to that and pushed in, another TO that,
and so on until the end OF the hrst
rod appears in the next manhole.
To this cord or wire is
fastened, and the rod Is with
drawn, each length being unscrewed
when the joint is reached. In this way
the cord is at last drawn back, and ex-
tends from manhole to manhole, and
the subsequent drawing in OF the cable,
although requiring great skill, in order
that IL may not be injured, is compare
lively easy. This Is the work which
has been in progress here in Wheeling
for three weeks past, and up to last
night about nine thousand feet CT cable,
each cable containing as high as one
hundred and three pairs OF wires, has
been laid in place. The largest cables
are about two and one-fourth inches in
diameter, and weigh about SIX pounds
per foot They come in lengths OF from
one hundred and fifty TO four hundred
feet, the longer the lengths which can be
handled the better, as 1t makes FEWER
Joints. Every man-hoe is nun oered,
commencing with No. l, at Water and
Twelfth streets, No. being in front OF
the entrance TO the telephone office, No.
at Main and Twelfth streets, and so
on, and the lengths OF cables come
marked TO fit in between certain man
holes, and are at once hauled 10 the
proper location, unwound from the big
reels, and drawn through in the manner
described above. About ten cables, car
rying nine hundred pairs OF wires, will
run into the main Office at Main and
Twelfth streets. These cables are car
rled 10 the rear room, on the second
foor-the one at present used as an
operating room-where the lead sheath
ing is cut of and the wires carried into
iron uprights, where each pair OF wires
ends in a binding post. To this the
wires coming from the switch-ooaros
are carried. The new switch-Doards
will be ten in number, for one hundred
wires each, and will be set up in the
seconi-story front room, Immediately
over the Peoples Bank. The cables
leaving the central office and into
the conduits, are OF varying
lengths. Some, carrying groups OF
wires for blocks close-by, are quite
short, while others, carrying wires for
South Side, North Wheeling, East
Wheeling, or over-the-river places, are
long, running clear to the limits OF the
underground system. There they leave
the ducts and run up poles to distrib-
uting board, in box. In this box the
cable Is separated into it's component
parts, and the wires are thence carried
on poles in the usual manner. Cables
ending within the underground district
are carried in ducts to the centre OF
blocks, where they come to the surface
and run up big distributing pole TO a
box, where the wires are separated and
distributed to phones in the block over
the roofs Of houses or in other conven-
lent ways. There are score or two OF
interesting details about the new sys-
TEN, which cannot here be set forth,
but the whole will go TO make up sys-
tenn far superior to any Whealing has
yet had, and second to none in the
country, and Manager Wolff, as well as
the public, is to be congratulated.
When the old poles and wires come
down, the streets will present a very
different appearance from what
they do now, aud so marked
will be the change, that it is to be
hoped the spectacle will move the
Council to order all other wires under
ground, leading the way with the fire
alarm and light wires.
The details Of the manufacture OF the
immense cable would also furnish In
teresting reading, but the limits OF this
article will not admit Of going into tat
this time,