The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-02

From the San Francisco can
Uncle Sam has some little tricks up
his sleeve which in time of war could
be brought into service at a moments
notice. and which would prove very
annoying to an enemy. Comparatively
little is known about the Signal Corps
of the army and it's important work.
Aerial military maneuvers, photo
graphing from great heights and dis
tances. laying, equippi~g, and operat-
ing telegraph and telephone lines in
time of battle at n rate as fast as
horse can travel, are interesting mat
ters, and all of them are achieved by
this branch of the service.
The Signal Corps on peace footing
consists of ten officers and score or
more of sergeants, together with small
detachments of enlisted men detailed
for this special service at the various
pests on the frontier, where instruction
in the work of the corps is given
Brigadier General \. w. Greedy, of arc
tic fame, Is in command of the corps
and has his headquarters at Washing
ton. Too much credit cannot be given
this thoroughly efficient officer, who is
to a large degree responsible for the
perfection in all branches of the work
of instruction at present is at Fort
Logan, Colorado. Captain w. A. Glass
ford, chief signal officer of the depart
ment of the Colorado. is in charge, and
has in his detachment three sergeants
and eighteen detailed enlisted men.
In the present day, owing to the rapid
advance made in modern firearms, the
necessity has arisen for a means of in
stant communication from one part of
q battlefield to another. For the trans
mission of orders, instruction, reports,
etc, nothing is SO swift as electricity.
The aerial exploits of some of these
men outrival the widest dreams of Old
time aeronauts-for a balloon train is
now part OF the field equipment of the
modern United states army.
WORK IN THE FIELD.
Supposing that a state of actual war
fare exists. we will go with the signal
men into the field and see how the field
telegraph and telephone lines are put
up and operated. The telegraph train
consists of three wagons, of the usual
army type, built for rough, hard SER
vice. The electrical batteries are Sc
curely packed in wooden bins or cells
in one of these wagons, to prevent their
toppling over, in transit. Another COM
partment in this same wagon provides
safe storage for the telegraph inStru-
ments and necessary supplies.
The second wagon is known as the
wire wagon. 1t carries a supply of or
binary galvanized telegraph wire, suf-
ficient to erect line ten or dozen
miles in length. This wire is carried
upon reels which pay it out automatic
ally, once the line has been started.
The third wagon carries the slender
poles or lances, together with the nee
essary insulators to support the wire
and tools for setting the lances in the
ground.
The wagon train jogs along at fair
rate of speed, after leaving the post,
and no one knows, except the officer
in command, just where Tr when the
line is to be put up. The order for
double time" was given, and after the
man had trotted a short distance the
order TO halt was sounded. The officer
In command had selected his imagi-
nary line, and directed the battery wag-
on to be placed in a certain position.
wnen halted. The men ran to the wire
wagon and swarmed over it; others of
them attacked the pole or lance truck
and IN an instant stream of poles was
issuing from lnat wagon tnat could
only lie approached by an army of cir
Gus employees disrlGntling a big tent
The general direction of the line was
indicated by the officer and the men set
tc work. Two o. them, armed with
huge crowbars, trotted off in the direc-
tion the line was to take. One of them
halted at about fifty or sixty yards
from the battery wagon and thrust the
sharpened end of the steel bar into the
ground. The other passed him and
went twice as far, when he too, thrust
the sharp instrument into the yielding
soil The first nan had now run
around him, and his place, where he
had dug the first hole, was taken by
\ group of men armed with one of the
lances, an insulator and the end of the
wire, which was now spinning out of
the rear end of the wire wagon. In
less time than il takes to tell it, the
lance or pole was set the insulator was
in position, and the wire was attached
The men were already at the second
station, where pole was going up, be-
fore / had time to make a photograph.
The men with the crowbars were now
far away and going farther all the time.