The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-30

meath theasulfaee, and only the bare
poles that upheld them were left stand
ing along the highway.
1t was easy enough to remove the
wires from the poles and to get them
through the pipes that were laid under
ground, although that may not appear
so readily done at first thought, but
how were the poles, immense ones they
were, to be gotten down without injury
to life and limb of the passersby in so
crowded a section of the city?
To be sure, it might be done in the
night, when there is but little traffic,
but even then the man who chopped
down one of these great poles weighing
many hundred pounds and as unman-
ageable as a young rhinoceros, expect
ing that it would get to the ground
without going through a plate glass
window or smashing hole in the side
of a building, would be of the fools,
foolish!
The poles, however, had to be taken
j, downain some way, for, shorn OF their
usefulness, the wires being taken from
them, they were more gauntly hideous
than ever before, and even the least
careful of the city's appearance would
object to leaving them long standing.
The employees of the company are
experts in the art of getting around
difficulties, and it is well that they
were so in this case, for it is not likely
6thatlfhere would be found one person
IVA hundred in the city, except among
the ranks of professional mechanics,
who would have been able to suggest
way to get the poles down without in.
jury to person or property in the oper-
alton.
Many of the poles were over fifty feet
in length above the ground. and the re-
suit of cutting one OF them off and let
ting it fall with nothing interposing, to
the earth, can easily be imagined es-
pecially if it should chance to come in
contact with anything breakable on
The way down.
The method that was used by the
men who removed the poles last week,
was a decidedly interesting one, and
the spectacle of the operation attracted
many onlookers, who learned something
of the skin that is required to do even
so simple a thing as this was apparent
~.
accomplished by one of those spike
footed aerial artists, who can appar-
entity climb the side of a house if any
one should ask them to do it, by means
of fine spurs which they wear buckled
to their legs like the weapons of q
nrize fighting cock This man a5cended
the pole TO be removed with the jaun-
Nv air of a, BlOndin crossing Niagara,
and attached a rope which he carried
fled To his waist, to the topmost Of the
cross beams or arms which supported
+be wires before they were removed.
The rope WAS given a turn around the
next lower of the arms, and the upper
one was unbolted and lowered TO the
srround. in a. trice. The other cross
arms were treated in the same way
an, except the lower one, and then the
really difficult steps of the process
were ready to be undertaken.
while the acrobat on the pole was
removing the cross arms, other work
man had been erecting a sort of tenn
,1oratv derrick beside the denuded
shaft Of wood. This derrick consisted
of a stout pole, perhaps one-third as
high ais sthe pole to be removed, and
nlsneds a few feet from it. The bottom
of the temporary pole set fiat on the
ground, without being sunk into It, a
spiltes In the lower end sticking into
The earth and preventing slipping. The
r,ssIeswas also guyed securely with ropes
and kept upright. by being braced IN
every direction!
At the top of the temporary pole
there was placed a block or pulley
through which rope of considerable
strength was roven. This rope was
attached by the climber to the section
Of the telegraph pole above him and
the cable was strained taut by the
worlxrnen who were assisting on the
ground. Then the man on the pole let
down a string and hauled up saw
with which he proceeded TO cut OH the
pole Just above the lower cross arm.