The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-26
HIS WORK IN A BRILLIANT PIT.
In An Apartment Below the Pave.

In An Apartment Below the Pave
ment a Man Watches a Cable.
Away down below the pavement Of
Broadway, in a little apartment very
brilliantly lighted with electric lamps,
there is a man who sits day and night
to watch the great Broadway cable.
Hundreds of cars, with their passen-
gers, are, in q sense, controlled by this
man. 1t is due to him, far away from
the light and noise of Broadway, tina
the great stream OF travel may go on
uninterrupted. He is expected to de-
tect the slightest flaw in the cable and
even to anticipate a break, however
slight, and TO give warning before an
accident can occur. His lonely watch
is relieved from time to time, SO that
there may always be a very wide
awake man with his y on the cable
at every hour Of the day or night.
The Waterman keeps a vigil in a
small rectangular hole, below the sec
ond sub-cellar of the power house at
Houston street and Broadway. 1t is
almost directly beneath the pavement
on the west side of the street. The
great cable is diverted from the cable
slot near this point and run into the
cellar of the power house. 1t passes
over a system of flywheels and finally
CAlAC1 SOS aSdl1 ll4lO the 0dDlc SlOl 10
pull miles of heavy cars UP town. The
watchman's pit is situated neal where
the great steel rope leaves the cable
slot. The Importance of this is OBJ
vious. In traversing the wheels of the
power plant the cable passes over
nearly half a mile of machinery before
it makes it's exit to Broadway again.
Since the average speed of the cable is
eight miles an hour, nearly five min
I1fac &c cnanf hafpra ~ IooNrac tho
building.
In case any break is noticed the ma
chinery a at once be slowed down
and the weak section caught before it
has started on its long journey. The
watchmen become very expert in de-
tecting the slightest evidence Of weak
ening in h wire rope, merely from its
appearance as it flies past.
The cable passes through the pit on
it's way in and again as it rusheS out
of the building, so that the Waterman
sees it twice each trip. The cable
rushes along about eighteen inches
from the ground. The only light in the
pit is that which ONE from a mass Of
incandescent bulbs hanging a few
inches above it. These are furnished
with a powerful reflector, which throws
their dazzling light upon the glisten-
ing steel rope. The Waterman makes
himself as comfortable as possible, sit
ting just back of the light, with his
eyes in the shadow. He sits in a COM
Portable chair, within a few inches of
the cable. Near him, within easy reach,
is an electric button, which connects
with a signal bell in the engineers
room. If the slightest flaw is detect
ed the danger signal is given.
The Waterman on duty lifts
his eyes for a moment from the cable.
The breaking of the cable is usually
preceded by the parting of one or more
OF the steel strands of which it is COM
posed. The cable is made Of eight
strands and the parting OF one of these
is likely to prove disastrous.
When the accident occurs the broken
end of the strand will stick out a tri1e
from the rest. II the break be a. slight
one the location of the flaw is noted,
and it is mended when the cable is
stopped for the night. If it seems seri-
GUS the signal bell is sounded and the
cable is slowed down Or stopped alto
gether.
If one watches the cable as it rushes
along he will realize how difficult is
the position of the Waterman. The rope
moves so rapidly that to the unframed
eye it appears always the same shining
coil. The experts can detect a weak
point at a glance and viii notice the
slightest break in the strands when the
ordinary observer would see nothing
unusual.
Any break on the line is repaired
with dispatch. A gang of workmen
are always ready to rush out to any
point.
The cable wagons have the right of
way in the streets like fire engines. If
a break occurs at a distance from the
power house the Workmen reach it by
entering the man holes.
The repairs made in such cases are
temporary, so thai the line of blocked
cars and traffic can get under way.
The most interesting part If the work
is performed in the small hours of the
night. when the cable is stopped for a
few hours rest. Its entire length is
then run slowly through the pit be-
meath the reflector n carefully ex-
amined. In addition to s~crutinizing the
cable for the slightest trace of weak
ness, the Waterman tests all the
spices, for it is here thai breaks are
most likely to occur.
There is an extraordinary strain up
on these great steel ropes, and it is not
considered safe to let them go for a
day without an o~verhauling. The spill
ceS are each from forty to sixty feet in
length. The new cable, which is now
in use, contains but one of these
spices. Ahe other cables, which are
OccaSiOn2I used as relays, contain
two and sometimes three each. Before
testing them, the cable at this point
must be thoroughly cleaned. The
~crevices are scraped and wiped clean
of the filth which has accumulated dur
ing the day. The splice is then passed
very slowly before the s~earchlight of
the reflector and examined with he
utmost care.
A single cable is more than seven
miles long. Yet so carefully do these
watchmen watch it that they can tell
Just what section of the cable is at q
given point on the line at any particu-
lar time. 1t sometimes happens that
the cablemen on the line are the first
to detect a break.
The grip on a cable a is sensitive,
and an experienced man can usually
feel any roughness of the cable. such as
would be caused by the protruding end
of a broken strand. When such discov-
cry is made he notifies the Waterman
in the cable pit, who calculates when it
will reach him and prepares according
ly.
The instant the weak point enters the
power house the machinery is stopped
and a sang of men set to work to re-
pair the break. A single break often
means a loss of hundreds of dollars
N-oxrr VNrI- World