The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-24
HOW THE SPEAKING WIRE
GROWS EVER LONGER
Adventure and Excitement in the Lives Of Telephone Line
Buiders-Raising Poles With "Deadmen"-HOw
the Gangs Work and Travel-Their Dis
cipine Stricter Than Army'S

! Besides franchises, they also secure
permission for the placing of the poles
| from the farmers and other property
owners in front of whose premises the
line is to pass. This must be very care
fully and thoroughly done, hence
lawyers are employed, mostly, and well
paid for their services The title CT
every piece of property involved must
be looked up, and when there is a
mortgage the mortgagee'S consent, as
well as the owners, must be obtained.
otherwise, in case of foreclosure and
sale, the new owner might cut down
the poles, thus Gripping the line SER
iously, and still be within the law.
Naturally. the right-ofway men OPP
crate in harmony with the surveying
| party. The surveyors are rs important
in laying out a telephone line as
in laying out railroad. AS fast as
franchises and permits are got the
poles are located. and their height de-
termined. There is variation in height
only when the country is broken; then
| poles of extra length are employed to
overcome irregularities of the ground
Telephone men term this grading"
At curves in the line the strain on
the poles is equalized by guying A
stake is driven by the surveying party
to show the exact location of every
pole, instruction as to- its length,
whether it is TO be guyed or not, etc,
being written indelibly upon the top
of the stake, which has been smoothed
off for that purpose.
Dynamite and "Deadmen."
The construction party follows the
surveying party as rapidly as may be.
1t takes a party of about eighty men
to build line of ten wires through
well-settled region. Including all the
extras, 100 men at least are needed for
construction across a stretch of new
country. They are placed under dis
cipline almost military in its severity,
the party as a whole being in charge of
a construction superintendent and each
division being controlled by foreman.
The ground mem come first after
the locators. Ground men dig holes,
of course, and are armed with crow
bars, picks, shovels, augurs and dy-
Mantle Formerly dynamite was not
used save. when rock was found near
the surface; nowadays holes are dug
only a little way down with pick and
shovel, even in the softest soil, after
which a boring is made with a two
inch augur as deep as the pole is to
be set, half a stick of dynamite is in
serted and the hole is blown out"
The use of dynamite has increased the
rapidity of telephone construction
vastly, and 1t has also tended to make
construction gangs unpopular in some
places. Thus in a certain New Jersey
town the blowing out of a hole To-
Gated near a back yard, where weeks
wash was hung out to dry, resulted
in sprinkling the spotless linen on the
lines with a liberal deposit of fine red
earth dust and called for the payment
of a crisp 81 bill to a highly excited
housewife.
The "erectors" follow the ground men
closely. Each erecting gang carries a
''butting board, pike poles,' dead
man. and plumb bob The but
ting board is placed upright in the
hole for the pole to butt" against so
that the hole may not be enlarged dur
ing the process of erection; the pixies
are for the pulling and hauling of the
poles this way and that. The curiously
named :deadman" is a tool used only
in setting telephone and telegraph
poles. In length the ''deadman'' is