The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-24

little less than six feet, to correspond
with the average live man. 1t is made
of heavy, strong wood. One end is
shod with a piece of pointed iron so
that it viii penetrate the earth a. little
way; the other end is followed out for
the reception of the pole and furnished
with q sharp steel spike.
The name dead man was first used
after the killink of live man who filed
the place now filed by it. Erectors
use the deadnan as a prop while rails
ing the pole. Having fitted the pole
to the butting board the small end is
lifted by main strength till it is about
six feet in the air. Then the deadman
| is put in place underneath and the pole
allowed to rest on it while the live men
get fresh hold and lift it a little high
er. When this has been accomplished
the deadman is showed a few feet
nearer the big or hole end of the
pole and these operations are repeated
till the pole is up. After the erectors
the alignment man" comes along with
his plumb bob to see that the pole is
exactly vertical, and he and the tam
pers complete the setting of the pole.
Working In the Air.
The wire stringers follow about two
miles behind. They work much more
rapidly now than formerly. In the old
days they were content to put up one
wire at a time; now they string ten
together.
The first wire stringing operation is
performed by man who drives a horse
hauling the running rope To it is
attached the running board" formerly
made of wood, but now of steel, TRAN
gular in shape and fitted with snap
hooks somewhat like those on har-
nesses, to which the wires, as unwound
from the reels, are attached. The rope
is carried oyer the cross pieces of the
poles and a halt is made for each pole
as soon as the wires have reached it.
While the horse has been hauling
them a lineman has been shining up
the pole. He attaches each wire to it's
proper insulator with fingers so expert
that the work. is done at an incredible
rate. Then he climbs down, makes
for the next pole, 100 feet away, and
repeats the operation. This goes on at
the rate of forty poles to the mile and
two and one-half miles day Goo poles
is a standard days work., mile after
mile and day after day, till the line is
completed. At every three-quarters of
a mile the wires are cut, temporarily
''deadended" to the insulators and new
lengths of wire taken up. While the
latter are being got in place the wires
already strung are carefully stretched
by another gang of men working with
"block and fall" This is done in order
that each wire may be exactly the
same length as all of the others and
under the same strain. Wires exactly
equal vibrate in unison when the wind
blows and never strike each other
wires of varying tension vibrate var
iously, often strike together in windy
times and so cause no end of confusion
among telephone subscribers.
After the stretching comes 'transpo-
Sition" of the wires. Transportation
means cutting two wires carried by the
same cross-bar and crossing them at
definite intervals so that the current
travels first on one side and then on
the other side of the line of poles. This
is often overlooked in Geographic con-
struction, but never in long distance
telephone work. A complete explana-
ton of its why's and wherefores would
need to be a treatise on induction and
other intricate electrical phenomena,
but a hint or two may be given. In
modern telephony metallics, and not
ground circuits, are used; that makes
two wires necessary for each circuit,
so that ten wires mean only five cir
cults. Experience has shown that the
mystic current plays all sorts of pranks
with the transmission of sounds when
lot of wires running straight along are
strung on the same poles. The pranks
are mostly eliminated by transposing
the wires, but, curiously enough. it
won't do to transpose two sets of wires
which run over the same line of poles
at identical points, for this leads to
complete parallelism," a phenomenon
which all telephone men dread, but
which few outside the business have
ever heard of. Accordingly, trans