Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-10-25


tor this purpose. This sort of a splice
usually breaks in a short time
l have also seen them try to make a
nut hold to bolt by splitting the end
OF the bolt outside the nut, as at Cd,
Zig. I. OF course, this makes the nut
stay in its position, but the next man
who wishes TO remove the nut will ex-
| perleDce some trouble. These native
mechanics who follow in the wake o.
! The signal corps, or who are employed
oy the wire tappers OF the insurgent
army, expose their operations by the
way in which they do their work.
After part of the system has been
! tinkered with one may see the heads Of
, screws broken of, as at (E), Fig. 5
/ through the native delivering a blow
with the hammer or with a rock, in
stead OF trying to turn out the screw
with screw-driver, in the proper
manner.
The Filipino method of cutting a lit
tie wire is most laborious. The natives
make the hardest sort of work of it,
| and for this reason the heavier wires
! are well protected. l remember seeing
in one locality a dozen poles dug up
and thrown to the ground by the reb-
els, in hopes of cutting the line. But
! the wires held together, and the line
! men went there the next day and
merely stood up the poles and replaced
them as before. Those of the natives
who have cut the wires, instead OF
| using the proper instruments with
which to perform the work, look about
for a couple of round stones. They
then ascend to pound the wire in one
place until it fiattens out and becomes
so thin that it break, as at CD,
Fig. 6.
I have been i'll many places on the
islands after they have cut the wires
and discovered that some local machin-
list, farmer or bull-cart driver happened
to want a piece of good wire and could
see no easier or cheaper way than to
climb a pole and chop out the needed
amount. This, of course, is dangerous,
for the Americans are ordered to shoot
all whom they see about the wires
acting in a suspicious manner.
Although there are plenty of val
liable woods in the Philippines for pole
service, the lack of means to get at
these poles and put them in shape for
use in the construction of new lines
makes il impracticable to utilize them
There are immense forests of cedar
woods in many sections of all she
islands of the group, and some day
some one is going to enrich himself by
establishing mills for getting out this |
timber for telephone and telegraph |
service, etc. The cedar not only exists |
in vast quantities, but it can be had !
very cheaply, as the owners merely |
hold old Spanish land grants, which |
they are always willing to part with |
for very low cash price. Lands |
worth thousands of dollars are fire. |
quently purchased for few hundred |
l have seen soldiers and guards and |
operators and others of the service buy
mineral and timber lands for a few |
dollars, which some day are goin to be |
worth thousands of dollars All that is |
delaying the matter now is the lack of |
the proper lumber cutting and milling |
machinery with which to develop the |
lands. One lineman making about $40 |
q month has bought some wooded prop
critics on the island OF Panay that will |
make him wealthy as soon as the |
country is developed. One piece of |
land bought for $40 had forests of
mahogany on it. On others I have
seen rosewood.
Putting in a line in a new country
where the enemy is present and con-
stantly shooting into the men does not
make it practical to go out far for suit
able poles, and usually the best at hand
are used. Often the pole is a cocoanut
tree, like in Fig. 7, and if nails and |
bolts are short, the insulators are at
tached with the cross-piece dashed on
with hempen rope. One long line I
saw was put up in hurry for special
purposes by using little bamboo poles,
about 10 feet long and two inches in |
diameter, with a slot cut in the top for
the wire, as at Fig. 6. This was for
telephone service, and the wire was
protected, so that it could operate
while on the ground. Ten miles were
put up by two parties, operating from
either end, and in 48 hours, and re-
manned serviceable for about four
weeks, when new poles of the proper
sort and more substantial were erected.
In Fig. another form of poles is
used, while in Fig. 10 we have the plan
Of mailing the insulator direct to the
pole. Some Of the cocoanut poles are
perfectly straight, but there is
species Of harder wood found in
abundance along the roadside and in
the jungle which makes good poles, but
which is very crooked. This kind is
shown in Fig TO- The crookedness is
usually regular, and the pole can be
assembled regularly by using the pro-
jections and turns as steps. Ere
quently nails or other supplies give out
before line is finished, in which case
the native carpenters are called into
service, and these men usually have
some pretty good modes for attaching
wooden parts without any ironwork.
First the pole is mortised and the
cross-piece sunk in like 60, Fig. IL.
Then the parts are bored through and |
wood pins inserted. These pins are |
made secure by driving into the ends