Bridgeton pioneer. (Bridgeton, N.J.) 1884-1919, 1902-09-25
MILES OF PIPE
In THE AIR.

For weeks the people of Bridgeton
have been eraning their necks and
looking toward heaven. The occasion
has been an effort to watch the daring
and intrepid linemen of the Delaware
and Atlantic Telephone Company, a
part of the great Bell organization.
The Delaware and Atlantic Com
pany is entirely revolutionizing the
business in Bridgeton as elsewhere.
The thousands and thousands of dol
lars worth Of materials that have
heretofore been used all 90 to the
junk heap, and in their place go up
many, many thousands of dollars
worth of new structural materials.
With the installation of a new CEN
tral plant in the Pioneer building, is
added all new lines constructed ac-
cording to the latest and most modern
system devised for telephoning.
High up in the air upon the new
poles that have been erected along
the streets, is being suspended miles
OF what appears to be ordinary lead
pipe. This is really a cable, and
within the loaded exterior of the
larger cables are no less than two
hundred and forty separate and dis
tinct telephone wires. Each of these
wires are for the purpose of connect
ing telephone instrument to the
great, new switchboards of the ex-
change in the Pioneer building.
There are four of these cables with a
capacity of 240 wires each, and one
cable, smaller in size, that contains
12O separate wires.
The cables are suspended to a steel
cable stretched from pole to pole, and
the lead cable is hooked upon the steel
wire with Shocks and bits of tarred
rope.
1t is astonishing to see the daring
wiremen at this work. The steel
strand is supposed to have capacity
for carrying considerable weight and
the linemen, by the aid of a trolley
swing, glide over the wire from pole
to pole at dizzy height.
These lead cables come upon great
wooden reels with capacity of about
one Thousand feet. The lead pipe
weighs about four pounds to the foot.
There are some twenty five thou
sand feet of this cable in the air
about town. The Company figures
that it costs for labor alone to hang
this wire about three cents a foot
Of course this does not include the
cost of the material which is tre-
mendous.
The individual wires in these lead
cables are connected with switch
boxes placed upon various poles, and
the telephones are connected direct
with the distributing boxes.
The advantages of having all these
wires in cables are very great. Once
suspended they are there for all time.
Wind and storms can have no effect
upon them, and the service cannot be
hampered with crossed or broken
wires. There is no vibration. So the
sound carries perfectly without the
slightest singing or buzzing.
When the new cables are all in posi-
tion and the service is over the new
wires, all of the countless wires
strung upon the many arms of the big
poles will be taken down, and in the
future there will be no exposed single
wires except those known as the dis
tributing lines. This means the dis
appearance forever of the net work
wires now strung above.
Just when the new service will be
installed is problematical The men
are pending the work as fast as posi-
BILE and in few weeks all of the gi.
gantic improvements will be com
pleted.