The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1905-08-16
Increasing the Lite of Telephone
Poles.


Durin the past year the Forest
Service, in cooperation with the
American Telephone and Telegraph
Company and the Postal Telegraph
Gable Company, has been making
an investigation to ind the best
methods of seasoning telephone
poles and of treating them with
preservatives.
Fifty green poles were furnished
every month to each os the five
experimental stations. Each pole
was exposed to the open air, and
was weighed every month until it
ceased to lose weight, The rate at
which weight was lost showed the
rate OF seasoning in different
months.
After one year of seasoning, pre-
servative treatment was applied to
the poles, beginning last spring.
Several different preseryatives and
three methods of applying the pre-
servstives were experimental with.
Most of the poles at two of the
stations-Wilmington and Pisgah,
N. C.-were treated by applying
the pIeservative with brush In
few cases cap or plate was fiji
ted TO the but of the pole and Gre
osote forced in by pump, but
with unsatisfactory results. Both
chestnut and juniper poles were
treated by these methods.
L test the efficacy of the treat
ment as preventative against
decay these poles, carefully labeled
and numbered for Identification,
have been set in an experimental
section of the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company, between
Savannah and Meldrim, Ga. Each
treated pole is set between green
and seasoned pole, so that the alb
solute and relative values of the
different preservatives will be
fully tested.
The third method of applying
the preservative is that from which
the the best results are expected.
This method was applied to chest
nut poles only. At Dover, N j.,
in addition to the external apph
cations, number OF seasoned
poles were treated.ln an open tank
constructed to permit of 30 foot
poles inclined at an angle OF 20
degrees. In this tank the poles are
boiled in cresOte for several hours.
They are then either shifted TO
tank of similar construction con
tanning cold creosote, in which
they sta nd for several hours, or are
left in the hot OF to cool down
gradually. This treatment covers
the pole with creosote to a distance
of from to 10 feet from the butt.
y p 10 tiiis time penetration of
Oue inch and an absorption per
pole of 35 to 40 pounds of creosote
have been obtained. Changes in
the method of operation are almost
daily increasing the depth of pene
tration and amount of absorption
This Is the first apparatus OF this
character constructed in the United
States for impregnating the butts
of telephone and telegraph poles,
and the success which is being at.
tanned with it indicates the practi-
cability of Its widespread adoption
in commercial practice
Since the life of such poles is
determined by the decay at the
ground line, only the section from
the bottom of the pole to about two
feet above the ground line needs
to be treated. Creosote is expen
sive, and if the whole pole must be
treated the added years of service
may not compensate for the outlay
1t may be cheaper to use two un-
treated rather than one treated pole.
But if an effective method of treat
ing not more than or 10 fett of
the pole can be found, there is
every reason to expect that treat
ment will prove profitable to the
users of poles as we'll as an econ