The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-09

vent MIN from descending suddenly II the
But ne trouble shooter's' slackest season
Is during pleasant weather. 1t Is when
the elements are most at war and house
holders are budding most closely to thar
chimney corners that he Is most In de-
mand, Cyclones, carry down the poles,
freshets sweep them away, and sleet and
clinging snow carry down the wires. One
of the Bell Telephone companies has as a
souvenir plaster cast made from tele-
phone wire found 80 heavily incased In
sleet that it weighed 80 pounds per linear
foot. An end OF telephone wire projecting
from the plaster looks scarcely larger In
proportion than a stem attached to an
What extraordinary feats the trouble
shooter may be called upon to accomplish
was shown during the floods in Kansas
and Kansas Telephone Company was the
only public service corporation that contin-
ued business while the electric lights
ceased to illuminate the streets and build
took the place Of street cars. As fast as
wires went down trouble shooters in
boats strung new ones. Men had hardly
ceased stringing wires along bridge, one
span Of which had disappeared, when the
whole thing went down with crash. car
shooters" were undaunted. They erected
spars, one on each side Of the river, and
wires we're stretched between them.
a man whose office, on the first aoor Of
his estat lishment, was disapI~"''nu "nder
Il want my telephone moved one story
higher. or IN have to dive for it
Trouble shooters" soon arrived in boats
and relieved him of his moist dilemma.
Through Mosquito Pass, far up the Rocky
line. Sometimes it is buried under snow
drifts twenty feet deep, and again In the sum-
mer the hardy mountain flowers bloom
about it; but in either season the messages
pass smoothly through the lead encased
wires, few years ago pole Zine stretched
or boulders that came crashing down the
mountaiuside often broke the line and
interrupted communication. 40 that the
pass was vertically place Of trouble. +"
The skill and daring Of the trained noun
taineer were necessary to make trip up
the pass, particularly when winter storms
were roaring about the mountains, and
trouble shooters" still tell stories of pre-
carious experiences and narrow escapes
up old MOSQUITO.
genuity and initiative that overcome OBJ
staces. A trouble man working In New
England in a gap where poles were down
promptly solved the difficulty and bridged
the gap by running his wires along fence
wires In the blizzard In New York city
fused tangle Of broken and twisted wires,
trouble shooters ran their lines over roofs
and even through a church belfry..
II has been roughly estimated that the
telephone company employs one trouble
shooter" to every 800 Instruments where
underground wires are used. and one man
to every 100 telephones where the wires
are overhead. The long distance lines are
constantly under the eye OF the trouble
man. That communication between cities
- .tv,tN ~kaI khn Ii
vided into sections. for each Of which
trouble shooter Is appointed, being re-
sponsible for his territory. One of these
men may have under his supervision a
stretch Of line 100 miles In length. 40 that
he must keep moving"
the trouble shooter" gets tumbles and has
some narrow escapes. For safeguarding
him at his work the Bell companies have
an elaborate system Of inspection Of every
line, pole by pole. to see that the CROSS
safe condition But no safeguards can
surely guard against falls. The, Z il case
on record in a Western town where q man
fell from the top OF fifty foot pole, struck
the roof Of harm, rolled of to the ground
He was soon back at work.
The work is often made dangerous from
the fact that a man has to work among
the tangle Of wires. many OF them charged
with q sufficient amount OF electricity to
cause death. The telephone wires are not
dangerous, but electric lighting wires, for
instance, are more hiH!.!y charged with
electricity than a third rail or an overhead
trolley wire One linenan near Boston was
recently swinging in his "bosun's chair"
making repairs on line, when a bolt on
the under aide of his wooden seat touched
a lighting wire, The current parnlyzed his
limbs, but he cried out, and his assistants
pulled the chair away from the wire. An
other trouble man, standing on ladder
outside house, touched a lighting wire.
The shock was 80 great that he could not
ory out. but his body shook so that the
ladder ratified, attracting the attention of
the men below who raised 1t OF the ground
and broke the current.
In great emergencies1 las when poles are
snapped by storm or flood over n wide Sec
ton and wires lie in hopeless tangle, the
Bell companies rush trouble shooters" to
the scene from all neighboring sections.
Thus in the storm Of last November men
were hurried to st. Paul from Omaha, Mil
waukee, Des Moines and Dubuque. and
wires we're got working again before the
poles were up. Sections in Maine were laid
low by the same storm, and Massachu
sets trouble men went to the scene. In
oases Of this sort the great gangs Of trouble
men are fed and housed on ths same prin-
nples as an army In tho fold.