The Saint Paul globe., 1905-01-15
TROUBLE ON THE WIRES
AND HOW Ut is MET

numbers of telephone users in limited
area 1t is practicable to do this; but in
IocantleS where the number of people to
De provided with service is comparatively
small the expense of burying the lines is
prohlb1tive. While several hundred lines
may be placed in a conduit without ma
terfally increasing the cost of the service
the placing of twenty, forty or fifty lines
underground would necessitate raising the
prices to figures which few people would
care to pay.
Telephone engineers find that it costs
about dollar a foot to build a conduit
system of moderate size, while the best
KIND OF pole line can be constructed for
about 20 cents for each foot of ground
covered. When the additional cost of
service due to conduit system is divided
among many patrons it is not felt APP
portioned among few customers it would
be a heavy burden.
The use of the telephone in this country
Is increasing at marvelously rapid rate.
In 1900 there were less than 1000, 600 tele-
phone subscribers in the United States;
now there are 100000 or more, there
being about 100000 patrons of the Bell
companies. To provide for this growth
requires the expenditure of many millions
OF dollars each year. In the past twelve
months the Bell companies have spent
over $35, 1000 in extending their service,
a large share of this enormous total going
to carry the telephone lines to small towns
and through rural districts where the
service is necessarily furnished at a much
lower rate than in the big cities. If the
wires IN all the small places were buried,
even were it possible to raise the money
required for such a stupendous under
taking, 1T would plainly be necessary to
greatly increase rates in order to get even
a low return upon the investment And
MT
happen, for destructive storms are of rare
occurrence.
Pole Lines Necessary
Leaving out the question of the cost
there is another good reason why all the
telephone lines cannot be hidden out of
sight-under the surface of the earth Over
the wires on suitably constructed pole
lines the sound of the voice has been sue
cesSfully transmitted for a distance of
nearly 1000 miles, but about forty miles
is the limit of transmission through cables
because, notwithstanding the perfection to
which the art of cable making has been
brought, the minute telephone wave flow
ing through the cable with its hundreds of
wires meets host of obstacles which it
does not encounter on aerial lines Be
cause of this fact the lines which join
town to town and city to city must still
be carried on poles regardless of the ques-
tion of expense, and the companies during
the season of storms which make trouble
on the wires must be prepared to carry
on the battle with the elements in the
old way.
Few people know just what is done
when telephone company buries its lines
To begin with, the wires themselves must
be combined in cables, the making of
which involves many Intricate and expen-
sive processes. The finished cable looks
like lead pipe, and, indeed that is ex-
actly what it is. But while most pipes
are made for the conveyance of liquids
this one must be so tight and thoroughly
sealed that not trace of moisture can
work its way into it. The pipe is filled
with hundreds of wires, each wrapped in
covering of paper, the dry air in the
folds of the wrappings and in the sub
stance of the paper itself affording the
most perfect insulation. During It's man
ufacture while it is being Transported
from place to place and drawn into the
conduits under the streets, and after
wards, whenever it is necessary to touch
it for purposes of making connections or
repairs, the cable must be handled as
carefully as if its sheath were made of
glass, for a hole the size of a pin in the
lead covering means the ruin of a whole
section.
Naturally, this costly telephone cable Is
not tucked away beneath the surface of
duit system must be constructed for it's
reception, the conduits consisting of ducts
generally made of vitrified tile, each large
enough to contain one cable. These ducts
are combined in groups to form the con-
duit; they are laid in cement, and the
work of placing them in position is done
with the greatest care, for they must run
in practically straight lines from manhole
to manhole. and must be free from de-
pressions where water could collect. More
than that, the conduit must not interfere
with the various pipes under the Streets
and it is often necessary in avoiding such
obstacles to add materially to the expense
of construction. The modern telephone
conduit and the cable it contains represent
the development of years in telephone
construction. From the time one is first
planned until it is completed it calls for
the constant expenditure of large sums of
money, and the people whose telephone
lines travel through it naturally must be
prepared to pay rates in proportion to the
cost of providing the elaborate plant of
which it is a part.
Rest
Miss Silhouette-Wonde why the artist
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