Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-08-02
WAR ON THE WORLDS WIRES.
Dealing With the Enemies Of Tele-
aram and Cable q Tremendous One.

Dealing With the Enemies OF Iele-
aram and Cable a Tremendous One.
The great cable companies employ
whole fleets of ships-huge ocean go
ing craft Of a distinct type manned by
seamen, electricians, to whom the
ocean floor is as familiar as the prai-
rie to land surveyor. With thou
sands Of messages a day flashing back
and forth between Wall street, London
and Paris and back again time is in
deed money, and a cable break may
be a thousand miles from land.
For just such an emergency Is the
companys Nina
kept-one Of the racing cable ambu-
lances Of the deep sea. The magic
coated wire is paid out from power
full machine on the main deck and
there are whole batteries Of grapnels
for fishing up broken ends.
How the people on shore, maybe
1000 miles from the fault" can tell
the Minia's captain just where he Will
find the break at certain spot far
deep in the painless ocean Is one OF
electricity's mhrvels. And not less
wonderful is the conversation the MI
MIA will keep up with both continents
assuring them at length the injury is
now made good and they can "go
ahead"
The enemies Of the cable are not
many. One Of the chief causes OF
faults" are the anchors which care
less fishing vessels let drag on the
ocear's bed. The teredos or marine
animal borers too, are responsible Tor
many costly expeditions of the cable
ships. for they eat industriously into
the outer covering and finally lay bare
the wire.
The enemies Of the land lines, how
ever, are far more numerous and for
midable. No better example exists
than the marvellous wire that runs
for 1000 miles through eastern and
western nations from London to Tehe-
ran, the capital Of Persia This Is the
famous European system. The
difficulties of maintaining this vast
system are obvious. At certain times
of the year repair armies set forth and
are obliged to hew their way through
dense forests, occasionally lighting
sharp skirmishes with bands Of nomad
robbers who may have stolen great
lengths of the wire and cut down the
poles for firewood.
In stormy weather falling trees are
frequent source Of total Interrupt
ton; and even the great flights OF
wild geese will often cause contacts.
The most disturbing cause Of inter-
ruption on the Persian wire. however
is what is locally called "reifis." a Sc
we're storm Of hoar frost. This COL
lects on the wires and sometimes
forms a sheet Of ice from one wire to
another. Then when oscillation Is set
up by a high wind, the wires are torn
down together
In northern Maine 1t is said the
black bears sometimes climb the posts
and break off the insulators, and In
Norway and California woodpeckers
are a serious source Of annoyance to
the companies. In the former coun-
try a large variety Of bird deceived by
the buzzing sound emitted from the
wire, concludes there Is a nest of In
sects inside the pole. Accordingly ne
sets to work and picks large holes In
the supports, even piercing them
through and through, only to discover
that all his work has been in vain.
In California the green woodpeck-
ers use the red cedar poles as store
houses, boring holes at the top and
filling them with acorns against the
day Of starvation. In the Malay Pc
ninsula, India and Africa, the compa-
nies are at their wits end to know
how to stop the depredations Of ele-
phants who take malicious delight in
curling their trunks about the poles
and dragging them clean out OF the
earth, tearing down miles Of wire in
the process
Only the other day a case was re-
ported by the telegraphists Of the
Uganda railroad in British East Afri-
ca, where three magnificent girares
were found death underneath tele-
graph wires, which had evidently
strangled them. 1t is thought they
must have fed in frenzy from lion,
or some other enemy.
The Japanese wires suffer from a
certain spider which hangs its i'm
mense web from pole to pole, thereby
causing a serious disturbance, espe-
cially in the morning. when the webs
are heavy with dew.
Savage tribes are perhaps the most
serious hindrances of all. On the Nc
Donald line in Western Australia the
blacks were ingeniously made ac-
ouainted with the power Of the tele-
graph by giving them powerful cleo
trio shocks direct from the wires.
Needless to say, they would never af-
terward touch them, much as they
need the metal.
Mention of Australia reminds me OF
the infinite risk and hardship attend
ing repair work in the burning inte-
rior Of that island continent. Here
every inch of wire, most of the poles
and all supplies have to be taken
across a waterless desert so burning
hot that thermometers will burst and
pork melt in the brine. Moreover the
natives harass the repair gang con-
tinually, stealing supplies, threaten
ing their finished work and rigging up
the insulators as spear heads to use
when their own boomerangs are not
up to the occasion.
The Northern Telegraph company
of Denmark. had q curious experience
of this kind when laying their lines
inland in China. There are, Of course.
no burial grounds in the Celestial en-
pire, each family making a sepulcher
for itself on the premises. And the
dead ancestors are so revered that even
a shadow cast upon a grave Is look
ed upon as an unnecessary insult
which cannot be tolerated.
Now when the Danes began to put