The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-24
FASTENING UP"
 FOR THE WINTER Preparations Making for Seas on of Storm and Wind THE ANNUAL OVERHAULlNG Remarkable Emergency Organization and Some of Its "stunts'-Work of
 Transportation and Com
 munioatlng Systems.
THE ANNUAL 0VERHAULlNG

Boston, November 2S.-How is the time when. all over the country, the trans- portation lines and communicating sys- eems are "tautenng things up for the winter. The season of menace for them is at hand. Before another month wind and snow and sleet and ice will have put an embargo on the work of the track lay CTS and line builders, and the emergency men will be on constant duty. Each year our North American winter costs the rall- roads and the telephone and telegraph companies hundreds of thousands of dol lars, and when we have a season of the .'good old-fasnioned kind' the damage runs up into the millions. If it were not Tor remarkable organization and insenui- ty the annual loss, not alone to those who : operate public service, but to those who depend upon it hourly in business and personal life, would greatly exceed even these enormous figures.
 E So late every autumn while the last or the seasons construction work Is being hurried through before frost comes, there is a general overhauling. Busy gangs are ! set to work rebuilding the snow sheds along the railways, tightening bolts and braces on the bridges, renewing whatever shows sign of wear which might prove disastrous in stress of storm And the construction men of the telephone com panies. i'll one place finishing up new lines to give communication to some cor ner of the world hitherto inaccessible by wire or to increase the already thick clustering wires are, in another place, re- setting poles, tightening guys, renewing cable, restringing circuits or what-not, to resist so far human ingenuity can the strain of the hard months to come.
 Since the days of the pioneers there has been no more picturesque life, per haps, than that of the telephone line builders It Is curious mixture of gyp- sy wandering and the most exacting sort of practical work with such ingenious and perfect tools as few industries employ. Hardy, rough-and d-ready fellows. these .'diggers," who prepare the holes into which poles are to be set; the ''gainers," who strip the big timbers of their bark and At the cross-arms to their places; the pole setters" who swing the big taperinE sticks into upright position, the bankers" who press the earth closely about the base of the pole until it stands firm and true; and the wire stringers, who with their strange looking reel wagons pull the strands of hard drawn copper over the cross-arms where the lnemen attach them skillfuly to the in- sulators There Is a small army of them several thousand in all-constantly nov ing about the country, living here in ho- tels and boarding houses, there in tents, and wonder in trains of cars that amble obligingly across the open country, care less of roadbed, rails or locomotives even of the highways ordinary wheel-traffic seeks.
 Naturally, il Is in the great eXpanses of the west-especially of the northwest and the southwest-that the telephone construction car has come into use. For miles and miles there the communicating lines arc carried through prairie and des- ert. where there is scarcely habtation and almost never fit hostery. The horses required for the heavier construc- tion work also give motive power for the crews living quarters. There are sleep- ing cars. with double tiers of hunks on either side and railway lamps swinging above the aisles between dining cars, with a cooks gallery in one end and in the other a long table that serves for feasting, and, in the evening hours, for the gatherings of goodfeloWship: and tool cars-all low set, broad-tired vehicles, heavy. out not too hard of draught.
 To meet emergencies promptly and eff ciently the Bell system has an organiza- tion little known but remarkable in cont pleteness and mobility. It would be neither economical nor otherwise feasible to keep a large number of big emergency crews in waiting. for there is never any telling where trouble is going to strike next. But In it's regular forces-some- thing more than half of the 97.oo0 em- ployes are men--the Bell system has ready at all hours expert workers who can be hurried anywhere there is need to augment the local trouble men in time of an unusual demand. The Amer acan Telephone and Telegraph company. which operates the national long distance service, and therefore has plants all over the United States. maintains storehouses sn about fifty or the largest cities, and these serve as emergency headquarters in addition to the provisions made by