The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1907-05-02

sn fu hN@p the plant In perfect soF <
Ing condition. day ia and dsy out.
eosf the Bell companies ntliions ~
dollars every year This does not
count the hasoc wrought among the
wires By storms and floods the cal
antilles of the business. ~ thay may
b. called but tneinaes only The d.
urnsi round ~ things gone wrong
which are sometimes simple enough
shsn they are found but are often
verY difficult TO locate aud alsavs
even more discoueerting and annoy
ing, and much mere expensive 20 the
telephone men than TO their subecfib-
ers.
After all. IL Is surprising when
you come to think Of IL. how little in
terruption of the telephone service
there Is. The records OF Bell exchan-
ges IN the big cities show that on an
average no one subscribers service
Is interrupted. even for second, of
tener than once in four years 4 49,
goo line switchboard. such as is used
in the larger central offices, contain
1000 miles of wire and 20oe 900
soldered connections. with hundreds
Of thousands OF small parts, includ-
ing 5000 incandescent electric
lamp signals no bigger around than
an oldfashioned slate pencil. with
filaments finer than human hair
The auxiliary apparatus through
which the outside circuits are distri-
buted and brought to the switch
board contains other thousands of
miles of wire and other hundreds of
thousands of parts. For instance, the
relay" by which the current is in
troduced into each subscribers line
each line having its own special
relay-contains a mile and a half
of wire as fine as ordinary sewing
cotton--so fine that it takes four
miles of it to weigh a pound; and
besides the subscribers relays there
are several hundred others for
trunk lines, office circuits, operators
positions, and so on.
IN this maze of delicately adjust
ed mechanism occur nearly half of
all the telephone mans troubles.
Fortunately for him the central Of
flee plant is arranged with such
skilful method that every part of it
can be reached easily If anything
goes wrong, and many cases OF trou-
Bile in the exchange equipment are
remedied without the subscriber
knowing that they have occurred
But to keep the system, inside ana
out in the perfect working order
which minimizes troubles and as
sures efficient service is tremen-
dous expense, the Bell company set
ting aside a third of their gross in
come every year for maintenance
and repairs.
Considerable malicious damage IS
done by thieves who strip cables,
leaving the wires exposed to ram
and sleet, for the sake of the lead Oh
which the covering is made. SOUR
rolls are almost as bad as tWo-leSSed
thieves. gnawing the protecting met
al AWAY. and sometimes also tamper-
inc with insulation of the wires with
in The brushing of OVernanSlnS
tree limbs against the wires, paru-
cularly in wet weather, when the
trees are heavy, and being damp
are good electrical conductors is the
commonest. perhaps, OF all the cans-
as of overhead troubles, and Is so
detrimental TO good transmission
that in some localities the Bell com
NAMES resort to private rights Oh
way broad enough to allow the cut
ting away on both sides everything
that can possibly interfere with the
circuits.
Troubles in the underground sNs-
TEN are particularly annoying ne
cause the number of wires III hu-
dergronnd cables is much larger than
in overhead cables and therefore
the number of circuits aiiecleu 10
correspondingly greater IN INJURY
tn an underground cable which even
finally causes trouble may exist
month or two before IL makes l's
presence known Then, If only part
of the wires are out the damage
can be located by testing from the
exchange on those that are unlnlui-
cd. hut II an entire section or ca
BILE Is bad. tests must be- made t'"'h
mauhole 20 manholc uuii the l'"l'f
length Of line Is discovered.
Frequently cable trouble under
ground is caused hy the rafei'ssn''7
Of workmeu who are diEsinE sewers
LAYING water cor Eas pipes. 'epaiiihN
streets. or doing some Worh "i 'h"'
Kind \ while age the men ui 10 hish-
way gang working ou the approaches
ia bridge IN a suburban town near
uo~tou came ACROSS Nhat looked Ike
wooden box buried several feet h'-
Low the ~urtas. The foreman. rNl-
IDENTIFY without stopping fo mink
,wie. told them to chop into ~"
thing and throw 30 away This 'h"'
.,r,.s...Aeh go DO wsih enthusiasm
md a few minutes later telephone
sabxsyibers in the adjoininS towns
xonasred why thvY could nof ser