The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-14
Queer Things With Which Wire
Transmission Companies
Have to Contend.
BREAKS IN WIRES DUE
TO MANY STRANGE CAUSES
Short Circuit Brought About in
Odd Manner by all Old
Lady.

( y
1t was one Of the those extraordinary
meetings between TWO friends, one was
a wcl-Snown telephone man, the other
| The stroller And the place was the
! corner Of Tenth East and Fifth South.
! They just happened there. or course.
| the fact tha, old King Gambrinus held
| Il throne on the corner named, held
down by a mutual friend OF both known
as Jake Mori,z had nothing to do with
| the meeting But they were all there,
| and after looking over the big institu-
/ ton, had walked over TO the brow OF
! the nil overlooking the magnificent Salt
! Lake valley and were taking in the
! superb view from that point.
Birds Destroy Poles.
See that bird over there on that pole,
! said the telephone man to The Stroller.
He gives electric companies more trou-
lie than anyone else. Strange, you say.
now. there he goes. Just pecking away
| In the pole Nothing strange about that.
I YOU say Well. just keep your eye on
I observe Wei, that woodperker viii Nv
/ away shortly and another VIII take his
| place. He. too, will peck away ar the
| pole. others will supplant him, and so ii
/ VIII go until the Top OF mat pole Is JUST
! honey -copbed by those birds. Water
! collects in these holes and rots the WOOD.
I What Is the result? Any heavy wind
/ which sways the wires will cause The
/ top OF that pole 10 break off, so fragile
! has II become. due TO the constant peck
| Ing OF the birds. When the pole breaks
wires will snap and portion of the
| city or country is left without Communi-
! cation No. there is no way to remedy
| II. We have tried several methods. but
/ without avail That bird has a cjnch
/ He just peClss the top OF that pole to
+ pieces: -of course. in the city, where
] there is constant hustle. We are not both
/ cred, for the birds do nor 60 down there.
| II is in the country where he hurts us
Work of Gophers.
Now. while we are talking about some
/ Of the difficulties wire transmission com
/ panies nave 10 contend with, Jet me cite
/ YOU 10 another, and this. OF course. .ap-
plies TO the country more than In cities
| or towns. That is gophers. These bur
/ rowing animals in this section OF the
! country give us a great deal Of trouble
! especially when we put mp new line
/ OF poles. These rodents Just dig the dirt
/ way from the poles. gnaw the bottom OF
| the poles, and the result is. they topple
/ over and, or course. carry the wire
I with them. breaking connection. service
I is disrupted and you and others who de
/ sire TO use the line rail- at the telephone
fault and Is due TO causes which they
! cannot prevent These gophers just
honeycomh the bottom OF the pole, like
! the woodpecker does the top.
I'm connection with this. let me ask
YOU a question: Have you ever read
up on gophers?' No. Well, have in
| they might he best exterminated. I dis
covered that gophers are not always ami
mails in the strict sense of the word.
The name is specifically restricted in
different parts Of the United States In
| the extreme South the name gopher Is
! applied 10 land tortoises. and In Georgia
! IL is applied TO Colubroid snake But
I am off the subject
What Prairie Chicken Did.
Sometime since on a long distance line
running OUT from this city the service
went 10 pieces the circuit was broken.
We finally located the place where the
the railroad. and had 10 send line
man overland 10 repair the break. Well.
after travelling several miles. he finally
discovered the cause. There was no
break in the line. but there. laying on
two wires which had swung close to-
gether was prairie chicken. The game
bird had accidently struck the wire while
nying and killed itself II was held no
by the other wire and the result was
as I have said. n short circuit and n
cessation OF wire communication for the
you remember not long since. when
the Salt Lake electric lighting system
darkness. due 10 q ca, which had climbed
a pole between here and Odgen struck a
high tension wire. was electrocuted. and
this caused "A short circuit In The lfht-
Ing system Just as the prairie chicken
did with our transmission system
Spectacles Break a Circuit,
"On a rural line an elderly lady re
ported trouble sometime since. She said
the phone was all right at times and at
others not Other subscribers on the
line reported the same state OF affairs.
We sent the trouble man out and he
worked for days on the line. withou, sue
cess. One day he saw the old lady at
the instrument, but she did not call any
body. Asked what she was doing, she
replied I iust put my spectacles there
He had her put them up again an& 10,
the wire trouble was discovered. She
laid her glasses across the binding posts
and the iron frame of the glasses made
a short circuit, so that the phones on the
line would not work except when the
old lady, was reading
while was inexplicable was when phone
would work In the daytime and not at
night. Tho cause was finally discovered
in n small fuse crossing a mica disc. The
during the day. AT night the cooler at
mosphere caused the metal to contract
opening the circuit until the warmth OF
ends In contact again.
Stopped by Spiders.
"Out I'm California the Sunset Tele-
phone company has encountered a diff
Guilty which we have never met with
expense of thousands of dollars on the
trunk lines between Santa Monica, Ven
Ice. Playa del Rey and Los Angeles. DIFF
iculty on these lines was reported al
most simultaneously several weeks ago
and the manager at Santa Monica was
assigned to investigate, Connections In
the stations, insuators and poles were
carefully examined. and an inspection Of
insulation over oil the lines was made
without result. Finally he found that for
miles along the coast filmy spider webs
OF gossamer lightness were floating from
the wires, and connecting them so closely
that the moisture which collected on
llN "A Tfn N { I'M = EEI ~ lF,I
times stopped It entirely. II will he long
and costly task TO brush the webs from
all these lines, but II will finally be done
Besides these difficulties. there are
many others encountered. Rainy, fog
gy weather hampers US. Snow and wind
cause havoc. So you see that electrical
LII