The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1924-01-10
Somerset County Agricultural News

wires to the trees as best we could.
This left them so low that the trucks
kept hitting them and crossing them
Many times we had to leave off work
In other places and drive many miles
to repair these lines.
"In North Arson we repaired our
line to Patterson Bridge using TO
new cross-arms, and ightened sew
eral poles We put in several new
poles on the New Portland. Embden
and Concord lines and reset and
Strengthened many others. We also
put all new cords and plugs in the
switchboard.
I'm East New Portland, due to the
building of a new bridge, we had TO
remove our three lines from the old
covered bridge and string them across
the river. Then when they set up
their derrick. they dragged heavy
cable over our wires and broke them
all down and we had to do the work
all over again.
"At West New Portland we had to
put up a new line for about sixty
rods due to bridge work there.
AT Norridgewock we had to build
part of our line over on account of
a forest fire and used IL new poles
and other necessary, material. We
put bells and switches in the central
office on all grounded lines so that
we would be sure of getting all emer
gency calls. Several new cords and
plugs were added to the switchboard
and new points put on the ringing
machine.
AT the Skowhegan central Office
we installed a new main distributing
frame and protector rack and salvaged
the old wooden frame and got forty
five protectors which we have sold for
As cents each. We also had our
Skowhegan offices and the rent adj
joining painted, papered and ceilings
whitened and floors in two rooms oil
ed. This work was bid on by three
different men and was done at a cost
of $3.50 We also completed work on
Court street which was begun by Mr..
Danforth a year ago This is one of
our main lines and each pole has
three ten pins cross-arms. All of
the wires had to be pulled up and tied
in.
1.-THE new switchboard which was
installed at Scion last year has work
ed very satisfactorily and caused very
little trouble.
At Starks we put some new cords
and plugs in the day-board and a new
generator in the night-board.
Besides the above repairs we have
repaired all of our switchboards and
endeavored to keep them in the best
possible condition. We have so many
different makes of switchboards and
the most of them are so old, that we
have great difficulty in getting repairs
for them.
1--WE have also been over practically
all of our lines and set new poles,
or reset others, put on
brackets and insulators and made 9TH
err necessary repairs. In going over
a line for the first time we made
practice Of calling at every telephone
and repairing them where necessary
We found the greatest source of
trouble to be due to dead batteries
and we have used thirteen barrels of
them during the year. 1t Is a very
common occurrence to have our sub
scrlbers claim that there Is trouble on
their line when it is in their tele-
phone. | believe that | am safe in
saying that $50 of the troubles are
found in the telephones
Perhaps better way to get an idea
idea OF what we have done is by the
amount of material we have used.
We have used 171a miles of iron wire;
1925 batteries, $50 brackets, 900 in
sulators, 1000 feet of Twisted Pair
outside wire, 1900 feet twisted pair
inside wire, $50 cross-arms, 10 poles
and many other miscellaneous items.
1--WE have had several poles and
wires broken by being hit by auto
or teams and others by build
ings being moved from one place to
another.
"The Company owns over 800 miles
of pole line and 1000 miles of wire,
and one lineman and myself have
covered this and have done the best
we could to keep the whole system
in working order. We have used
over 500 gallons of gasoline and driv-
en- our truck between 10000 and 49,
900 miles.
"Since my election to Office April
LIST we have added IS telephones to
our lines. Many of these required
additional pole lines up to | mile in
length. Over half of these were new
subscribers and the balance were old
subscribers who came back on the
lines. This does not mean that the
net gain in telephones is 95 because
II subscribers have moved away, died
or been cut off on account of not pay
ing their bills. This makes net
gain of Is which agrees with our
clerks report. We have had few
cases where people have connected
telephone to our lines without first
getting my consent This is liable
to cause trouble as we have some
lines that are heavily loaded and
should not have additional telephones
added
During the first of May | had our
operators make a count of all calls
for three days with the following re-
suits; Average daily calls per day
Excluding holidays), Skowhegan,