Bare wire phone lines

[Richard_FM]

I still see the brackets around with twin insulators on older buildings which haven't been taken down.

Stockport still has many posts with a ring of insulators.

[davidw]

Open wires I remember them well. In anything above a moderate wind, if not tensioned correctly, adjacent wires could twist together, known in the trade as "wrap ups". The official cure was to climb and retension, the quick clear was just shake the pole or the stay wire! In winter to avoid getting out of the van just nudge the pole with the front bumper (Morris minor)
In my very rural patch the local farmers would do it themselves! Happy days!

[Tim]

David W.
That reminds me…………
About thirty years ago I had a fault at a customer in Bristol. When I arrived, I could see they were fed by open wires, one of which had broken and( fortunately, as the pole was across the road from the house) wrapped itself round the other.
A quick clear I thought, so climbed the pole to investigate. The wire had indeed broken, at the pole end, so I wondered if I could give the customer temporary service by joining the wire with a large crimp connector. This proved impossible as the wire was too hard. I pulled the broken wire tight, and in order to see if I could re-fit it into the existing crimp, bent it at 90 degrees. The wire promptly snapped at the bend. Foolishly I repeated this a few more times, each with the same consequence. So there I am, up a pole holding onto a wire, which is now too short to reach the pole, across a busy road and I can’t let go without it falling into the traffic.
I was just trying to work out how to get out my linesman’s phone, and connect it to the customer pair in order to make a call to control and summon help when another engineer arrived to do an install at the next but one property.
A quick shout to explain my situation, and he was able to stop the traffic for me to drop the wire.
A new style dropwire was erected and another story for the memoirs created!

[pmmunro]

That's a very memorable story Tim, thanks for telling it.

Anyone who has been in a similar siuation can readily empathise.

I believe that open pair wires gained prominence in the early days of telegraph systems because, apart from cost, insulating materials simply weren't good enough for underground cables.

PMM

[Pellseinydd]

Originally Posted by pmmunro

That's a very memorable story Tim, thanks for telling it.

Anyone who has been in a similar siuation can readily empathise.

I believe that open pair wires gained prominence in the early days of telegraph systems because, apart from cost, insulating materials simply weren't good enough for underground cables.

PMM

This is one of the early telgraph routes installed in the early 1870's by the Royal Engineers on behalf of the General Post Office when the private telegraph companies were nationalised by the 1869 Telegraph Act and the network extended to remote locations.

These poles are undated which indicates great vintage and note the original single spindle on the top for the original single wire earth return telegraph circuit.

The arms were added at a later date to provide the five junctions to the exchange at Diabaig when it opened in 1937. A drivable road did not reach Diabaig until the 1970's! It was only reachable on foot or by sea until then.

The junctions were still in use until later the day I took the photos in March 1994 on the day of change-over of Diabaig to digital working.

The route was some ten miles long starting off at sea level by the lochside at Torridon and climbing to over 1600 ft which such steepness the the top of one pole was lower the the bottom of the next one up the mountain!

Imagine maintaining that route!

Any one know of any bare copper junctions still in use after that date?

I must digitise the video I made of the entire route.