Bare wire phone lines

[Electronpusher0]

Some years ago I maintained the pa system in the local church, This was originally a valve system and had been updated prior to my taking over.
However the original 100V speaker distribution was still in place and used.

This comprised thin open wires to reduce the visibility as it crossed the church at a high level.

Not telecoms but an unusual application of open wires.

Peter

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by Electronpusher0

Some years ago I maintained the pa system in the local church, This was originally a valve system and had been updated prior to my taking over.
However the original 100V speaker distribution was still in place and used.

Wasn't that how receiver-station-to-house wired Rediffusion radio broadcasts were implemented in the 1930s, decades later to be replaced by piped telly at HF in multicore twisted-pair? I have a feeling that original Rediffusion system would be 600 Ohm Zo wire spacing too.

[Valvepower]

Many thanks for the post.

Wow, many years later I now know what they were for…

I suppose Southend being on the cost/Thames estuary has its fair share of Sea Gulls. Manners Way is just the other side of the A127 to Priory Park, which was opposite the Ekco Radio Works, thinking about it Manners way ran alongside Ekco sports ground – maybe, they had avian events or suchlike in the park or even the Ekco sports ground?

Thanks again.

Terry

The cork items fixed to the overhead wires were known as 'Guards, Game' and came in three types(see attached description from the GPO's ' Vocabulary of Engineering Stores' in the late 1950's) for different sized overheat wires. Usually fitted either in areas where there were pigeons kept by locals or in areas where an estate had lots of game birds.

I still carry a few in my GPO van in case I need to fit them!

[DrStrangelove]

Originally Posted by Pellseinydd

Certainly weren't 'loading coils' - loading coils were large 'box' shaped units mounted on the pole into which the overhead cables from either direction were fed.

The cork items fixed to the overhead wires were known as 'Guards, Game' and came in three types(see attached description from the GPO's ' Vocabulary of Engineering Stores' in the late 1950's) for different sized overheat wires. Usually fitted either in areas where there were pigeons kept by locals or in areas where an estate had lots of game birds.

I still carry a few in my GPO van in case I need to fit them!

Ah, the joys of dredging up stuff from 60 years ago!

Indeed the pictures of "loading coils" are enormous metal clad boxes.

I wonder who told me they were "loading coils". And why they'd be needed so close to the exchange.

Another theory of the same vintage was they were intended to reduce radio interference in some miraculous way.

I can't say there were many game birds in this locality though I suppose there may have been some pigeon lofts back then.

It was quite odd because those things on the wires only appeared in a very specific spot, I don't recall seeing them anywhere else in the locality.

[PaulR]

I asked my dad what those things on the phone wires were and he said they were to stop birds flying into them. I didn't really believe him, but it seems he was right

[Graham G3ZVT]

I always associated those thinks with pigeon lofts, seems I was right. I didn't know they were corks though.
Let's face it, finding a load of corks in the back of any works van could have an entirly different connotation

[Gi4CZW Cliff]

brings back memories; swans fly at the height of the wires, if the bird's head and neck get past first wire then flight stops, bird can fall and restart or if wires cross over, sub's phone tinkles/no-dial-tone, and its not nice mid span removing bird. Cliff.

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
This thread reminded me of this telegraph pole near our son's house in Warrington. It's a surprise that the old insulators weren't taken away when the wiring was updated.
Cheers, Pete.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Tractorfan

Hi,
This thread reminded me of this telegraph pole near our son's house in Warrington. It's a surprise that the old insulators weren't taken away when the wiring was updated.
Cheers, Pete.

Maybe they'll remove them when they update the wiring again for FTTP, on the other hand look at my photo in post #36

[vic0239]

I’ve got one of those insulators on my desk, makes a great paperweight.

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

I recently saw a 1960s semi with dual porcelain insulators as if it had bare wire phone service at one point. Looked very incongruous

Finally took a picture this morning…

[Roger Ramjet]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

Finally took a picture this morning…

Yep you can still see the L shaped main bracket just behind the PVC facia board. My lad had same on his old Edwardian house ... I tried to remove it but the coach bolts securing were seized solid into the brickwork.

Rog

[G6Tanuki]

Similar insulators - which many would associate with bare-wire lines - also had a variant, usually black/grey made from some sort of asphalt/fibre composition, with a flat screw-on top and were used with two-wire insulated: the screw-on top provided a termination point between the overhead wire and a subsequent non-tensile drop-wire.

The insulators shown have the same flat-top profile I remember.

Something similar was used at my parents' house - built in the mid-50s, we had two phone lines, one for the house and one for my father's study [yes, the working-from-home/home-office idea is not new!]

[DrStrangelove]

On my walk this morning I spotted a house with two black composition insulators on a corner bracket on one corner, and another corner bracket with a pair of white one groove (or maybe two groove, I forget) insulators on the other corner.

A house further up the road has a pair of black composition insulators on a corner bracket.

[russell_w_b]

I spotted this sideknob arrangement, still extant, in Perth, Scotland, 2014. Don't know if it was/is an active cct, though. Didn't have a multimeter, watch-receiver or clips or test-set on me at the time.