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Are there any "open wire" telephone lines still in use?


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Old 11-06-2011, 18:00
Mike_1101
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Following on from a discussion on another thread, I was wondering if there are any still being used. Two uninsulated wires carried on insulators.

They look like this
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/ind...al-insulators/
although that page appears to show railway installations.

I haven't seen any for years but maybe some survive in remote areas.
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Old 19-06-2011, 11:15
beerhunter2
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I haven't seen them for donkeys years. We live in a remote area and have multi-pair cables running on our local poles.
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Old 19-06-2011, 12:11
Jepson
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Those photographs took me back to my childhood when we would be travelling by car and gaze out of the window at mile after mile of telegraph poles carrying, sometimes, dozens upon dozens of cables.

In some places the wires would be festooned with little cylinders that were apparently placed there to prevent birds flying into them.

It's funny how these things all but disappear without you ever noticing.
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Old 19-06-2011, 12:59
Mike_1101
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You can see them on this film made at various locations along the A1 in 1939 - some on both sides of the road
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm_Q7X_-2Ck

It seems the GPO had the power to install them wherever they wanted
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate...6-03-14a.359.9

and they must have been used in Germany for a time as you can briefly see some on this VW publicity film from the same year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zu1VGLWOQQ
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Old 13-07-2011, 18:42
795MCMConductor
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I see most of the posts have been from Europe, so let me add my contribution from across the Atlantic: formerly my work was telecom engineering. Sadly, my job involved removing existing open wire in Texas, rather than designing it, but from the time of my very, very early youth, I was intrigued by it. Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the U. S. Bell System and other Independents maintained huge amounts of aerial wire plant. The climate in the northern part of the U. S. condemned that technical medium and buried/underground copper and fiber systems took its place. However, in the U. S. Southwest, there are operating sections of 16-channel open wire line (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada).
You might be interested in seeing some of it as it "was" and how it appears "today" by visiting the-electric-orphanage.com Song of the Open Wire website. I hope you enjoy it.
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Old 26-07-2011, 13:03
Wired9
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Swear I've seen something like this out in the country - But not as big of poles as them in the pictures. Just singular lines providing a connection to a house.
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Old 26-07-2011, 13:42
beerhunter2
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Swear I've seen something like this out in the country - But not as big of poles as them in the pictures. Just singular lines providing a connection to a house.
If is is a single cable then it will be two insulated pairs, not open wire.
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