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Sunday, March 25, 2007

"Compound Wire," 1865-1866

From: "Chris Graves" caliron@att.net

Take a look at this site, it explains in great detail why we continue to find iron wire along the CPRR grade:

A technical history of the 19th-century electromagnetic telegraph ...

—gjg

3 comments:

  1. From: "Chris Graves" caliron@att.net
    Subject: Iron wire

    Does anyone know the gauge of iron wire first used when putting in the telegraph line?

    I continue to find iron wire, the most common is 4 gauge, measuring 0.204 in diameter using a caliper. This wire, no matter where it is found, displays a Western Union splice. ...

    —Chris

    ReplyDelete
  2. From: "Larry Mullaly" lmullaly@jeffnet.org
    Subject: Re: Telegraph wire

    The US Railroad Commissioners’ Reports for the Southern Pacific (Gilroy to Tres Pinos, Goshen to Yuma), consistently show “Number 9 galvanized wire.”

    However, an earlier section of the road (San Jose to Gilroy) built by the San Francisco & San Jose directors, was reported in more detail as “Number 11 wire, American compound, steel core with copper covering 113 pounds to the mile.”

    Perhaps this is mentioned in the CP Commissioners’ reports.

    —Larry

    ReplyDelete