THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPHONE SYSTEM 523 



premises. Besides these reasons, it can readily be seen that work is the cheapest 

 in the end that does not need extensive or frequent repairs. 



Only the old-timers can appreciate what endless trouble was caused 

 by careless linemen climbing on the roofs of residences and attaching 

 wires, without consulting owner or occupant. For a costly experience 

 soon showed that many tin or asphaltum roofs that were in apparent 

 good order, before trespassed upon, were punctured or broken by the 

 negligent dropping of a hatchet or other tool, or by heavily walking 

 over weak parts. Then shingles and boards were split by big nails 

 improperly driven to fasten insulator or bracket, bricks were chipped 



Fig. 38. 



Fig. 39. 



and paint knocked off. To the owner, the aggravating part was that 

 this damage was not likely to be discovered until the next heavy rain, 

 and then so long a time elapsed between the trespass and the injury 

 that it was difficult to say just who was to blame. 



As the number of subscriber lines increased in the early days, the 

 necessity of longer and heavier poles became apparent. Then the use 

 of higher poles resulted in the attaching of more cross-arms to the 

 main line, until finally the principal object of some companies ap- 

 peared to be to determine how many open wires a pole line could safely 

 carry. For there are records of pole lines in many cities carrying as 

 high as a hundred open wires, while in a few cities from 150 to 200 

 wires were carried. What is said to have been the largest and highest 

 telephone pole line in the world was erected on West Street in New 

 York City. The poles forming this line were of Norway pine ranging 

 from sixty to ninety feet in height and carrying from twenty-five to 

 thirty crossarms each. 



