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BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



skidding on wet pavements, the difficulty in riding over roads having 

 deep wheel tracks, the entire lack of weather protection for the rider, 

 and the instability of the sidecar outfits when turning corners. The 

 use of motorcycles by the Telephone Companies is now practically, 

 if not entirely, obsolete. 



The many adaptations of the Ford car have proven in over the 

 motorcycle by a large margin from practically every viewpoint. 

 There are now more than 5,000 Fords in the service of the Associated 

 Companies. This group of cars is often referred to in telephone 

 parlance as the "mosquito fleet" and it is interesting to note that the 

 building up of this fleet had its inception as late as about 1914. 



Approximately 80 per cent of these Fords are equipped with various 

 types of boxes and specially designed bodies which permit the carrying 

 of light loads of materials and tools. On account of their large 

 numbers, low operating costs and remarkable ability to negotiate 

 almost impassible roads, they go far toward coordinating the opera- 

 tion of the widely scattered units of the Telephone System. 



Fig. 6 — A Seriously Overloaded Ford Carrying Splicers and Their Supplies 



In telephone work the Ford runabouts average approximately 

 9,000 miles per car per year. Normally, their net loads vary from 

 150 pounds to 750 pounds, although in emergencies they are some- 

 times seriously overloaded. 



