Abstracts of Technical Articles by Bell System Authors 



Tentative Standards for Wood Poles Become Approved American Stand- 

 ards} Richard C. Eggleston. The six American Tentative Standards 

 covering specifications for wood poles, several of which were approved by 

 the American Standards Association as tentative in 1931 and the rest in 

 1933, have now been reviewed by the ASA committee and approved by 

 the ASA as full American Standards. In reviewing the standards, the 

 committee found that the general principles of the standard requirements 

 have been universally recognized as a satisfactory basis for the selection of 

 poles. Covering as they do northern white cedar poles, western red cedar 

 poles, chestnut poles, southern pine poles, lodgepole pine poles, and Douglas 

 fir poles, the standards represent a rational uniform standardization system 

 for the six major pole timbers of the United States. 



The standards establish practical limits that can be applied economically 

 in the production of poles for general use, but they are intended also to be 

 flexible enough to cover the purchase of poles of high quality for special 

 purposes. At the same time, it is not desired that they should be so restric- 

 tive that any considerable quantity of usable poles produced under normal 

 production practices would be labeled substandard because of the specifica- 

 tion restrictions. 



The standard specifications include material requirements for shape and 

 straightness of grain, limit defects such as knots, checks, insect damage and 

 decay, and define the minimum quality of acceptable poles. In the stan- 

 dards, departures from straightness are held within practical limits for 

 ordinary use. Decay and the presence of wooid-rotting fungi are gen- 

 erally prohibited. Definite limitations on knots are set, and fire-killed poles 

 are acceptable only by special agreement between producer and purchaser. 



The standard dimensions now included with the specifications in one 

 standard for each type of pole, were based on recommended fibre stresses 

 contained in the American Standard for Ultimate Fiber Stresses of Wood 

 Poles (05a-1930). They were approved as American Standards from their 

 inception, and until they were included with the specifications in the present 

 American Standards they were considered as separate standards. These 

 standard dimensions have all been prepared according to the same prin- 

 ciples for all types of poles. The sizes at six feet from the butt in all six 

 standards have been so fixed witli respect to ground-line resisting moments, 



' Industrial Standardization, June 1941. 



359 



