A NEW PROCESS FOR THE PROTECTION AND PRES- 

 ERVATION OF STANDING TELEGRAPH AND 



TELEPHONE POLES 



By E. A. STERLING 



(ODERN methods of transporta- exhausted, while the wide prevalence 

 tion and communication have of the chestnut bark disease threatens 

 caused such a drain on the timber to remove this species from the market 

 resources of the country that high within a few years. The maintenance 

 prices and an ultimate exhaustion of of a cedar pole supply by new growth is 

 certain species grades will be the in- not even a remote probability, because 

 evitable result. The use of wood is of the slow growth of the species. A 

 universal everywhere, but nowhere is it report of the National Electric Light 

 more strikingly shown than in the Association states that thirty-foot cedar 

 enormous number of poles which dot poles lasting 14 years have taken about 

 the landscape everywhere, their most 390 years to reach that size, thus it 

 general use being for telegraph, tele- would require 13 growing cedars to 

 phone, trolley, and electric transmission continue in service one 30-foot cedar 

 lines. pole. To maintain one 30-foot chestnut 

 The pole lines in the United States pole, even in a healthy growth unaf- 

 approximate eight hundred thousand fected by the blight, would require four 

 miles in length, and the number of growing trees. These facts indicate 

 poles in actual service is not less than clearly the necessity of preserving the 

 thirty-two million. The annual con- poles now in use as well as those used 

 sumption for renewals and new lines for current renewals, 

 amounts to nearly four million poles, The available statistics indicate an 

 or nearly five poles per mile per an- average life per pole of from 13 1-2 

 num, the actual figures for 1910 being years for cedars to 6 1-2 years for 

 3,870,694. The extent of the drain on pine; the general average based on 

 the forests which this represents may present renewals being about ten years, 

 be judged from the fact that a perfectly A report of the German government 

 stocked German forest produces only shows an average life of only 7.7 years 

 250 trees per acre, so that on this basis on 153,626 untreated poles under ob- 

 the poles now standing would represent servation. Until recently practically all 

 all of the timber growing on over 130,- poles in this country were used in their 

 000 acres. Actually in this country, natural state, and great waste has been 

 considerably less than one hundred occasioned by their rapid decay where 

 poles are cut per acre, so that for the in contact with the ground. The U. S. 

 poles now in use forest areas aggre- Forest Service estimates that, for poles, 

 gating nearly half a million acres have 95% are destroyed by decay, 4% by 

 been cut over, and to furnish the poles insects and 1% by mechanical abrasion. 

 for renewals some 50,000 additional In 1910, 825,000, or nearly 25%, re- 

 acres are cut over each year, or at the ceived preservative treatment either be- 

 rate of over 100 acres per day. fore or after purchase, and this should 

 Cedar furnished the material for lengthen their life from 50 to 100 per 

 nearly 63% of the poles renewed in cent. While the treatment of a pole 

 1910; while chestnut, although avail- before it is set is advantageous, it adds 

 able only in a limited territory, ranked very materially to the initial cost and 

 second with 17%. The supply of cedar will not check the increasing consump- 

 is distinctly limited and will soon be tion until a greater per cent are treated. 



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