46 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



tunity for deciding the point, for at the end of 1893 the cables 

 many of which have been manufactured by Mr. O. Bondy, of 

 Vienna measured 154 kilometers, while the conductors reached 

 a total of 35,493 kilometers. The wires are led to the subscribers 

 overhead by the aid of distributing poles or standards on which 

 the cables terminate, and the aerial lines (which are of 1*25 mm. 

 silicium bronze, supported on double-shed insulators) commence. 

 The immunity of the cables is the more remarkable inasmuch as 

 there are no lightning guards at the junctions with the open wires, 

 although protectors are provided at the exchange and on the 



FIG. 5 



subscribers' instruments. The overhead work is extensive in the 

 suburbs and down by and across the river, attaining a total length 

 of wire (in 1893) of 6,000 kilometers. Wall-bracket supports of 

 the forms shown in fig. 3 are extensively used. The same style 

 of bracket is also attached to poles, and makes a very presentable 

 design. Along the river at Vienna a handsome route of octagonal 

 poles so fitted (fig. 4) exists. A form of wall-bracket used by the 

 State is shown at fig. 5, together with a method of leading wires 

 into a house, which is largely practised in Austria and Germany. 

 From the terminal insulator A the wire goes to a smaller bracket and 

 insulator B, whence it is taken through a hole, c, in the wall, a cover 



