1 68 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



which they cross the side streets must impede the transit of fire- 

 escapes. Some of these bracket standards are of wood, round or 

 square, but the more recent ones are built up of two lengths of 

 channel iron, placed back to back and bolted together at intervals, 

 with a space of two or three centimeters between them, through 

 which the insulator stalks are passed. Fig. 47 shows the details 

 of this arrangement, A A 1 being the two pieces of iron kept together 

 by the bolts B. The insulators are fixed in pairs on reverse sides,, 

 the stalks passing through iron plates, P p 1 , which have generally 

 a leaden sheet sandwiched for the purpose of moderating vibration, 

 and being screwed up by the nuts N N. Figs. 48 to 51 show 

 different forms of bracket standards in use ; when fixed to houses 

 the short-stalked insulators are always on the inside, as in figs. 48 

 and 49 ; but when they project above the roofs the insulators 

 usually alternate, as in figs. 50 and 51. In some cases a small 

 platform or stand for the workmen is attached to the lower bracket. 

 On crowded routes, double standards of the form shown in fig. 52 

 are beginning to appear ; they are simply two uprights like that in 

 fig. 51 tied together by two horizontal rods. Standards are never 

 fixed to a roof if a gable, wall, or chimney is available, as vibration 

 is still a serious bugbear in France ; when a roof fixture cannot 

 be avoided the standard is bolted to the rafters. These standards, 

 which never exceed ten or twelve feet in height, are, as a rule, 

 only stayed against the pull on angles, but occasionally one with 

 four equally spread stays is observed. The staying is always 

 done with judgment, and the work generally is commendable for 

 neatness and good maintenance. In the country towns exploited 

 by the State this form of construction also obtains, with occasional 

 deviations due to the local engineers. Such a deviation is shown 

 in fig. 53, which seems a needlessly roundabout way to accommo- 

 date thirty wires. Frenchmen never resort to cross-arms if they 

 can help it, but M. Andre has erected at Rheims double standards 

 with cross-arms as shown in fig. 54. At Lille and Amiens 

 the author also observed iron double standards with arms sand- 

 wiched between the uprights, but not quite like those of M. Andre. 

 At Lille, a town exploited in the first instance by the Societe 

 Generate des Telephones, most of the standards are of wood, 

 generally with two or three uprights with cross-arms of planks, to 



