236 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



to disarm grumblers. To give a firm hold on the ground the 

 inside of the pole is filled to just above the ground level with 

 concrete. The taller poles are of quite a different type, although 

 they too are handsomely got up. They are of wood, painted with 

 preservative compound ; the pole is encased in a square wooden 

 box from the butt to some three feet above the ground level, the 

 space between the pole and the box being tightly rammed with 

 clean dry sand. The box is closed with a moulded lid, and lends 

 a finish to the appearance of the pole ; but it is intended primarily 

 by its deviser, Dr. Hubrecht, the general manager of the Nether- 

 lands Bell Telephone Company, to prevent the decay which in- 

 variably attacks wooden poles at or near the ground line. When 

 so fitted it is the box, which can be readily renewed, which decays ; 

 while the pole, embedded in dry sand, lasts an indefinite period. 

 The square box furthermore affords the pole a better hold in the 

 ground than the rounded butt could give. Fig. 82 shows such a 

 pole, 75 feet high and carrying 150 bronze wires. The climbing 

 steps on these poles are riveted to long strips of iron, which are 

 spiked or screwed to the poles on either side ; this form of con- 

 struction was adopted owing to steps working loose when fastened 

 individually direct to the wood. In the suburbs light telescopic 

 iron tubular poles are employed for branch routes of six or eight 

 wires ; they occupy little room and look well. The Dutch do not 

 earth-wire their wooden poles. The more recent standards are of 

 German type, consisting of one or more tubes fastened rigidly 

 at their lower extremities to some part of the roof, and fitted with 

 cross-arms consisting of strips of iron connected by rivets and 

 by the insulator bolts. Such arms are cheap one to carry six 

 insulators costing 80 cents (is. 3^.), and one to- carry twenty 

 insulators only i'8o florins (2s. <)d.) They are not, however, 

 nearly so strong as the channel-iron arms designed by the author 

 for the National Telephone Company, and now exclusively 

 employed in the United Kingdom. The details of these 

 standards are given in figs. 73 and 74 (German section). But, 

 although identical in design, there is an important difference 

 between the methods of erection in Germany and Holland. In 

 the former country stays are rarely employed, and scarcely ever in 

 an efficient manner, even when there are 200 wires attached ; but 



