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THE TELEGRAPH. 
between its extremities, carries the drum, and also a pawl 
which drops into the teeth of the ratchet wheel. 
When this stretcher is used, the wire is brought to the 
bottom of the slit, and the drum is turned round by a key 
fitting on the axis. 
This stretcher can therefore be used without the wire being 
cut. It thus saves the labour of joining wires, and the risk of 
breakage attending such junctions. On the other hand it has 
a defect that restricts its use, for, not being attached to any 
fixed support, its mobility renders the stretching of a wire of 
0*2 inch diameter a matter of difficulty. Only workmen of 
exceptional strength are able to thus stretch a 1,000 yards’ 
length of wire of OTG inch diameter. 
For this reason the simple stretcher is only used for wires 
of 0T2 inch diameter, and this size of wire is but rarely 
employed. 
The double stretcher (fig. 67) is formed of two drums, each 
of which is supported by two plates of iron, and the parts 
