Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: optilink!cramer@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Clayton Cramer) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Telephone Cable "Rustling" in the Wild West :-) Message-ID: Date: 4 Oct 89 16:47:49 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA Lines: 31 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 431, message 2 of 9 In article , kitty!larry@uunet.uu. net (Larry Lippman) writes: > The modus operandi was for the perpetrators, under cover of > darkness, to first cut the suspension strands and remove the lashing wire > from a mile or so of cable, allowing the cable to drop to the ground. > This portion of the act, being the most time-consuming, did not break > electrical continuity and therefore set off any carrier loss-of-pilot > alarms. The next step was to cut one end, and then begin cutting the > cable into lengths to be loaded into a truck. With several perpetrators, > a mile of cable could be cut up and loaded onto a truck LONG BEFORE anyone > could localize the fault and dispatch a repair crew. A similar problem, though with different motivations, bedeviled the U.S. Army's telegraph lines in the same area in the 1870s and 1880s, and led to the Army's experiments with heliographs. Hostile Indians in the remote parts of the West would cut the Army's telegraph lines. At first, they would just cut the lines and let them fall, but a down line was immediately obvious, and quickly repaired. After a while, the Indians would cut the line, and use strips of rawhide to hold the wire in place. At first glance, it wasn't obvious whether the Indians had cut the wire, or whether a broken wire had been spliced by the Army. Hence, the heliograph. Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer "The tree of liberty must be watered periodically with the blood of tyrants and patriots alike. It is its natural manure." -- Thomas Jefferson Disclaimer? You must be kidding! No company would hold opinions like mine!