Telephone Pole Line Construction Part III: Erecting Poles & Attaching Cross Arms 1958 US Army Training Film

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POLE LINE CONSTRUCTION - PART III - ERECTING POLES AND ATTACHING CROSSARMS

ERECTING POLES USING EARTHBORER AND BY MANUAL METHOD; FACING AND ALIGNING POLES; INSTALLING SINGLE, DOUBLE, SIDEARM, BUCK, AND "H'' TYPE CROSSARMS.

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_pole

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

A utility pole is a column or post used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as electrical cable, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It can be referred to as a transmission pole, telephone pole, telecommunication pole, power pole, hydro pole, telegraph pole, or telegraph post, depending on its application. A stobie pole is a multi-purpose pole made of two steel joists held apart by a slab of concrete in the middle, generally found in South Australia.

Electrical wires and cables are routed overhead on utility poles as an inexpensive way to keep them insulated from the ground and out of the way of people and vehicles. Utility poles can be made of wood, metal, concrete, or composites like fiberglass...

The first poles were used in 1843 by telegraph pioneer William Fothergill Cooke who used them on a line along the Great Western Railway. Utility poles were first used in the mid-19th century in America with telegraph systems, starting with Samuel Morse who attempted to bury a line between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., but moved it above ground when this system proved faulty. Today, underground distribution lines are increasingly used as an alternative to utility poles in residential neighborhoods, due to poles' perceived ugliness...

The standard utility pole in the United States is about 40 ft (12 m) long and is buried about 6 ft (2 m) in the ground.[3] However, poles can reach heights of 120 ft (37 m) or more to satisfy clearance requirements. They are typically spaced about 125 ft (38 m) apart in urban areas, or about 300 ft (91 m) in rural areas, but distances vary widely based on terrain. Joint-use poles are usually owned by one utility, which leases space on it for other cables...

Pole materials

Most utility poles are made of wood, pressure-treated with some type of preservative for protection against rot, fungi and insects. Southern yellow pine is the most widely used species in the United States; however, many species of long straight trees are used to make utility poles, including Douglas fir, jack pine, lodgepole pine, western red cedar, and Pacific silver fir.

Traditionally, the preservative used was creosote, but due to environmental concerns, alternatives such as pentachlorophenol, copper naphthenate and borates are becoming widespread in the United States. In the United States, standards for wood preservative materials and wood preservation processes, along with test criteria, are set by ANSI, ASTM, and American Wood Protection Association (AWPA) specifications. Despite the preservatives, wood poles decay and have a life of approximately 25 to 50 years depending on climate and soil conditions, therefore requiring regular inspection and remedial preservative treatments. Woodpecker damage to wood poles is the most significant cause of pole deterioration in the U.S...

The system of suspending telegraph wires from poles with ceramic insulators was invented and patented by British telegraph pioneer William Fothergill Cooke. Cooke was the driving force in establishing the electrical telegraph on a commercial basis. With Charles Wheatstone he invented the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph and founded the world's first telegraph company, the Electric Telegraph Company. Telegraph poles were first used on the Great Western Railway in 1843 when the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph line was extended to Slough. The line had previously used buried cables but that system had proved troublesome with failing insulation...

In 1844, the United States Congress granted Samuel Morse $30,000 to build a 40-mile telegraph line between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Morse began by having a lead-sheathed cable made. After laying seven miles underground, he tested it. He found so many faults with this system that he dug up his cable, stripped off its sheath, bought poles and strung his wires overhead...