Bennett's System of Over-House Telephone Wire Construction

BENNETT'S SYSTEM OF OVER-HOUSE

CONSTRUCTION.

THE difficulty of providing accommodation on the roofs of the houses for the enormous and ever-increasing number of wires with which the telephone companies have to deal in all our principal towns and cities, has led to the trial of many ingenious forms of structures in wood and iron, in the designing of which utility has almost invariably been the only object aimed at, beauty being left to take care of itself. Mr. A. R. Bennett, the engineer for Scotland and Ireland to the National Telephone Company, Limited, has, however, contrived to steer a middle course, and while making an iron standard carry more wires in a given space than any other engineer has ever succeeded in doing, has produced a design which compares very favourably in appearance with any other house-top "ornament" with which the telephone companies have as yet favoured us. The good looks of the standard are due, in a meausre, to the use of Mr. Bennett's corrugated shackle insulator, described and figured in our issue of Feb. 10, 1883, and to the long iron arms which support them. These arems are 5 feet in length, and are arranged to allow a space of 16 inches between the two inner wires, which is amply sufficient to allow the passage of even a bulky linesman. The full details are as follows: --

A 20-feet iron angle standard is fitted with Bennett's 6-wire clips and Bennett's shackle insulators. Capacity of standard, 120 wires; number of wires already fixed, 60; Measurement of standard, 20 feet high, 3 inches ex. diameter, 3/16 inch thick; clips, 5 feet long; distance between two inner wires, 16 inches, between outer wires, 11 inches; vertical distance between clips, 11 inches; wires of phosphor-bronze, No. 18 B.W.G.; angle of majority of wires, 102 degrees. When it is remembered that on the old plan of fixing one wire below another, which is still adhered to by most telephone companies, a 20-feet standard with wires 11 inches apart, would be full with 22 wires, the gain of space attained in Bennett's system will be duly appreciated.