[Trade Journal]
Publication: Electrical Review
New York, NY, United States
vol. 4, no. 16, p. 3, col. 4
The Horn Insulator
We present herewith an illustration of a horn insulator with its bracket, received by us from Mr. Commercial Jones, Director General of the Compania Telegrafica Telefonica Central de Mexico. When the insulator first came to hand we looked upon it as the rather clever temporary device of some lineman who found himself short of insulators, and at a long distance from his base of supplies, but the letter of Mr. Jones, which we print below, puts a different face on the matter entirely, and will be read with great interest.
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| Horn Insulator and Bracket Taken From Zacatecas Telephone Line, Zacatecas, Mexico. |
AGUASCALIENTES, Mexico, May 28, 1884.
To the Editors Electrical Review: Two days since I mailed you a Mexican bracket and its horn insulator, which I obtained from the Zacatecas State Telegraph lines which have these horn insulators almost exclusively in use. The insulator mailed you has a piece of No. 11 wire in the proper place for line tied with a piece of No. 14, all very ingenious and secure. The Central Telegraph and Telephone Co., of Mexico, has twelve sets of telephones on these lines transmitting conversation without fault, and giving perfect satisfaction. These horn insulators, although poor insulators for telegraph, are splendid anti-induction insulator for telephone use. I have often transacted business over these lines from San Luis Potosi to Somherete, 106 leagues or 276 American miles, via the central office of Lacatecas, all a mountainous, mineral region, constantly disturbed by electric changes, without finding it necessary to ask the repetition of a single sentence. Am sure that telephonic communication could not be successfully established by the same were they insulated with glass or other good insulators, instead of horn. As a proof of this, I have often made tests between Zacatecas State lines and Federal Government line, running from Luis Potosi, to Zacatecas, parallel to each other about one hundred yards apart. Both were tested by telegraph and found to be in equal telegraphic condition, but the Federal line, insulated with glass, would scarcely transmit the voice, while the State line, insulated with horn, transmitted as plainly as our short lines of one kilometer. The distance from San Luis Potosi to Zacatecas is 50 Mexican leagues, or 130 English miles.
COMERCIAL JONES.
