These much ignored pieces of rural and urban furniture finally have a website of their own.
This is not the site to visit for technical information pertaining to telegraph poles. You'll find nothing about 10KVa transformers, digital telephone networking or even so much as a single volt.
This is a website celebrating the glorious everyday mundanitude of these simple silent sentinels the world over.
| from the simple... | through the interesting... | to the hieroglyphics | and the alluring |
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| click the thumbnails above to view the gallerys. | more poles... | ||
We don't care what the wires contain either. They all carry electricity in some way be it the sparky stuff which boils your kettle, or the thinner stuff with your voice in it when you're on the phone.
News just in
Firstly, our Honorary Technical Advisor Keith S**** H.T.A. T.P.A.S. (pictured left, yesterday), has written in answer to Paul's request for information a good few posts ago.
Have just seen Paul's heart rending message,he is obviously worried that his poles may fall over. Do not fret my dear chap, properly pressure creosoted poles will last up to 100 years, yes 100 years before they fall down.Trust this alleviates your anxiety.
Keith S.(Honourary Technical Advisor,T.P.A.S)
He's also written again to correct this website on some potential inaccuracies - well, that's what Honorary Technical Advisors are for after all. In my Hieroglyphics gallery I make mention of "Heavy" poles. Apparently, no so thing; they are light, medium or Stout as indicated by the "cutting in (gouging). Last gouged figures on a pole indicates its year of processing. "Mind you", he says, "the stouts would be pretty heavy".
Finally, and it was never my intention to collect telegraph pole insulators or indeed photos of them. But that is what seems to be happening. And Ray Thorp - ex GPO / Post Office Telephones / British Telecom employee of 42 years sent me some photos of his eclectic potting-shed based collection. Among his ageing exhibits are an ex-Southern Railway insulator made of pitch-fibre. And the central one pictured right dates back to the National Telephone Co. and while porcelain on the inside is made of enamelled tin on the outside - like a camping mug.
Stay tuned listeners... All photos gratefully received - ceramics, pole of the month contenders, bizarre stuff.
Christmas in March
Many people, my wife included, upon being gifted a parcel like that at left, might be inclined to think "what the hell did I do to deserve this?" But to a severe sufferer of Anoraksia Nervosa, like myself, such a receipt is a delight. It's arrival preceded also by the entertainment watching our flimsy postman struggle first to lift it out of his van, and then to reach over our gate to wedge it into my letter bin.
I must confess that these have actually been through a scrub in the kitchen sink before being put back in the box for this photo. One of them - the darkened one in the photo - is an old L.M.S. (London, Midland & Scottish) insulator. It's seen some severe high-voltage arcing in it's working life by the look of it.
Very many thanks to Mark Taylor from Sutton Coldfield who answered my appeal for ceramics. A cheque to cover the postage is on its way, along with some carefully chosen pure thoughts and our good wishes.
Hammerite & shavings
Thursday, 24 February 2011 20:38 |
As you can see, I've been very busy in my shed of late. Braving the cold, the drizzle and the incredible drafts that howl through the gaps in my jerry-self-built workshop.
Arms Wood
Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:47 |
Firstly, more serendipity. The problem of the missing 3 ceramic terminators has been solved. I have been walking the same route along the lanes at home for a near geological timescale. Yet last Friday evening at dusk, and completely unseen in all the previous 16,409 times that I have passed it, I spotted an ancient "arms wood" with 3 GPO insulators in immaculate condition. At some time in the distant past this had been removed from the pole nearby and the farmer had used it to block a hole under his sheep fence. Whistling nonchalantly, I clambered up the bank and quickly relieved it of the ceramics. Some people would be astonished that something as mundane as this could make my day. The very next evening I went back and recovered the wood too - making good the hole in the fence with an old plank of my own. Another piece of telegraph pole history to restore. Meanwhile... Ever diligent, Society Honorary Technical Advisor Keith S**** H.T.A. T.P.A.S. quickly wrote to me with some advice when he read my last post on the subject of my pole restoration : Cannot recomend rapid drying of arms wood which could lead to deep cracking of timber known as 'shaking' in the trade .Store outside under cover until comparative weights of samples indicate desired moisture content. Wet weight minus dry weight times 100 gives percentage moisture content: [ mc = (w1 - w2) x 100 ] Or you could just leave them till they look ok. Keith S.Hon.tech.advisor Alas, this counsel came a little too late - after just an hour in my warm office the black wood tar seen at left, oozed from the wood I had just rescued and stuck to anything that touched it. The smell has only just cleared days later. Anyway, that formula all sounds a bit much like school algebra, so the "leave them till they look ok" bit will more suit my modus operandii.
Mission Statement
Thursday, 10 February 2011 12:57 |
What sort of body is it that doesn't have a mission statement? August and elite a society we may be, but visitors to this site might be confused by our lack of this vital corporate expression of intent. Anyway, we couldn't think up one for ourselves so we trusted in an online Mission Statement Generator at http://www.bit.ly/mstatement. We want no longer... "Our objective is to inspire accountable synergies and transition back-end channels with paradigm shift for the benefit of our stakeholders and other local partnerships"I think that about covers it. Strip Down
Monday, 07 February 2011 22:04 |
A little light to medium spannering, some sawing and a modicum of mild to serious swear words and the "arms wood" of my telegraph pole restoration project lay in its constituent parts upon my workbench.
According to the society Honorary Technical Advisor, Keith S*****, the wood for the arms is an African hardwood called Keruing.
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This week I have been mostly brushing, filing, sand-papering and painting. Not to mention some arms-wood planing. But first, the photo above gives you, dear reader, a tantalising preview of two other restoration projects that I have in-hand...
