Bartley, NE 1910 Open Wire Phone Lines, Junction Cabinet

By Joe Maurath, Jr.; posted March 19, 2011
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These circuits appear to extend to a junction box on the pole on the far right. At that point the openwire pairs were connected within a wooden "dry spot" cabinet so they could put into paired-cable (as seen). From there the cable most likely ran to operators' boards within the building.

The two-pin crossarms on the very top of these poles probably were for fire alarm telegraph. This practice was rather commonplace in the United States from c.1880 to the early 1910s, especially in the northeast.

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