This is among my favorites ;-) A telephone openwire line having ten pins and double "buck" crossarms is seen on the far left. This fortified construction eased the strain of the open wire that was making an angle. To the right is an electric lighting service pole. Upon it is an old cast iron distribution transformer. It provided 110 volts secondary to customers from its 1,100 or 2,200 volt primary. Beneath is an incandescent "gooseneck" street light, with a typical fixture from around 1900 through the teens. The latter ran in electrical series just like a string of small Christmas lights. A provision was made within the lightbulb socket to maintain electric continuity through the circuit in the event one or more lamps failed. The adjusted voltage and proper constant current for such series circuits was manually maintained at the local electric station.

In the early days (around pre-teens and before then) it was commonplace for telephone companies to place their wires upon separate poles, sometimes across the street from the electric service ones. The latter often carried dangerous voltages and comms companies opted for their wires to be physically away from the electric ones for safety to lineworkers, customers and their equipment.