Line Tie Wires
by Al Perry

Reprinted from "INSULATORS - Crown Jewels of the Wire", February 1970, page 25

Well Christmas is over and I guess I'll get back to insulators. Want to congratulate you on the fine publication. Thought I would answer your article on page 14 & 15 of your September 1969 issue.

The pieces of copper ribbon you found are from a type of tie that the Telephone Co. used. I am employed by Northwestern Bell here in Rapid City, South Dakota and have spent 4 years on the line crew, 3 years in maintenance, and 1 year in splicing. So may not be an authority on the ties but I'll give you a little information on them.

I am enclosing a picture of the ones I have on the front of my insulator rack. Starting from the top is the old Horseshoe Tie.

The second is a ribbon type. It is a thin piece of flat copper about 1/4" wise and as thick as the cover of your book. It was wrapped very close and tight on the line wire for about 2 inches at the point where the wire came in contact with the glass. Then the 2 ends were wrapped around the glass and back around the line wire for about 2 inches. It required a special tool to place it.

The third one is the type you found the parts of. It consisted of a factory formed copper steel splint placed at the point of contact of the line wire so that the eyes fell one on each side of the glass. Then the copper tie was placed around the glass and wrapped on the splint approximately two turns. These could only be used on the wide grooved glass as the Hemingray-42's (CD 154) or Whitall Tatum No. l's (CD 155).

The bottom one is the newer kind that was used until the last couple of years. It was also a factory formed splint (different from three) and a copper tie wire from 28" to 36" long. It is hard to describe on paper how to place them. But they could only be used on the square grooved glass like a Hemingray-42 (CD 154) or a Hemingray-17 (CD 122).

There is a newer one yet out now that is all one piece.

The type like the fourth one came in galvanized steel also for use on steel line. Most of the toll circuits are copper or copper steel and your exchange or farm line are steel wire.

The purpose of the splint and tie was to keep the wire away from the glass directly. With the change of temperature and vibration the line wire has a tendency to break at this point. Also, the main reason was to keep the slack or the tightness of the wire from running down the lead 4 or 5 spans.

This was common in the use of the horseshoe tie. In case of a sleet storm there is enough to do besides pull slack that has run. If you have noticed, on some lines in the Midwest there will be two poles and double arms. This is a storm or H fixture. They are less apt to go down in a storm and gave the linemen something to sag the wire against, as they are guyed or anchored both ways. I have seen a mile of poles flat on the ground and the H fixtures still standing. It also gave the men a place to start to rebuild.