Enemies Of The Telegraph Pole And Cable

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", November 1991, page 11

Animals, Birds, Fish, and Insects which Destroy the Telegraph
Poles and Wires, in Different Parts of the World.

Wires are quite harmless objects, whether they be attached to telegraph poles. or sunk in the bottom of the sea, and they are not in the least striking-looking, either. Nevertheless, they have numerous enemies in the animal, as well as in the vegetable kingdom. 

An American paper recently reported that a newly erected line, in the woods of Aristook, in North Maine, had been damaged by black bears, who were in the habit of climbing up the posts and breaking off the insulators by which the wires are supported.

Why Bruin shows such a curious predilection for these hard unappetizing objects will ever remain a mystery to us; and as bears are not in the habit of wearing their hearts on their sleeves, we cannot easily get at their reasons. It has been supposed that the bears mistake the insulators for the wild apples, of which they are so extremely fond; at all events it is certain that they consider them as something eatable. Perhaps they think they are bee-nests.

There is, too, in Norway, a large woodpecker which, deceived by the buzzing sound somewhat resembling the Æolian harp, which is often emitted by the wires when the wind moves them, evidently imagines a nest of insects to be inside the post. He sets to work, and searches for them for days together, pecking large holes in the wooden poles, sometimes even piercing them through, to discover that the land of Cockayne he hoped to find  existed only in his imagination, and that all his work has been in vain.

The green woodpeckers of California are much wiser; these birds use the telegraph-posts of red cedar-wood as store-houses. They make holes in the posts at the top, and fill them with acorns -- one in every hole -- and in this way provide against starvation.. They undoubtedly show an originality and an ingenuity that does not fall far short of that peculiar to the American nation. For, except this Yankee woodpecker, does there exist anywhere a woodpecker so ingenious as to use telegraph-posts by way of a store-house?

It is a well-known fact that Indian crows and Australian magpies pick up the small ends of wire left after the line is made, and make their nests with them on the top of the posts; but in this matter they are following a natural instinct, and it is impossible to think of " invention" in this connection.

The American bison, too, in his wanderings over the prairies, shows an ingenuity one would not have given him credit for; he uses the poles as rubbing posts, and sometimes destroys the line for several miles' length. An American, who wished to make him discontinue this habit, studded the lower part of the posts with nails. But the shaggy bull, who did not possess an ordinary curry-comb of his own, took to the idea of one amazingly, and showed a decided preference for those posts that were thickest studded with nails.

Elephants always have found a great delight in pulling out telegraph-posts with their trunks by hundreds together, apparently with no other purpose than to test their strength. 

Ants are only tiny creatures, compared with elephants; but that does not prevent them being even more formidable foes to the telegraph. In tropical countries white ants, or termites, devour wooden posts in a very short time; therefore an unfailing expedient had to be found, and now in regions where these poachers abound, the telegraph-posts are rubbed with creosote-oil, or, which is even better, are replaced by iron ones.

In Japan there lives a spider which is a great nuisance to telegraphists, because it hangs its web from one pole to the other, thereby causing a disturbance .in the electric current from wire to wire, especially in the morning, when the webs are heavy with dew.

Wasps and other insects also build their nests between the wires, or near the insulators, and cause great disturbances in the conveying of intelligence, whenever the weather is damp or rainy. Of course, those plants that grow on the wires and posts have the same deleterious influence, and near Rio-Janeiro the lines are frequently spoiled by a kind of parasite plant that takes root in the poles. This plant is brought there, it is said, by seeds which are dropped by birds perching on the wires and posts.

But after all, human beings are the worst enemies of the telegraph-line. Not only do boys and thoughtless adults often throw stones at the insulators, or aim at then with guns, but they sometimes throw paper or rags over them, or allow their kites to fly against the wires, thereby causing a loss of electricity. In Belgium it is thought more expedient to use insulators of a dull grey, that is not easily visible, instead of the white ones, that always tempt boys to aim at them. In uncivilized countries the aborigines often destroy the lines if their chiefs are not given a satisfactory amount of "baksheesh," or frightened by some superstitious tale concerning the talking" fetish" of the white man. When Lord Wolseley marched against Coomassie, his telegraph-line, carried through the woods on bamboo posts, remained intact, and was not attacked by the enemy. But lest he should be suspected of sorcery, we must add that the aborigines made a line themselves, a rope fastened to trees. 

On the "Macdonald line," in Western Australia, the blacks were made acquainted with the power of the telegraph, by making them touch the wires at a moment that they were strongly charged with electricity. Consequently they received a rather violent shock. This trick was used in several parts of the world, and always with the best success.

One can understand that weather has much influence on the lines laid above ground. A high wind will sometimes overthrow them, and frost covers them with a crust of ice that often snaps them.

Wires in tubes underground do not, of course, suffer in this way; but still they are not quite free from damage, for rats and mice often nibble the gutta-percha a that covers the brass wire. Underground wires are as often struck by lightning as those above ground, if they are not effectively protected by lightning-conductors. Many a pole has been smashed to splinters, and many a cable melted by lightning. Underground lines also undergo the influence of what are called "earth-currents" i.e., electric currents in the soil itself. These currents are, however, seldom sufficiently strong to harm the wires, though they often disturb the workings of the telegraph. They are especially influential when atmospheric phenomena take place, as aurora borealis, falling stars, &c., or when there are sun-spots.

Submarine lines would seem to be guaranteed against damage, but even they are often molested. The limnaria-worm and the crustacean destroy the hemp and the gutta-percha that protect the wires, and these cause the current to escape into the sea. One single meal of the limnaria-worm has cost the shareholders of a cable-society many thousands; for it is extremely costly to have a cable inspected from a ship, and to have the damaged spot repaired, especially if the weather does not favour the work. The sawfish, that always rakes up the mud with its long saw-like snout, has often been accused of cutting the cables, but has never yet been caught in the act. It is a fact, however, that some fish perforate submarine cables, for the writer once took part in a cable-inspection from Para to Cayenne, and scarcely had the cable been replaced than it was found to be out of order again. While the tube was being repaired, I saw pieces of teeth belonging to fish sticking in the gutta-percha. I maintain that the perforations were actually caused by the bites of fish, but not by the sawing of a sawfish. The iron wires covering the cable had apparently been cracked by strong jaws.

Whales have often been entangled and strangled by submarine cables. A curious example of this happened in the Persian Gulf, when the cable was taken up, and the ship engaged in repairing it discovered thereon the dead body of a whale. Mr. Lumsden told me that once, while repairing a cable in the German Ocean, he brought up the wreck of a small schooner.

It often happens, too, that fishing-boats and other vessels damage the cables with their anchors, and do not mention the fact. Mr. Hockin, a well-known engineer, was on board a steamer which, while weighing anchor at Lisbon, seriously damaged a cable. With his marvelous ingenuity, he got up an impromptu battery and wired the whole affair to the telegraph-office in town, thereby saving much time and money to the cable-repairers. 

Near the coast and in river the cables may be harmed by malevolent persons. In the early days of the telegraph, it frequently happened that the Chinese stole the wires from the cables to make them into nails.

Jack Hayes of Pakenham, Ontario, sent this terrific article from the 1907 November issue of "The Girl's Realm" magazine. Jack wrote: "An unusual article for a girl's magazine of the day. It shows that girls have been interested in the telegraph for a long time. Many of the early operators were ladies.

I particularly liked the black bear "in Maine" going after insulators. They don't even look like a beehive style. Maybe the electric shocks he would get felt like bee stings and therefore expected honey. The wires probably buzzed as well.