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Show Telephone Poles Have Big Future in Area retained by the wood. The stakes provide accelerated tests, the behavior of preservatives in telephone poles can be predicted during the service life of the poles. The experiments conducted at the Chester and Bainbridge farms have influence far beyond the Bell System. The federal government, universities, and the wood industry have used Western's research data for developing guidelines that apply to wood preservatives preser-vatives in items such as railroad ties, farm building materials, utility poles and home foundations. Communication is transferred via very modern methods these days. Satellites located 22,300 miles up in space, light guide fibers as this as human hairs and gigantic microwave towers located high atop mountains are some of the best examples. Amid all that modern technology used to move the message remains something old, tried and true -- the telephone pole. Despite its old-fashioned nature, the telephone pole remains an important part of the system of transporting voice and data communications. Western Electric, the supply and manufactuing unit of the Bell System itself buys about 250,000 telephone poles per year from Western Electric. "In Utah alone, Mountain Bell uses over 125,000 telephone poles as part of it's system," Colleen Lambert, supervisor-accounting, said. Contrary to what many people believe, the telephone poie is much moie than a tree stuck in the ground. Western maintains two telephone pole "farms" to conduct reseasrch on increasing in-creasing the poles' resistance to the elements. Located in Chester, N.J. and Bainbridge, Bain-bridge, Ga., the farms are not really farms in the normal sense of the word --despite --despite the fact the poles protrude from the round like stalks of giant vegetabels. Experiments are conducted at the farms to determine which types of presevatives will help telephone poles survive a prolonged exposure to the elements. The research is important, since the Bell System owns more than 17 million telephone poles. If left untreated un-treated they last only a few years. "Fungus decay and termites are the main enemies of wood," said Julian Ochrymowych of Western's Purchased Product Engineering organization. "In the Bell System, we aim for an average pole life of 35 years, so our specification for preserving the poles are stringent." At the Chester farm, which has been in operation since 1927, about 800, 10-foot 10-foot posts and several hundred 18-inch stakes dot the countryside. The bigger Bainbridge farm contains many more poles and stakes. Southern pine, Douglas fir, Ponderosa pine and other softwood species are used for the poles. "Most of them are treated with preservatives such as pen-tachlorophenol pen-tachlorophenol petroleum or water-borne water-borne salts," said Ochrymowych. "We evalutate all new preservatives and treating methods for potential use, Similar tests are conducted on the wood at the two sites to compare the effects in different climates." Sample borings are taken once a year from above and below ground level. The borings are examined for decay and insect attack, and to determine how well the preservatives and treating methods have penetrated and been t' I ':V,vvU'f :,--f'c:.U. .;'v;:t,H v Giant vegetable stalks? No, instead they are telephone pole segments that are supplying valuable information about wood preservation. Kxperts from Western Electric, Elec-tric, perform research on the poles. |
