OCR Text |
Show . " i ; :'1VV;V GIANT VEGETABLE stalks? No, instead they are telephone pole segments that are supplying valuable information about wood preservation. Experts from Western Electric, the manufacturing and supply unit of the Bell System, perform research on the poles and determine which preservatives best help telephone poles survive their prolonged exposure to the environment. Telephone pole is still important in communications Communication is transferred via very modern methods these days. Satellites located 22,300 miles up in space, light guide fibers as thin as human hairs and gigantic microwave towers located high atop mountains are some of the best examples. Amid all that modern technology used us-ed 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 manufacturing unit of the Bell System, still provides telephone companies across the nation with poles, and judging judg-ing from recent demand, the poles are far from obsolete. 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 pole is much more than a tree stuck in the ground. Western maintains two telephone pole "farms'" to conduct research on increasing in-creasing the poles' resistance to the elements. Located in Chester, N. J. and Bain-bridge, Bain-bridge, Ga., the farms are not really farms in the normal sense of the word-despite word-despite the fact the poles protrude from the ground like stalks of giant vegetables. Experiments are conducted at the farms to determine which types of preservatives 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 Products Engineering organization. "In the Bell System, we aim for an average pole life of 35 years, so our specifications for preserving the poles are stringent." At the Chester farm, which has been in operation since 1927, about 800, 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 salts," said Ochrymowych. "We evaluate 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 dif f erht lirrta fesr L s-1 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 retained re-tained by the wood. The stakes provide accelerated tests of the preservatives. From the accelerated ac-celerated tests, the behavior of preservatives preser-vatives in telephone poles can be predicted during the service life of the poles. The experiments conducted at the Chester and Bainbridge farms have influence in-fluence 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 in items such as railroad ties, farm building materials, utility poles and home foundations. |