100 YEARS AGO
It was mentioned in these columns some time ago that the wire fencing of great sheep farms in some parts of Australia was used as telephone wires. A recent report from H. M. Consul at Philadelphia states that this system of communication is being employed by farmers between the towns of Anderson, Pendleton and Ingalls, in Indiana. The top wire of a barb-wire fence is used as a conductor, the continuity of the line being assured by special devices at highways and railway crossings. The line is fourteen miles in length with five stations… Local farmers state that they have used the “fence-line” to converse with friends eight miles distant, and this at a time when the fence posts were still saturated with the morning dew, a condition under which the line is supposed to work with least satisfaction. It is stated that the line has been such a practical success that the farmers of the neighbourhood are organising companies for the purpose of placing themselves in telephonic communication throughout the whole district.
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