THE MUSIC OF THE WIRES.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 51, 17 March 1894, Page 7

THE MUSIC OF THE WIRES.

You have heard the humming and singing of telegraph and telephone wires as you have passed the poles along the streets. No doubt you have concluded that it is caused by the action of the wind on the wires, and given it no further thought. But it is not true that the singing is caused by the wind, and if you are at all observing- you will notice that often the humming sound is to be heard on cold winter mornings, when the smoke from chimneys go straight up until it is lost in the clouds, and when the frost on the wires is as fuzzy and thick as a roll of chenille fir.

The wind has nothing- to do with the sound, and according to an Austrian scientist, the vibrations tire due to changes of atmospheric temperature, and especially through the action of cold, as a lowering- of temperature induces a shortening- of the wires, extending over the , whole of the conductor. A considerable amount of friction is produced on the supporting bells, thus inducing the sounds both on the wires and the poles. When this humming has been goingon birds have mistaken the sound for insects inside the poles, and have been seen to peck with their bills on the outside as they do upon the apple and other trees. The story is told of that mistook the humming noise as coming from a nest of bees, and clawed at the pole and tore away the stones at its base in the hope of finding the much-coveted honey. — Selected.