NEW YORK'S WIRES. Miles of Metallic Strings That Traverse the City.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 216, 20 August 1887, Page 5

NEW YORK'S WIRES. Miles of Metallic Strings That Traverse the City.

Them; are about 20,000 miles of telegraph and telephone wires in New York city. Of this number the Western Union Telegraph Company operates and controls more .thai. 5,000 miles, 500 miles ot which are ahead) placed in conduits underground. The same company operates over 430,000 miles all told. Its wires, if stretched in one continuous line, would go around the globe nearly eighteen times, and they would reach from the earth to the moon and almost back again. The 20,000 miles of wire in this city would make over 2,220 parallel lines hum the Battery to Harlem river, and over double that number from the East to the North river at the greatest width of Manhattan island. This length of wire weighs comparatively little. The wires of the Western Union Company vary in weight from 330 to 650 pounds per mile. Taking the smallestsized wire ah a basis for calculation, one ton of metal would make thirteen and onethiid miles ot -\v he, while 2.000 tons wquld be sufficient to stretch around the world, with plenty to spare. The cost of the wires is about 0 cents per pound. They are very durable when sti etched through an open country, la-sting fiom twenty-five to thirtyyears. Atmospheric changes affect them but little. Repairs are chiefly made in towns where chemical substances aie used for manufacturing 1 purposes, the smcke fiom the factory chimneys being very debtructix c to the metal.