atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Lead Jacketed Cable.

Checking out the link that Arthur posted.

We used a burn box. They always made sure the count was clear before burning, that is why you always checked in before opening a splice and checked out when done for the day, so you didn't get zapped.

One other thing not mentioned was the lead pulp and paper cable were maintained under pressure to keep moisture out. In later years they didn't maintain the air pressure they said it was cheaper to shoot the wets than maintain the pressure. Not sure I agree, but that was the stand by upper management, don't think they really cared much about customer outages of short duration.

There weren't too many bad pairs, but you spliced through the spares just in case. As far as the soldered connections and cotton sleeves, that was reserved for toll cables when I started splicing, exchange cables we just used beans.

The BSP that Arthur linked mentions that Western Electric painted the ends of the cables and capped the ends of any defective pairs. I'm wondering if what Bill said...about the sleeves and beans...was observed across the entire Bell System.

Yep..I can't remember the last time I saw a nitrogen bottle sitting out at a site. Used to be a regular occurence.

I'm still surprised at how many I see chained to a telephone pole around here. Most look like they haven't been touched in decades.

Probably abandoned in place.

As a young guy on the line crew, I sometimes got to help our splicer with lead cable. I remember cables with white and red conductors. There was one pair of white and black, which we used for a talk pair. Tone sent, then found with an inductive pickup, then applied a short to be read at the toner end to confirm the right pair, then spliced. Look for next pair.

When finished, the lead sleeve preparation and installation was quite a procedure too. This was in GTE territory.

Jim

When servicing buildings...as opposed to interoffice cables...was there a certain pair count that field techs worked with more often than not? Say 200 pair...500 pair?