Picture(s) of the day....

[myglaren]

Yep, been with BT since 1978.

[mickthemaverick]

To celebrate my 300th post I have dragged up a picture of a car I used to love:



This is not my actual car but very similar!! x100

[NewcastleFalcon]

Daniel from Hemel Hempstead had one for sale 16 days ago Mick!

Listing here
https://www.gumtree.com/p/nissan/1993-n ... 1349860076

Regards Neil

[xantia_v6]

This is a lead-sheathed telephone cable in wooden trunking c 1900 from the Science Museum



Now from the little box immediately inside the front door, while not having the wooden insulation, we still have a lead sheathed cable bringing in telephone/internet and TV via the internet and the firestick.

It travels a very circituous route to a further box inside the house where the first bit of modern pvc coated telephone cable continues on.

Yes the house is over 160 years old, but is the bit of lead sheathed telephone wiring a relic from the early 20th Century still providing the route whereby most of my 8000 odd posts to this very forum have been transmitted

REgards Neil

PS on the subject of Telephones...over at the Pickled-Egg I have just put a selection up. It is, in my opinion, a perfect couple of minutes of telephone related popular music

My parents house in New Zealand, which was built in the mid 1920s had lead sheathed telephone cabling, the telephone always had annoying crackle following wet weather.... My recollection is that the conductors were insulated with shellac (applied first) and un-woven cotton.

[NewcastleFalcon]

More Telephone Cable.....a very very long one laid between Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland.

TAT 1 cable
Geni [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Submarine Cables Limited was formed in 1935 according to Graces Guide They had a factory at Erith.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

You can't fool me Neil, that piece would never reach!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

^^^^ good point

When I was looking at my own lead sheathed cable I was thinking what a palaver it must be to make those things, and did wonder if 5000 of miles of "lead sheathing" covered the original Telegraph, and Telephone cables across the atlantic. Not entirely sure of the composition of that cable but it would be subject to a pretty hostile environment.

It was just September 1956 when it was the first calls were made using that cable. It could simultaneously handle 35 telephone calls. its perked my interest a bit so I'll be amusing myself with a bit of digging.

Regards Neil

PS and without too much digging heres the ever present Newcastle link . At the time the Largest Cable Laying Ship in the world HMTS Monarch, which laid the TAT-1 Cables was built by Swan Hunter on the Tyne

At least one bit is left....on display at Porthcurno Cornwall

HMTS Monarch's Ship's Bell
DuncanScottMackenzie [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

[mickthemaverick]

well don't forget your scuba gear if you are planning digging up transatlantic cables!! If you dig deep enough you will eventually get to fibre optics and be gobsmacked at the number of calls we could carry on a single light beam but I'll not spoil the fun for you. Happy hunting!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

I am well satisfied already found the Newcastle link to the story already as edited into my previous post

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Might as well dig out a picture of the Monarch

http://atlantic-cable.com//Cableships/Monarch(4)/

REgards Neil

[bobins]

If you're interested in the transatlantic cables and what they do when they reach Cornwall.... and who's tapping into them (Clue - Big Brother is most definitely watching you ), then I can thoroughly recommend this Youtube film, though 'documentary' is more accurate. At nearly an hour long it's quite extensive, but it's also quite engrossing It's amazing what you can learn from a manhole cover

[NewcastleFalcon]

well don't forget your scuba gear if you are planning digging up transatlantic cables!! If you dig deep enough you will eventually get to fibre optics and be gobsmacked at the number of calls we could carry on a single light beam but I'll not spoil the fun for you. Happy hunting!!

I have found with not much digging an excellent site devoted to such matters, and I have deposited it in the Pickled Egg Library.....the perfect repository for limited appeal but fascinating documents.

History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

It's amazing what you can learn from a manhole cover

I did post up in "Nice Places to Stop Off at" the town of St Andrews in Fife. Yes fascinating for golfers but also probably the finest town in Britain for members like myself of the DMC

There is a website http://www.saint-andrews.info which goes into immense detail with photos of the minutiae
of St Andrews

The manhole section is here http://www.saint-andrews.info/manholes.html

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Little snippet on the transatlantic cable. This is the Duncan Larg's artwork of Brunel's SS Great Eastern laying the first transatlanctic telegraph cable in 1866. .

http://atlantic-cable.com//stamps/ityear.htm

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

My copy of Abbey Road as promised in the P.E. Jukebox