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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 1902)
Burial of Electric Wires Along City Streets izzr ni, j . T ! real's - - . , A O' ''J - v . - .'A : FILLING I.N THE CONCRETE HASH -Photo by a Staff Artist. END OK A CONDUIT LINE IN A .! A N I ". 0 LE -MASON LAYING BRICK rhoto by ( Staff Artist. 1 il n,-VAji. I'l'TTINO ON THE Staff An;, t. BUHLAP WRAI'l'En rhoto by a t 1 ' I vjp ----- r .a. 1 . 7 f '-t... -' i" i4 I t V!M T. IT! At T t 1 . hriV.i ? ! 1 8 v -'-r.-'---- DITCHING GANG STOrS TO LOOK rhoto by a Staff Artist. CONCRETE FILLING FOR THE SIDES AFTER THE TILE IS LAID Fboto by a Staff Artist. J"lMONU tlic inuny problems of engl I nccrliiK which have perplexed the government a of the metropol- It un elllrs of the world In the imul tuinitv fun iu mil hnnu linmi I""" i".-ij !......!' ....... has more Imperut tvely or more constantly demimdeil alti'iition t tut n the iii'Htlon of the removal of electric wires from the streets. A quarter of a century iiko, when the development of electricity was, ns may be said, in its elementary stages, the overhead wires gave but little trouble comparatively, and the poles and cross arms, with their few thread-like strands of wire, whilo not regarded as an adorn ment to a handsome city street, were tol erated as a necessary evil. lint as new uses for the mysterious electric fluid were discovered and through the efforts of Edison and other Inventors It became a fa miliar utility, the. wires multiplied at an alarming rate and became a genuine menace to the public welfare and con venience. Gradually the telephone grew from a luxury to be enjoyed only by a few of the larger business houses to a necessity which not only every place of busiuess, but a large proportion of private homes, must have. The single wires multiplied In number and became great cables extending farther and farther throughout the city streets until they were not only a disfig urement to the sightly appearance of those streets, but were positively an encum brance. Then the electric light came more generally into service and its heavily charged wires added a serious danger to the already troublesome situation, and the application of electricity as a motive power In the operation of street railways contributed still further in the same man ner. As the wires increased in numbers II became more and more apparent that they must be removed from the streets, and it was soon determined that the only prac ticable way to accomplish that was to plate them underground. And then folio e.l years of conflict between the authorities of the cities and the companies owning the wires before any progress in this movement could be accomplished. The ex pense which the burlul of the wires woull entail prompted opposition and resls ume on the part of the companies and the Imperfections of the various methods pro posed gave them 'grounds for their refusil to adopt them or acknowledge them to be reasonable. Years and years of study and experiment effected gradual Improvement In underground conduits, and this, supple mented by strong and In some cases even radical coercion on the part of city au thorities, brought about their adoption more and more generally In the lurger cities until now there Is considerable size which way system or In except for street scarcely a city of has not Its sub- whlch overhead wires, railway operation, are tolerated In the business districts. The European cities were far ahead o (hose of America in the burial of electric wins for the reason that they never did permit the stringing of the wires above Kr.iund, nnd fr.tm the very beginning they were laid in conduits beneath the side walks. Even the overhead trolley wire has only been Introduced into Iondon within a few years, and it has met with such determined opposition as to indicate Hint It can never be extensively used. It has never been permitted that wires should be strung on poles In England and Frunce, and as long as twenty years ago London had 25,000 miles of wires in It conduits under the sidewalks. In nuda Testh, Hungary, there was an underground trolley system In successful operation moro than fifteen years ago. There has been some question and some controversy as to which of the American cities was first to place Its electric wires underground. In support of the claim of Chicago to this distinction It is stated that wires were first laid underground thero In the form of cables In 1878 and In pipes In 18S8. Philadelphia experimented quite ex tensively with conduits of creosoted wood in 1SS.'., but. like many other pi ins, that was found to be not entirely practicable, although by means of a very high tax on telegraph and telephone poles the com panies had been Induced to go under ground with their wires and they remained there. The general use of clay condu ts did not begin until 18!1, and since that time many Improvements have been made In the methods of making and of laying the tiles, but the clay subway is still used. The first titles to use these clay sub ways were Haltlmore and Washington, where the telephone wires were taken from the streets In 1SH0 and the telegraph wires In 1S91 and the others soon followed. In the adoption of the subway plan of Washington, Andrew Ko.sewater, now city engineer of Omaha, played an Important part as chairman of an electrical com mission appointed by the president to Investigate that subject with reference to the District of Columbia and report a plan. The other members of this com mission were Lieutenant Francis Snunk, I. S. A., now captain of the engineering: corps, and Professor Henry A. Rowland, chief of the department of original re search of Johns Hopkins university. New York had Us own subway owneit by the city In operation In 1801. The sys tem was under th. direction of a commis sion which was empowered to fix rates of rental to be paid by companies running their wires through the subway and for a time this plan of management caused some trouble, but that has now been overcome. When the clay conduits were first put into service considerable trouble was caused by explosions of gas which had formed in the ducts, and disastrous acci dents occurred from that cause in St. Louis, New York, Chicago, Brooklyn and several other cities, but under different conditions different remedies were found for this difficulty. In some places the companies so stub bornly reeisted the efforts of the authori ties to make them place their wires un derground that it became necessary to even use force as in Brooklyn and New York, where gangs of men were sent out to chop down the poles. The city of Omaha Is somewhat behind most other cities of Its size and importance in this respect, but now has the burial of wires well In hand, and before spring will have all electric wires with the exception of those of the telegraph companies and the street railway company under ground. The Nebraska Telephone company was first to adopt the movement and in 1892, In making application to the city for a re newal of its franchise for twenty-five years, undertook to bury all of Its wires in the district bounded by Ninth street, Eighteenth street, Capitol avenue and Howard street. This was done and since that time the telephone company has ex tended its conduit system on Eighteenth street to Cuming; on Douglas to Twen tieth; on Twentieth from Douglas to Har ney; and on Harney to Thirty-sixth street. Last full the New Omaha Thomson Houston company presented before the city council a new ordinance calculated to strengthen the company's franchise and in the proceedings which ensued the council adopted an ordinance which requires that all wires owned by commercial lighting mid power companies and located In the district bounded by the river. Eighteenth street, Howard street and Capitol avenue must be placed under ground before May 1, next. This Includes all electric light, heating and power wires for commercial purposes and takes in everything with the exception of the telegraph wires and those of the street railway company which are used In the operation of their cars. Those of the street railway company's wires which are used to distribute elec tricity for commercial purposes are In eluded within tho requirements of tbo ordinance. The Thomson-Houston company began work upon Its underground conduit system early In September, and by December 1 will have completed the undertaking so far as the laying of the tiles is concerned. When completed this system will affori eighty miles of single duct, and, includ ing the cables and other accessories, will have cost approximately $175,000, although the net cost of laying the conduit will be only about 70,000. The conduit system is constructed of clap tiles ami in this case it has bet u necessary to use three different makes of these tiles for the reason that no , on" company could supply the required quan tity on short notice. The tiles are made in different sizes to permit of various numbers of ducts as required, the size of the duct always being the same. The tiles are laid in a trench on a four inch bed of concrete, with side walls of con crete two ' Inches in length and a top covering of concrete four inches deep. The separate tiles, which are three and one-half feet in length, are held in place with what Is known as a "dowel pin," and the Joints are wrapped with burlap and welded with cement. The ordinance re quires that there shall be thirty inchts between the surface of the ground and the top layer of the conduit, but in many cases obstructions have been met and it has been necessary to go beyond that depth. The volume of the conduit varies according to location and ranges from forty-eight ducts in the vicinity of the power house and the district of greattst distribution to six, and even as low as four ducts in some of tho alleys of the more remote portions. Leaving the power house at the corner of Fourth and Jones streets, with forty-eight ducts the conduit carries that volume on Jones street as far as Seventh, where it Is reduced to thirty six ducts and thus continues to Ninth, and on that street to the alley between Harney and Howard streets. Then from that point to the alley between Douglas and Dodge streets the size varies from forty to twenty ducts. In the alleys be tween Howard and Harney, Harney and Farnam, Farnam and Douglas and Doug las and Dodge streets, the sixieen-duet size of tile is used as far as Sixteenth street and on Sixteenth street from the alley between Howard and Harney to Capitol avenue. From Sixteenth to Eighteenth street In the alleys between Farnam and Douglas and Douglas and IKdge the size of the conduit is but six ducts. On Seventh street, from Jones to Pacific streets, the size varies from twelve to eight ducts; on Thirteenth street, from the alley between Douglas and Dodge lireets to Capitol avenue there are eight ducts; on Capitol avenue from Sixteenth to Seventeenth street four ducts. For the purpose of supplying arc lumps there are from each alley to the intersecting streets on Farnam, Harney, Douglas and Dodge and from Ninth to Seventeenth strtets conduits of four ducts. In the entire system there are ninety seven manholes. Those which are located at the Intersections of the streets and al leys are seven by seven feet and from seven to nine feet In depth. They are built of brick laid In cement. In the alleys the manholes are six by six feet an! six feet deep. Plr.ced at each of the street corners for arc-lamp outlets are service boxes three feet six inches square and twenty-six and one-hilf feet deep with water tight Iron covers. All of the manholes have sewer connec tions for drainage. The fcervice connection for the power wires which carry about 500 volte will be run through conduits of rolled paper and for the secondary distributing system the Edison three-wire iron tubes will be used. In this system three bare wires are laid In the tube and the tube is then filled with nn insulating compound. These wires will carry but 212 volts of alternating current for low-pressure service. The cables in the ducts which will carry the primary current of 2.080 volts will all be lead sheathed. Th"? Edison tubes re ferred to come In twenty foot lengths and are laid right In the ground. They aro coupled together by split cast-iron boxes. The rollt d paper etnduits are laid In con t rete. In the Thomson-Houston system, and In fact with all of the light and pewer wires, there is absolute underground distribu tion and there are no wires above the surface. As to telephone and telegrai.Tjf wires, this cannot be applied ns there must be some overhead wires. The conduit system used by the telephone company consists of irrn pipes laid In con crete iu much the same manner as the day tiles. Thse conduits terminate In manholes which are generally located In the center of a block in one of the alleys end at that point the cables are run up a pole from wh -re the distribution Is accom plished. Therefore there must be overhead distribution for distances of one block. Win n the tile conduits of the Thom-fcou-lloubti ii company are completed the next work prt pa rat try to putting thtm Into service will b the interesting process of rodding them or testing them with rods. The rod to be used in this test is a very ingtnious mechanical device knewn as a "monkey," which is so constructed as to work its own way through the duct. The rod in I! 3 progress through the ducts will be followed by a wire and then the rope which in turn will be used in drawing the rabies through.
