

The Telephone Tower in Stockholm circa 1890s - Rexxar
http://www.vintag.es/2013/09/the-telephone-tower-in-stockholm-ca.html

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jws
What leads to that design? I mean, why are they going to such expense to keep
wire separated? Was insulation prohibitive? Had twisted pairs not been
invented yet, making crosstalk too severe on closely bundled wires?

~~~
chronomex
That was before high-quality wire insulation was invented. Each subscriber's
telephone line had to be physically separate from all the others, because they
weren't coated in anything.

[http://scienceray.com/technology/information/open-wire-
telep...](http://scienceray.com/technology/information/open-wire-telephone-
lines/)

~~~
darkmighty
I guess the great shift were low cost polymers for insulation. In the early
20th century rubber was very expensive, extracted from trees (in a process
much like maple syroup extraction I guess).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Latex-
production.jpg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Latex-production.jpg)

~~~
chronomex
Actually before that came paper insulated cable: [http://www3.alcatel-
lucent.com/bstj/vol12-1933/articles/bstj...](http://www3.alcatel-
lucent.com/bstj/vol12-1933/articles/bstj12-1-1.pdf)

These cables had paper pulp insulation around the wires, and a jacket of soft
lead around the whole cable. The cable is pressurized with dry air at the
central office to drive out water, though flooded lines can still be a problem
sometimes.

If you see any dirty-light-grey aerial cable (usually 2-5 cm diameter) in a
city, that's probably pulp-insulated lead cable still in service.

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eik3_de
Nowadays.. not so much better in some places:
[http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/05/cable-blues-
tangled-...](http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/05/cable-blues-tangled-
crazy-wiring-part-6.html)

~~~
jamescun
More cablefails
[http://www.reddit.com/r/cablefail](http://www.reddit.com/r/cablefail)

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fidotron
Absolutely amazing, and my gut reaction is surprise it lasted so long before
inevitably burning up.

Also quite interesting how they integrated it with the city aesthetics of the
time, complete with the flags. When viewed from a distance it doesn't look
quite as odd as it otherwise might have done had no consideration to that side
of things happened.

~~~
Zirro
"...and my gut reaction is surprise it lasted so long before inevitably
burning up."

The fire started in the building below it, and didn't have anything to do with
the structure itself. By 1953 the tower hadn't been used for its original
purpose for many decades, with the wires having been removed in favour of
underground cables.

The flags, however, were used for various informational purposes, such as
indicating how many medals Sweden had received in international competitions
for a particular day.

(My main source is this clip, in Swedish:
[http://www.svd.se/nyheter/stockholm/mitt-
stockholm/7695700_7...](http://www.svd.se/nyheter/stockholm/mitt-
stockholm/7695700_7695700.svd))

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byoung2
The picture with the cars must have been much later than 1890's:

[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gWoq9XFG7Go/UkgDSfJDziI/AAAAAAAAPK...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gWoq9XFG7Go/UkgDSfJDziI/AAAAAAAAPKs/p2ZvGCZg1cQ/s1600/The+%E2%80%9CTelephone+Tower%E2%80%9D+in+Stockholm,+ca.+1890%27s+%287%29.jpg)

The tower was still standing until 1953, so this picture must be from the
later years of the tower's life.

~~~
_mulder_
I'd imagine all but the first two were taken in the later part of it's life as
there are not many cables!

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phkamp
Alcatel-Lucent has scanned and put the entire Bell Systems Technical Journal
online. There is a lot about research and inventions to try to manage the
"outside plant" and how better and better cables were invented.

You can fit all of it on a 16GB SD card for your eBook reader, and you will
never be bored again, at least not if you skip some of the calculus :-)

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willvarfar
I have a hazy recollection of an NK spinning logo still in Stockholm; is that
thr logo on this tower, and is the logo still around?

~~~
mrkickling
NK is "Nordiska Kompaniet", a mall in Stockholm that has been around since
early 1900s. The logo (also a clock) is quite a famous landmark in Stockholm.
The clock/logo was put on the telephone tower in 1939 being the biggest clock
in Europe at it's time with a diameter of 7.6 meters and a weight of 7 tons.

It was removed from the telephone tower in the 50's and put on NK's building
instead.

This is the clock today:
[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NK_klocka_2013.jpgv](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NK_klocka_2013.jpgv)

~~~
evan_
you put an extra "v" on the link when you were pasting, it should be
[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NK_klocka_2013.jpg](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NK_klocka_2013.jpg)

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ibmthrowaway218
Reminds me of visiting Chile.

