Alberta Online Encyclopedia
 |
||
 |
||
 |
 |
|
 |
Archie the Linemen - Page 4 [<<Previous][Next>>]
When Gordon eventually grew tired of this entertainment Archie turned his attention to food. Apple was actually his second choice in the pie department. Rhubarb was the favorite, and he and Nelly grew it in their garden, but rhubarb pie was on the menu only in season. Apples could be dried and cooked year round, but the technology of deep freezing was many years off. How Archie would have loved a rhubarb pie on this night, even though the deep freeze, if invented, would have given Mr. Wheatley's power plant a breakdown. But he celebrated his good fortune in having apple pie with an extra-large serving. And then, having packed away a second helping "for the road," and having paid all suitable compliments to the chef and having entertained Gordon to the point of drowsiness, he went to the exchange to spend the evening looking for trouble. "Well, here comes the man of the hour," they said. They all said it. Mrs. Selfridge, the girl helping at the switchboard, the man trying to phone Calgary, the farmer taking shelter from the storm before starting the last five miles home. Archie was certainly the man of the hour at all the spots where the storm had made trouble. The wind was still growling, but its bite was now so reduced that Archie felt it would not make any more trouble. He could now begin to chart the trouble spots and plan the tour that would last for days until he had visited every one. Mrs. Selfridge had a list of five town phones which were out of order but town dwellers would have to wait till last. A person with four blocks to walk was not so inconvenienced by loss of the phone as a farmer living four miles from town. On the other hand, a long-distance line out of order in one corner of the province could inconvenience people in the opposite corner, so they came first. "How are the rural lines?" he asked. "Lines One and Four are OK, but Line Two is out past McQuarrie's and on Line Three I can only get as far as Greenfield's." Archie was pleased that Herbert Greenfield still had service. He was a provincial cabinet minister and former premier of Alberta. W. A. C. Bennett, who had the hardware store in town, would one day become premier of British Columbia, but Archie didn't know about that. "Better test them out," he said. So he went behind the switchboard with a test set similar to the one he'd been making that afternoon. The set had two wires with a clip on each end. He attached one clip to Line Two and the other to the telltale. The telltale was a buzzer inside the switchboard. It could tell Archie something about the nature of the trouble, whether it was an open or a short. When a line was open it meant the wire was physically broken. If it was short it meant two wires had crossed to create a short circuit. Archie would know which it was when he turned the crank of the test set and sent a burst of alternating current out on the line. If the current came back and jangled the buzzer the line had a short. If the line was broken there was no return for the current and the telltale remained silent. Archie turned the crank and listened for a report on Line Two. The telltale remained mute. Then he clipped his testwire to Line Three and cranked again. This time the telltale produced a jangled yawping. ) Archie had a sketch map of the district. On it he marked the trouble accordingly. He noted that on Line Two seven outlying farms were isolated from the exchange and on Line Three twelve farms were cut off. However, and this is a very large however, they were not isolated from each other. People on the outlying farms could still ring each other in the normal way, and if an urgent message had to go to Dr. Miller or Mr. Tice, the English druggist, it could be relayed from McQuarrie's or Greenfield's. Archie knew the isolated ones would be patient. They knew he'd be along as soon as the long-distance lines were working. Archie's next move was to check the long lines, beginning with Toll Route 196 which ran west, into the steep hills and tall timber and ended in the back kitchen of his father-in-law Will Wallace at Campsie. For this check he wished to talk to AGT agents on the route so he connected his butt-in to Toll Line 196. The butt-in was a small portable telephone designed especially for technicians. It doubtless had an official name which everyone had forgotten. It was so light and compact that Archie could carry one to the top of a pole, connect it to a line and "butt in" to talk to the operator in the nearest exchange. Or, if he was in the exchange he could connect it to the line in back of the switchboard and work without disturbing the operator. Toll Line 196 might have been laid out by a rabbit playing games with a fox. It zigged and zagged and doubled back through farm houses and stores at Eastburg, Rossington, Southworth, Manola, Lunford, Heaton Moor, Freedom and Carlton Hill before terminating in Archie's father-in-law's kitchen. Archie connected his test set to the line and cranked out five short rings, the signal for Campsie, and was delighted to hear Mr. Wallace's Glasgow accents, fuzzy but steady. Archie traded news about daughter Helen and grandson Gordon for news that the snow was not so heavy farther west. Archie nodded approvingly. With any luck Route 196 would ride out the storm. Then he clipped the butt-in to Toll Route 117, which also ran west and ended at historic Fort Assinaboine on the Athabasca River. "I think there's a swinging short on that one," said Mrs. Selfridge from the other side of the board. A swinging short was caused by one wire swaying in the wind, making sporadic contact with another. When the momentary short circuit resulted, the voice faded - and then came back. Archie could use his test set to fix the location of a regular short, but not one of the swinging variety, so he went to work with the butt-in, calling the most remote station on the line and working closer. He began with Mrs. Thompson, who had the agency in her farm home at Fort Assiniboine. Her familiar voice faded and surged. He tried Elmer Lucas at Bloomsbury. Still fading. He paged Chris Ingwerson at Neerlandia, with the same results. From Mellowdale the voice of Mrs. Elmendorf came and went. Davis was next, in the ranch house of T. M. Davis, and Mr. Davis came through deep and clear. Archie marked in a swinging short between Davis and Mellowdale, and told no one in particular that when the wind puffed out he'd be either lucky or unlucky. If he was in luck the swinging wire would sag clear of its neighbor and there'd be no more trouble. But it could just as easily droop into a permanent contact and he would be out of luck. Archie was out of luck. Having dealt with the west, Archie focussed on the south-to-north route. He put his equipment on Toll Line 264, which came from Edmonton through St. Albert and Westlock and on north through Pibroch, Dapp, Jarvie, Fawcett and Flatbush. Eventually AGT would extend that route to connect with the Peace River Country, but it would not be for many years, not until after the second world war. Within the Peace River country an AGT phone network linked the towns and farms but communication with the rest of Alberta was by telegraph or mail. For another twenty years the province would be too poor to bridge the gap. Archie found Route 264 noisy but strong as far as it went. He then turned his attention eastward and asked Mrs. Selfridge to get Miss Cuthiell, the agent at Clyde. Miss Cuthiell had a smaller switchboard, with a dozen town subscribers and fifty farms on party lines, but she also had Toll Route 116, the most important long distance line in Archie's territory. It ran from Edmonton to Athabasca, with connections to Lac La Biche and Calling Lake. Archie heard Miss Cuthiell's voice. "Oh, I have news for YOU," it said. Archie smiled. The local telephone operator was the ace reporter of all events in range of her switchboard: the details of accidents, the scores of hockey games, the whereabouts of doctors, the lateness of trains. Miss Cuthiell delivered the telephone news in dramatic steps. [<<Previous][Next>>] Copyright © 2004 Heritage Community Foundation and Telephone Historical Centre All Rights Reserved |
 |
 |
||
)