The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

698 POLES ON THE HINDOSTAN LINES.
coated with gas or coal tar, and many of them, even through
the interior of Russia, are painted a lead color. They are well
set in the earth from four to five feet, about twenty-five feet
long, and at least five inches in diameter at the top. There
are, on an average, twenty-five to the mile.
In Austria, the G-erman States, Denmark, and Sweden, the
poles are as those in Prussia. In Denmark, on the island of
Zealand, a pole line has been erected to supersede the underground line from Copenhagen to Corsor, along the Royal Danish
railway. I have lost the details of the expense of this line, but
I well remember, on being consulted about the building of it, by
the very able administrator-in-chief, Mr. Faber, the propositions received estimated the poles at from one to two dollars
each.
POLES ON THE HINDOSTAN TELEGRAPH LINES.
In India the telegraphs have been constructed under the direction of the distinguished telegraph pioneer, Dr. O'Shaughnessy. In this country there are two kinds of lines; the first
are those put up speedily, as temporary or flying lines, in order
to establish correspondence between any two or more places, in
cases of emergency, for the government. On these lines single
iron rods, five sixteenths of an inch, galvanized, 1,120 lbs. per
mile, have been run across the country, supported on bamboos,
palm-trees, guran posts, and other light and cheap timbers available in the districts, painted with coal tar, and planted fifty feet
apart. No insulators are used, the rod being laid in the notches
cut in the posts. The other, or second kind of lines, are more
substantial than the first or temporary lines. On the substantial lines, sixty lofty posts of the best timber procurable, each
shod with an iron screw-pile, penetrating three feet into the
ground, are erected to each mile. On these posts insulating
brackets of great strength are fastened, and the iron wire or
rods, No 1 Birmingham gauge, are keyed or braced so as to
allow, at the lowest point, sixteen feet above the level of the
ground, to permit laden elephants to pass under the lowest part
of the line.
These lines are built of poles of the iron-wood from Arracan,
which are known to be almost indestructible by damp, fungus,
or insects. This wood is so hard that it is cut with difficulty
by the axe. It is very heavy, and the transportation expensive.
It is used in its sapling form, and the posts are, on an average,
twenty-four feet high, and five to six inches diameter at the
base. The butt end is tapered by the adze and plane, so as to
fit closely into the hollow iron screw-pile, in which they are to