Mouse Saved The Day

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30811, 24 July 1965, Page 5

Mouse Saved The Day

i MOUSE solved in 90 1 minutes an engineering problem that stumped four postal employees for threel days in London. The four workers were told , to lay a 30ft telephone cable : through a three-inch space I between a water main and a j thick metal sheaf which en-l closes the main. The main! runs beneath a railroad grade I crossing. Every time the men tried j to thread the cable through; the gap between the main! and the sheaf, the cable got! stuck in a sharp turn in the| main. Finally one of the men! said: "Let’s try a mouse.” Charlie Lyon and Trevor'

llJackson caught three field ; I mice near their homes. They took them to work in ■ a box, tied a thread to one mouse’s tail and headed it into lithe gap. ; The mouse reversed itself. •; The men tried again. 11 Slowly the mouse crept forward. Mr Lyon went to the i i exit and waited. i At last the mouse emerged, the thread still tied to its (tail. At the other end of the gap, Mr Jackson tied a stout piece of string to the thread. IMr Lyon pulled it through. ! Then Mr Jackson tied a ' piece of wire to the string land attached the cable to the I wire. Mr Lyon pulled this •through. The job was done.