REMARKABLE USES OF THE TELEGRAPH.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 143, 17 December 1881, Page 4

REMARKABLE USES OF THE TELEGRAPH.

« It appears that in Norway the erection of the telegraph poles and wires suffices to scare away wolvea, and that many miles have been erected with the double purpose of securing rapid intercommunication and of clearing the districts of the "night prowler." An Scandinavia whole provinces have been cleared of tho grey wolf simply by the erection of telegraph poles and wires. If the telegraph has banished one " enemy," however, it has attracted others, some of which unconsciously and with wasted labour help to destroy the telegraph itself. Most persons are familiar with the singing noise produoed by the action of th» wind on the wires, and in this country tho birds appear to understand it too; bufc in Norway the woodpeckers are not yet sufficiently educated, for in one night they often peck holes quite through the poled, and rain them as supports for the telegraph wires. The explanation is that the birJs have mistaken the humming ot the wires tor the buzzing of insects, and in their endeavours to reach the anticipated toast hava pecked the posts right through, only to be disappointed. The vibration of tho wires, communicates itself to the poles, and thei birds are deceived by the sounds produceci in the wood —an explanation which iB feasible, because it is known that spiders are similarly deluded by vibrating a tuniugiork near their weba, when they rush out in the hope of securing the fly whioh they imagine is producing the buzzing n rise.