SILENT SIGNALS

Northern Advocate, 21 August 1929, Page 3

SILENT SIGNALS

TELEPHONES OUT OF ORDER

NORTHERN CABLE FLOODED

■STEPS FOR RELIEF,

Six hundred subscribers to the Whangarci telephone exchange have ibeeu cut o(T since eight o’clock on Monday evening, as the result of a fault in the main north cable.

The trouble was caused through a sudden downpour of rain while plumbing operations were in hand at the water-trough corner. It appears that a bundle of newspapers and wood was washed down the gutter against the mouth of pipes .specially provided to prevent the job being affected by storm water. .Owing to the banking up, the water washed away the temporary protection, flooded the footpath and seeped through into the cable, which was dampened for a considerable distance under the road.

The repairing staff worked all Monday night to .remedy the fault, and Messrs D. O’Leary and D. Donaldson, telegraphic engineers, arrived from Auckland by the late train last night to supervise operations. At the corner of Bank Street and Mill Road a big gang is working, and the position is gradually improving. Desiccating air is being run through the cable.

If the dampness does not extend for more than four feet the .experts think that the improvement will continue as this process takes effect, but if the method adopted does not prove expeditious enough more desperate measures will be taken and the cable broken up. Some years ago a similar flooding put 000 jfbones out of action in Auckland. The'magneto telephones were in working order in a day and a half, but three days elapsed before the automatics were again in use. It is expected that all phones will l)e working in Whangarei again tomorrow. Two pumps for desiccating air will arrive by train at 6 o’clock tonight.