The Western Union splice

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rattus

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In my old age, I watch a lot of videos on Youtube. The author of the video aeems to think that it was something new. Its advantage is superior pull strength which would be needed with overhead single wires.
 
For some reason (not sure why) they taught us about this in apprentice school in the 80's. I used to live near some railroad tracks and you could see these splices on the old abandoned wires. If I had to guess they must have been about 75+ years old and were still intact.
 
rnatalie said:
Learned to do those fifty years ago when string ham radio antennas.
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Wow, did that ever bring back a memory! When I was six and in the first grade, I found a book in the school library about radios, including how to make a foxhole radio. (I was reading way beyond Dick and Jane by then.)

I strung a wire from a stand-off insulator I attached next to my window out to a tree, with a porcelain egg insulator. The head of my bed was next to the hall-bath tub cut-off valve access panel, so I had a ground handy.
 
LarryFine said:
Wow, did that ever bring back a memory! When I was six and in the first grade, I found a book in the school library about radios, including how to make a foxhole radio. (I was reading way beyond Dick and Jane by then.)

I strung a wire from a stand-off insulator I attached next to my window out to a tree, with a porcelain egg insulator. The head of my bed was next to the hall-bath tub cut-off valve access panel, so I had a ground handy.
Click to expand...
Learned that 65 years ago in the electrical portion of my USN electronics school.

Grounds? My knob and tube house never heard of no stinkin' grounds.

Didn't care which wire was hot or neutral either.

Neither did my little AM radio with the long wire antenna out to the garage.

Just like the long wire antenna's I took care of on those USN big grey boats.

Picked up all those 50KW stations around the country.

Could listen to different episodes of the Lone Ranger in NY and Chicago the same night.
 
When I was 12, I strung an "aerial" parallel with the HV lines. Heard noting but 60Hz hum. Big brother said, "Dummy, string the wire at 90 degrees to the HV." It worked!
 
rnatalie said:
Learned to do those fifty years ago ...
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Yup, likewise. And before today, hadn't heard a peep about them for almost thirty years.

I had difficulty teaching folks how to make them correctly, crossing over and winding each free end on the other wire stub. They consistently wanted to make two interlocking loops, with the free end wound on the same wire stub, with little structural rigidity or contact area. Then I made two examples, one the right way and one wrong, with two different colors of insulated solid wire. All you had to do was pick them up and you could see which was which, and why.
 
the EC I apprenticed to taught me how to do them. I was still using them to some extent as recently as 2010, which is when I finally put away my solder pot and started using wire nuts. Now I use push ins. What a world.
 
My dad didn't believe in child labor laws... Solder pots and "tar tape" for Christmas :)
(and folks wonder why I'm "warped') LOL
 
K8MHZ said:
Of course it's not new, but it is a great splice if done properly.
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Learned it in vo tech school but while a field wireman in the Army we had twisted #16 guage 7 strand wire for telephones. 3 or 4 of the coated wires were steel and the rest coated copper. Would make western union splices 6" apart then tie wire to 2 poles and sit on it for a minute. If splices were made correctly would support you. In Nam some clowns would cut our phone lines down and use them for clothes lines. Was great when you had a load on and wire caught you in the neck. After a few of these runs ins always carried wire cutters with me to fix neck breakers. Young sparkies probably never heard of them.
 
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