Arthur,
Black and White were also used for "Bright-Pix" twin lead antenna wire. I have also used "rotor" wire, both 4 and 5 conductor to get to a phone.
In rural Western PA, there are still some places where open wire is used along railroad tracks for telephone distribution. This could go for miles and miles. Telephone poles, not unlike the old "antique" New York "fish tails," (
Click Here) run along rail road right-of-ways. An 80' pole with 12 cross arms and 10 open wire "pairs" per cross arm. ( By the way, there were no bucket trucks back then. The lineman crawled out on the cross arm to get to the conductors) A lineman, working on this distribution and having a shiny new Beco butt set (affectionately referred to as "the nut cracker") would tap a line for testing. If it was raining, the technician would run the risk of getting 80 to 120VAC to the ear when the switchman "goosed" the line and the technician had that Beco butt set cradled in between his shoulder and ear. Ah....the bad 'ole days.
Rcaman
