Origin of term "JK" for quad "jake" cable - Sundance Business VOIP Telephone Help

On a quest for historical knowledge!

Does anyone know the origin use of the term "JK" for quad "jake" station cable?

Thanks.

I would tend to think that it was nomenclature by Western Electric, like "D,F,G,H,J or L" station wire, "D" inside wiring cable or "F" cross-connect wire.

I do know that in the 1950's and 1960's, there was "JKT" wire, which I believe was quad but 20 gauge unlike today's 22 gauge. It was the stuff about the size of coax (RG59) cable and had paper between the jacket and the conductors. The paper never came off without a fight.

People look at me like I am crazy when I mention "JK" wire these days, despite the fact that there are millions of miles of it carrying DSL and dial-up Internet connections. Of course, it's now been deemed to be the bad stuff even after fifty years.

So, what is the answer? Am I close?

I thought it was "JKT" for "jacketed" wire, as opposed to the old 3-conductor twisted wire, with the colored thread to denote the conductors?

Never thought about what it meant, didn't really care I guess. I do know as Ed stated it used to come in 20 gauge 3 wire with paper, there was a 4 wire also. I'll leave this one to you "older" techs.

Ed,
What is the difference between station cable and inside wiring cable?
What if JK is short for JACK?
just a thought...

Give TTT a cigar --- sorta!

The best was when we got "Touch Tone", now we carried even more stuff on our trucks.

Sometime I'll tell you the story of 17 ga aluminum OSP cable.

Okay, now back to sleep ----

the old 3-conductor twisted wire, with the colored thread to denote the conductors

That was and still is called "ring wire", now it's 1 pair.

-Hal

we called it bridle wire, not sure if the spelling is correct.

Yes, heard it called that too.

-Hal

Now you guys really woke me up.

Jeff --- station wire and inside wiring cable are like Ed and his "RJ 45". Station wire is usually considered "JK" (not jack) while cable is just that --- 12/25/50/100 pair CABLE.

"Ring wire" more commonly known as "bridle" (like a horses bridle) wire is similar to electrical "brewer cord" only solid core, not stranded. Bridle wire is used in OSP, and is not intended to be used indoors as it has a rubber-type insulation, similar to the old rubber drop wire.

Bridle wire got it's name because it was separated and looked like a horse's bridle when attached to open wire, one to tip and one to ring. The "rings" referred to are bridle rings to route the wiring to either another set of open wire, a terminal to feed the open wire, or to a 105 terminal to feed a service drop. "Sparkies" would call this a jumper.

Time for my nap -----

You are right Ken, guess we just used the term cause they looked similar, true bridle wire was larger.

Another fun wire is "bird" wire (B-Urban). Again a supposedly OSP wire that I've seen indoors.

Bill, sorry, I posted before I read --- the smaller "bridle" wire was a slick insulated annealed wire of 22 or 24 ga. and was actually fusing wire (acted as a fuse) to work in conjunction with lead cabling and later PIC risers.

Have a good evening,

Ken.

Here's some more brain candy for Jeff!

[Linked Image from img137.exs.cx]

Quad bridle wire is still heavily used in the big city environments around here. It's usually run from a cable terminal to a drop wire terminal at the pole. It's not used for fuse links much anymore; it's more of a weatherproof cross-connect wire.

It's also used where 25 or 50 pair wall-mounted terminals exist on the outside of buildings to extend pairs to adjacent NIDS being installed.

I still keep one-pair single-pair bridle wire in stock, and plenty of drive and bridle rings, but rarely use them anymore.

The only fat rubber bridle wire we see around these parts is in really, really old locations. Some of the independent LEC's around here still have plenty of the old stuff out there, but it's fading away as they are generally shifting to buried plant.

As for the station wire vs: inside wiring cable question: Station wire is not paired, it is two, three, four or six parallel conductors that are not twisted. Inside wiring cable is always twisted pair.

My grandmother's house in North Carolina was built in 1952 and virtually untouched since she built it. Both of her black rotary dial (still rented from United/Sprint/Embarq) phones were hardwired. They used the three-conductor fabric-insulated twisted wire cable without a jacket and 42A blocks. It was run along the baseboards using large-head tacks that were nailed between the conductor twists. All that was in her house was brown or maybe black, but I have also seen this wire in ivory color with plastic insulation in Bell territories.

eds post about his grandmother remnded me of this I read the other day

Quote

Friday, 15 September 2006
Widow Leases Phones for 42 Years
An Ohio woman spent thousands of dollars leasing two rotary phones over the course of four decades. Ester Strogen and her late husband first got their hands on the rotary-dial devices in 1964, and the Canton couple never saw a reason to cancel the contract, The Repository reports. But now Strogen's granddaughters are buzzing mad, estimating that their 82-year-old granny rang up more than $14,000 in payments on the phones over the years. But Lucent Technologies says they've got the wrong number -- the $29.10 fee was charged quarterly, not monthly, so Strogen paid only about $2,000 over the lease's lifetime, according to the telephone company. Now that the granddaughters are on the case, the black rotary dinosaurs have been replaced by push-button phones. And that makes Strogen sad. "I'd like to have my rotary back," she said. "I like that better."

https://blog.wired.com/furthermore/#1557341

Ed can you take a picture of this bridle wire?
I can't exactly figure out what it looks like

Good for Ester!

In my house, there's a 1957 (1937 design) black North Electric model 20 (like a WECO 300, only way better looking) dial set by my easy chair, a very nice ivory mid-1950's Japanese copy of the Ericsson "french phone" -with a dial- in the hallway (that I just found out were sold by Bell), a weird and really ugly gag-me green wall phone in the upstairs hallway -with a dial- (possibly Japanese), and in my workshop, a black metal Automatic Electric manual wall phone that I added an AE dial to, and on my desk, A mid-1950's vintage white Ericophone.

In the kitchen, there's a dark green GTE Styleline (like a WECO Trimline) but it's touch-tone.

The wife insists on using the cordless...

can't imagine why

jsaxe

Jeff:

I just took a look and realized that what is referred to as "Bridle wire" is just a misnomer nowadays. Today's similar wire is actually known as "E Block wire". It looks the same, but bridle wire is one-pair, 14 gauge solid copper. The stuff that's being used today is 20 gauge, copper-coated steel. Each conductor has a black outer jacket. A second internal jacket is color-coded green, red, black and yellow. When you strip it, you can see what color the wire is by looking at the end. I guess it's just another one of those RJ45 things.

Here's a link to Superior-Essex's site to better describe it:

https://www.superioressex.com/products/premises/e-block.htm

14 gauge! wow.
Now here is what they call bridle wire...
https://www.superioressex.com/products/premises/spec-sheet/bridle-wr.pdf

That old 3 wire conductor here is know as pair and a half

Around here we call 'JAKE' ''crosstalk wire''. :p

Jsaxe 1- Museum
2- Upgrade

Upgrade, me?

Naaaah, they'll look great on the three Philco radio consoles (vintage 1939, '42, '46) I dragged home last week.

jsaxe

Just messin with ya jsaxe, I can appreciate an antique telephone collection. I have a few old sets from probably the 50's. Their neat to tinker with.

J K wire is that, a sequence of design for inside wire