atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Lead Jacketed Cable.

It was entirely dependent upon the engineers' vision of how many circuits might be needed. A typical residential block in an inner city would have a 600-pair feeder cable, distributed to all the little buildings via block cables of 25 to 100 pair capacity.

A high-rise office building might have multiple 1200, 2400, or 3600 pair cables to service the high-density office spaces.

Often, when a building occupancy was changed from, say, a loft building doing light manufacturing, fed with 100 pairs, to offices, the company would blow out the side of the nearest manhole, install a 600-pair cable, and run new risers to the floors.

Once the lead cable was terminated within a building, is that where/when service to the various floors/suites was usually transitioned over to PVC jacketed multi-pair cables?

There was a period of time before plastic was invented, during which the only cable jacket was lead.

Most "pre-war" (between WW1 and WW2) city buildings had lead/pulp house cables (risers from the basement to floors) and local cables (horizontal on a particular floor.)

Later, there was a transition to PIC in feeders, risers, and horizontal cabling.

There are still many millions of feet of lead cable still in service, in buildings, in the ground, in ducts, and in the air.
The people who knew how to trouble-shoot and repair them are all pensioned off, along with the tools and knowledge. The phone companies are relying on a business model of going out of business before they need to replace the cables. Verizon's Chairman said that a few years ago, when he announced that copper phone service was dead and his company was now focusing on cellular service.

The "mechanics" that were responsible for maintaining the lead around here have dwindled down to one craftsman and a helper for all of Western PA. From time to time, a crew can be seen removing lead from poles, but as Arthur stated, there are millions of feet of lead in manholes and in older buildings. Here in western PA, the rule of thumb is lead feeder from the street transitioned to PIC in 80% of the buildings for riser cables.

There are some old buildings where the lead is still in use. This usually causes a lot of concern for the architects when remodeling, but, never given a second thought when the circuits work in the newly remodeled spaces. One day, when the last "mechanic" is gone, there will be a day of reckoning. If Verizon is smart, they will do like they did for CO change outs and hire responsible contractors to remove and replace the lead with PIC....but, whoever said Verizon was smart?

Rcaman

OK a little off track, but not much. I get a kick when I see the phone guy's all dressed up in their paper suits, hats, booties and mask to work lead. Guess I won't last much longer with all that lead in my system, maybe I'll come back as an anchor.

Much has changed about how people view lead since these cables were installed. Leaded gasoline is gone as is lead covered cables. Maybe the day may come when at&t and Verizon will flush cut dead cable on a case by case basis and dispose of it

Oh yeah, I know Paul, I still get a kick out of it when I see them all suited up. Of course I don't raz them...much.

In the early 80's I was an OSP Engineer. I still remember seeing, on the records, wooden ducts in the underground in Leavenworth, KS. I guess lead cable was no problem for the wood, becase it was encased in dirt, but still, thats a lot of weight.

My union (Local 3 IBEW) runs a class in High Voltage splicing. They used to run it down the hall from where the Telecom/Datacom classes were given and I used to BS with their instructors.

Electrical HV is or, if they've given it up, still has a significant amount of Lead cable and Lead wiping etc is still taught by these guys. I mentioned Lead telephone cable and they said that one of the modules for many years was a Telephone cable but a few years earlier (probably 10 years ago by now) it was phased out because there had been no call for it for several years.

I know Verizon still has lead around in some of the old situations, but they've been removing it whenever they work on it.

Sam

I remember the first time I helped remove an aerial lead cable. It was a short block long. We didn't know what we were doing and it was before all the safety requirements. We cut both ends of lead, then removed the three bolt clamps from the pole attachment. When we cut the support strand, it fell to the ground like it was shot from a missile launcher! _lots_ of weight there!

Jim