5.021 - Cables, Science Service Historical Image Collection

1928 - underground electric arc light cable which is believed to be the oldest in the country at Industrial Museum of the Peaceful Arts

INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM RECEIVES FROM CORNELL UNIVERSITY PIECE OF OLDEST ARC LIGHT CABLE

CD 2055054 E&MP5.021

Cables, Coaxial

NOV 5 1928

The Industrial Museum of the Peaceful Arts has received from Cornell University a piece of the underground electric arc light cable which is believed to be the oldest in the country and which was buried on the Cornell Campus for over forty years. The cable was 500 feet in length, carried 20 amperes and conveyed current one way to two arc lamps in the steeple of the university chapel.

The cable was made about 1880 by Professors W.A. Anthony and G.S. Moler of the Cornell Department of Physics. Professor Moler’s story of how it was made is very interesting. They first wrapped muslin strips around a #8 copper wire. Then after drawing this wrapped wire through iron pipe, smoking hot tallow was poured in at tees along the joints of the pipe.

It is remarkable that the iron pipe of that day is still good pipe after being buried for over forty years and even more remarkable that the electric insulation in this cable is still in apparently as good condition as when it was made. It is another of those cases where the first workmen in the field were masters.

While the Industrial Museum of the Peaceful Arts generally portrays the newest principles and processes that make for our progress, this piece of cable takes its place with many other historical relics of interest which the Museum exhibits at 24 West 40th Street, New York City, such as the Eli Whitney Milling Machine, the early Hartford Automatic Screw Machine, Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod, the oldest telescope used for photographing the moon and constellations, and numerous others.