Robert Swinney wrote:

Respectively beg to differ, Martin. The standard telephone wire was #9
copper. It was copper, not plated with anything. There is quite a lot of it
still around. Generally the telegraph lines were heavier and sometimes they
were made of iron. I'm not sure why - extra storm protection maybe.


Robert, One thing I'm absolutely certain of is when they finally ran the
phone line up the two mile road to the little comunity of Marrysville in
PA, where we lived at the time, in the 1940s (late, after the war) they
used steel wire plated with copper. I collected some of the scraps
hoping to use it. :-(
...lew...