On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 19:16:48 -0400, Peter T. Keillor III
wrote:

On 5 Apr 2005 10:18:16 -0700, jim rozen
wrote:

In article , Robert Swinney says...

Jim, I don't think you are referring to old fashioned "grounded" single wire
(literally one wire) telephone service.

That's what they had up the canyon I think. Everyone was on one
line. A pretty remote area. I don't think it was fence wire
though, it was copper.

Jim

I've seen something like that in far west Texas, near London. There
were glass insulators spiked in the top of fence posts.

Pete Keillor

I have friend there who had to hang and maintain his own phone wire;
all 16 miles of it. Had to install taller posts at every ranch
entrance; both of them. Wire was copper coated steel.

His was a little place. Only 7 miles of road frontage. but it was 12
miles deep.