Necessity is the mother of invention

RicInOR · Sep 28, 2017

Barbed Wire Telephone. (wires)
Barbed Wire Telephone Lines Brought Isolated Homesteaders Together

funny thing is, in the 90's I worked tech support (phone) and I had a caller I still remember.
He had set up a barbed wire network. Used the computer in the barn to track his cows etc, used the wire to connect to other monitors/devices at places like the feed stations, loading shoot etc.
Was just transmitting short packets - cows number, code for what was included.
Not like all the overhead NWFA uses.

I had no idea he has just re-purposed an earlier idea.

dangerranger60 · Sep 28, 2017

When I was a kid we still had "Party Lines". Our ring was two long and two short rings. And as the article said there was no privacy on the phone! It was the mid 60's before we got a private line!

mkwerx · Sep 28, 2017

Dude we had a party line for a few years when I was a kid - I grew up about 1.5 miles due south of Reedville / Hillsboro. As of 5 years ago there was still no cable, no FiOS, no DSL or ISDN available on that street. Satellite internet, cellular, or dialup (not even 56k - best connection we ever got was 30

) i think it was about '87 when we got our own private line...

Ura-Ki · Sep 28, 2017

We had a party line in Sweet Home till about 88 or so before we got a separate line! Used to have a nosie neighbor who always listend in, and could be counted on to spread gossip! Grand Dad had a phone in the shop, and another one in the barn, two bare wires strung out with old ceramic fuses as insulators! Worked great, even in the rain! If he had thought of it, im sure he would have used barbed wire!!!

mkwerx · Sep 29, 2017

Ura-Ki said:
We had a party line in Sweet Home till about 88 or so before we got a separate line! Used to have a nosie neighbor who always listend in, and could be counted on to spread gossip! Grand Dad had a phone in the shop, and another one in the barn, two bare wires strung out with old ceramic fuses as insulators! Worked great, even in the rain! If he had thought of it, im sure he would have used barbed wire!!!

If I had a party line today and nosey neighbors I would spin some tall tales to get a feel for who they were, and deal accordingly

Only folks listening in on my conversations today are NSA nerds...