The Other Wire Revolution Traditional Cache
Vertighost: Cache owner (CO) has not responded and, as there's been no cache to find for for an extended period of time, I'm archiving it to keep it from continually showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements. In general, caches that have been archived due to maintenance issues or lack of cache owner communication are not eligible to be unarchived.
Vertighost
Geocaching HQ Volunteer Reviewer
The Other Wire Revolution
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Yesterday, I put out a nearby cache to commemorate the importance of the invention of barb-wire fencing. Today I am leaving a little bit of information about the other set of wires that changed the world.
In 1844, the United States Congress granted Samuel Morse $30,000 to build a 40-mile telegraph line between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C.. Morse began by having a lead-sheathed cable made. After laying seven miles underground, he tested it. He found so many faults with this system that he dug up his cable, stripped off its sheath, bought poles and strung his wires overhead.
On February 7, 1844, Morse inserted the following advertisement in the Washington newspaper: "Sealed proposals will be received by the undersigned for furnishing 700 straight and sound chestnut posts with the bark on and of the following dimensions to wit: 'Each post must not be less than eight inches in diameter at the butt and tapering to five or six inches at the top. Six hundred and eighty of said posts to be 24 feet in length, and 20 of them 30 feet in length.' One of the early Bell System lines was the Washington DC-Norfolk line which was for the most part, square sawn tapered poles of yellow pine treatedl with creosote. Some of these were still in service after 80 years.
(Courtesy Wikipedia)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Hfr lbhe rlr gb ybbx sbe na rlryrg.