softscan

The Greensboro Lumber Co., Greensboro, Ga. (LOC)

from The Library of Congress

• perfgeek said:

  Would those be telephone or telegraph lines?

• jdeavin said:

  the hi res LOC scan of this is soft.

• GroverH said:

  They are telephone lines, rural telephone companies were often co-ops financed by guaranteed loans through the Rural Electrification Administration. Thanks to FDR. (A telegraph line was a single wire, the earth was the return side of the circuit. Telephone lines were pairs of wires. Up to ten subscribers could share one pair -- a party line. It looks like about fifteen pairs on these poles, so that could be as many as 150 telephones, but was probably about 50 on party lines and five to ten expensive private lines)