[Milsurplus] Re: [armyradios] OT: Foxhole Electronics

[C. Whitaker]

de WB2CPN
My uncle was a telegraph operator in WWI.  He was in
France for a while, but ended up in the Southwest US
someplace after the Armistice.  He once told us that a
telegraph wire like the ones on poles could be cut, hang
the cut ends on a fence while kept separated by a few
feet (yards ?), and the telegraph would often still work.
I still find that hard to believe, but he had no reason that
I know of to warp the truth.  Another mindboggler, and
a well documented fact:   While crossing the New Mexico
desert by train on his way back to Kentucky, the engine
quit.  So he and others got the telegraph wire off the pole,
he then touched the wire to the railroad rail so as to send
code.  Santa Fe Railroad I think it was, gave him a medal,
and a job, (and a house),  in Clovis.  That's where he
raised his family, and only visited his parents and relatives
in Kentucky.   He had a son, so the name Collins could
perhaps be found in Clovis, NM, to this day.
Weird Trivia.   73  Clete