Editing Utility pole (section)

==History==
[[File:Hakodate-Concrete-Utility-Pole.jpg|thumb|From 1923, the oldest utility pole in Japan, still in use in the city of Hakodate.]]
[[File:Art work of Toledo, Ohio - DPLA - 0a107364e8d8eb430ebc183d28c46463 (page 107) (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Utility poles seen outside the Gardner Building, in [[Toledo, Ohio]], 1895]]
The system of suspending telegraph wires from poles with ceramic insulators was invented and patented by British telegraph pioneer [[William Fothergill Cooke]].  Cooke was the driving force in establishing the [[electrical telegraph]] on a commercial basis.  With [[Charles Wheatstone]] he invented the [[Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph]] and founded the world's first telegraph company, the [[Electric Telegraph Company]].  Telegraph poles were first used on the [[Great Western Railway]] in 1843 when the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph line was extended to [[Slough]]. The line had previously used buried cables but that system had proved troublesome with failing insulation.<ref name=Kieve>Kieve, Jeffrey L., ''The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History'', David and Charles, 1973 {{oclc|655205099}}.</ref>{{rp|32}}  In Britain, the trees used for telegraph poles were either native [[larch]] or [[pine]] from Sweden and Norway.  Poles in early installations were treated with tar, but these were found to last only around seven years.  Later poles were treated instead with [[creosote]] or [[copper sulphate]] for the preservative.<ref name=Kieve/>{{rp|80}}

Utility poles were first used in the mid-19th century in [[United States|America]] with telegraph systems. In 1844, the [[United States Congress]] granted [[Samuel Morse]] $30,000 ({{Inflation|US|30000|1844|fmt=eq|r=-2}}) 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 {{convert|7| miles||spell=in}} 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.'"

In some parts of Australia, wooden poles are rapidly destroyed by [[termite]]s, so metal poles must be used instead and in much of the interior wooden poles are vulnerable to fire.  The [[Oppenheimer pole]] is a collapsible [[wrought iron]] pole in three sections.  It is named after Oppenheimer and Company in Germany, but they were mostly manufactured in England under license.<ref>[https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/HRP.Overland%20Telegraqph%20Joining%20Point ''Nomination for Engineering Heritage Recognition: The Overland Telegraph Line 'Joining Point', Frews Pond, Northern Territory''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911194134/https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/HRP.Overland%20Telegraqph%20Joining%20Point |date=2014-09-11 }}, [[Engineers Australia]], June 2012.</ref>  They were used on the [[Australian Overland Telegraph Line]] built in 1872 which connected the continent north to south directly through the centre and linked to the rest of the world through a [[submarine communications cable|submarine cable]] at [[Darwin, Australia|Darwin]].<ref>McMullen, Ron, "The Overland Telegraph", [http://w1tp.com/mron.htm ''The Australian Telegraph Office''] (CD ROM).</ref>  The Stobie pole was invented in 1924 by James Cyril Stobie of the [[Adelaide Electric Supply Company]] and first used in [[South Terrace, Adelaide]].<ref>Rob Linn, ''ETSA – The Story of Electricity in South Australia'', pp. 38–39, 1996.</ref>

One of the early [[Bell System]] lines was the Washington DC–Norfolk line which was, for the most part, square-sawn tapered poles of [[List of Pinus species|yellow pine]] probably treated to refusal with [[creosote]]. "Treated to refusal" means that the manufacturer forces preservatives into the wood, until it refuses to accept more, but performance is not guaranteed.<ref>{{cite web
 |publisher   = Western Wood Preserver's Institute
 |url         = http://www.wwpinstitute.org/documents/TreatedtoRefusalAlert.pdf
 |title       = "Treated to refusal" does not meet the requirements of the international building codes
 |access-date  = October 13, 2016
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20160812152017/http://wwpinstitute.org/documents/TreatedtoRefusalAlert.pdf
 |archive-date = August 12, 2016
}}</ref>
Some of these were still in service after 80 years.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=American Wood Preservers' Association|year=1978|url=http://www.pmcpole.com/cms/AWPA_poleMaintenance_paper.pdf|title=Pole Maintenance-Its Need and Its Effectiveness|author=James A. Taylor Timber Products Specialist Rural Electrification Administration U.S. Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715094205/http://www.pmcpole.com/cms/AWPA_poleMaintenance_paper.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-15}}</ref> The building of pole lines was resisted in some urban areas in the late 19th century,{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} and political pressure for [[undergrounding]] remains powerful in many countries.

In [[Eastern Europe]], Russia, and third-world countries, many utility poles still carry bare communication wires mounted on insulators not only along railway lines, but also along roads and sometimes even in urban areas. Errant traffic being uncommon on railways, their poles are usually less tall. In the United States electricity is predominately carried on unshielded [[aluminium|aluminum]] conductors wound around a solid steel core and affixed to rated insulators made from glass, ceramic, or poly. Telephone, CATV, and FOCs are generally attached directly to the pole without insulators.

In the United Kingdom, much of the rural electricity distribution system is carried on wooden poles. These normally carry electricity at 11 or 33&nbsp;kV (three phases) from 132&nbsp;kV substations supplied from [[Transmission tower|pylons]] to distribution substations or pole-mounted transformers. Wooden poles have been used for 132&nbsp;kV for a number of years from the early 1980s one is called the trident they are usually used on short sections, though the line from Melbourne, Cambs to near Buntingford, Herts is quite long. The conductors on these are bare metal connected to the posts by insulators. Wood poles can also be used for [[low voltage]] distribution to customers.

[[File:Upoles ottawa.jpg|left|thumb|Poles in [[Ottawa, Ontario]], Canada]]

Today, utility poles may hold much more than the uninsulated copper wire that they originally supported. Thicker cables holding many [[twisted pair]], [[coaxial cable]], or even [[fibre-optic]], may be carried. Simple analogue [[repeater]]s or other [[outside plant]] equipment have long been mounted against poles, and often new digital equipment for [[multiplexing]]/demultiplexing or digital repeaters may now be seen. In many places, as seen in the illustration, providers of electricity, television, telephone, street light, traffic signal and other services share poles, either in joint ownership or by renting space to each other. In the United States, ANSI standard 05.1.2008<ref>[http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1997/wolfe97b.pdf Standard specifications for wood poles] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224031935/http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1997/wolfe97b.pdf |date=2012-02-24 }} US Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory</ref> governs wood pole sizes and strength loading. Utilities that fall under the [[Rural Electrification Act]] must also follow the guidelines set forth in RUS Bulletin 1724E-150<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usda.gov/rus/electric/bulletins.htm |title=USDA Rural Development's Electric Programs - Bulletins |access-date=2009-01-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115194247/http://www.usda.gov/rus/electric/bulletins.htm |archive-date=2009-01-15 }}</ref> (from the US Department of Agriculture) for pole strength and loading.

Steel utility poles are becoming more prevalent in the United States thanks to improvements in engineering and corrosion prevention coupled with lowered production costs. However, premature failure due to corrosion is a concern when compared to wood.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pmcpole.com/cms/CorrosionManagementDocument.pdf|title=PMCPOLE.COM|website=www.pmcpole.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114191250/http://www.pmcpole.com/cms/CorrosionManagementDocument.pdf|archive-date=2009-01-14}}</ref> [http://www.NACE.org The National Association of Corrosion Engineers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619154509/http://nace.org/content.cfm?parentid=1020&currentID=1132 |date=2010-06-19 }} or NACE is developing inspection, maintenance, and prevention procedures similar to those used on wood utility poles to identify and prevent decay.