Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1881 — A Novel Idea. [ARTICLE]

A Novel Idea.

A farmer in lowa sends the following novel proposition respecting telephone facilities to the lowa State Register: “Will not some of those smart patent right men invent us a cheap insulator ? Then we can utilize our wire fences for telephones, and have the whole country connected and in speaking distance of each other. At the road crossings insulated cables can be run under ground, or regular poles can be planted to raise the wires above travel. In riding around I notice we have a continuous wire on the fences already. All we need is an insulator, costing a small sum and which is so arranged that the wire can be tightened, and held firmly and securely, and we shall have the line already strung that will do away with a telegraph monopoly (if there is one.) Then make each postoffice a telephone exchange, and business for farmers will be expedited, saving many trips to town to order parts of machinery, or to learn if some important letter has arrived. Visiting friends can notify us of their arrival on the train; hasty trips for medioal assistance may be dope away with, and many other things pot now thought of." '