Oppenheimer pole

Last updated April 18, 2024

Oppenheimer poles are galvanised iron telegraph poles. They consist of three oval sections that collapse into each other telescope-style for transportation. Once extended, the joints between the sections are clamped with collars. The pole is fixed to a base for support with a u-bolt.

The poles were used in the construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line in 1872, which ran from Darwin in the north to Port Augusta (near Adelaide) in the south. It was initially intended to use Oppenheimer poles in regions where there was no suitable timber, and for poles that needed replacing in service. When it became clear that wooden poles on the northern part of the line were going to be rapidly destroyed by termites, it was decided to construct the line with 3,000 metal poles. Wooden poles are also vulnerable to fire and much of the line's route suffers frequent bushfires. Many poles were later replaced with Oppenheimer poles for this reason.^[1]

The initial order for 6,000 poles^[2] may have been made in Germany by Oppenheimer and Company (it is not certain) but later production took place in England under licence.^[3] Many of these poles were carried overland into the Australian interior by camel trains imported from Egypt, complete with their Egyptian drivers.^[4]See Australian feral camel .

Inventor: Joseph Oppenheimer

Joseph Oppenheimer (8 February 1820 – 8 February 1893), who was born in Braunschweig, Germany and died in Manchester, England, was a merchant and inventor, and naturalised British citizen, who spent most of his adult life working in the telegraphy industry in Australia and the United Kingdom. He held several key patents, including one for telescoping telegraph poles — the Oppenheimer pole.^{[ citation needed ]}

Whilst Oppenheimer maintained a household in Manchester, he travelled regularly to Australia in the 1850s, 60s and 70s. Oppenheimer's first visit to Australia appears to have taken place in 1853, when he landed in Adelaide aboard the P. & O. steamer Shanghai from Singapore.^[5] Initially, Oppenheimer was an agent for Meyers and Co. in Melbourne, where he tendered for everything from water works and cast iron parts to telegraphy.^[6] In Melbourne, Oppenheimer developed a working relationship with Samuel McGowan, who was responsible for the introduction of telegraphy to Australia, and the earliest telegraph systems in the colony of Victoria in 1853/54, and contracted with the colonial offices of Victoria for telegraphy supplies. In 1856, he was a member of the South Australian governor's travelling party participating in an inspection and survey of the country to determine the route for the proposed Victoria–South Australia telegraph line.^[7] In the 1850s, Oppenheimer developed a close relationship, both personal and professional with Charles Todd, then responsible for the installation of telegraphy systems across South Australia, and later the architect of the Overland Telegraph Line and the colony of South Australia's Post Master General. He counted amongst his close friends Samuel Deering — the long time agent for the South Australian colony.^{[ citation needed ]}

Todd looked to Oppenheimer for assistance when he commenced the Port Augusta to Port Darwin — Overland Telegraph — line. ^[8] This line, which would stretch more than 3200 kms (or 2000 miles), required 36,000 poles, huge quantities of wire and insulators, and the latest in battery technologies and telegraphic equipment. Oppenheimer helped supply insulators and metal poles. Over time, the original mix of wooden and metal poles was upgraded with new poles, following Oppenheimer's patented innovations for metal telescoping poles. The so-called Oppenheimer poles were produced in Manchester and shipped to Australia throughout the 1880s and installed along the length of the Overland Telegraph Line. They were also used in Queensland.^[9]

Oppenheimer pole patent

The Oppenheimer pole was resistant to rot and termites, it was also designed to be easily transported via camel or bullocky train.

The Oppenheimer poles were designed using three oval shaped galvanised pipes of different diameter and each pipe would slide inside the next. These telescopic poles were ideal for handling and storing and their reduced size made them much easier to transport and erect on site. Once on site they would be extended to their full height and a heated iron collar would then be place over the joint. The iron collar would cool and shrink on the join making it firm. Prior to the poles being installed cast iron base plates were fitted to the bottom of the poles to prevent them from moving. ^[10]

Oppenheimer poles can still be founded in a range of locations along the old Overland Telegraph Line, as well as in Queensland and Western Australia. Oppenheimer poles can also be found repurposed as flag poles, or in the case of the William Creek Hotel as verandah supports. There is also an Oppenheimer pole outside the Daly Waters pub.^{[ citation needed ]}

Frew Ponds Overland Telegraph Line Memorial Reserve

The largest remaining extant collection of Oppenheimer poles can be found in the Frew Ponds Overland Telegraph Line Memorial Reserve 1085 which was gazetted in June 1962.^{[ citation needed ]} They are:

... significant to the Territory as a remnant of the original line, and present tangible evidence of the construction methods and materials used in the construction of the 3,000 kilometer line from Port Augusta to Darwin that saw the end of Australia's isolation. The heavy galvanized iron telescopic Oppenheim poles display a style of technology no longer practised and are a symbol of human ingenuity in solving the problem of transporting large numbers of sturdy termite resistant poles through inhospitable country. ^[11]

There are 52 poles in Reserve, located along the original telegraph line.^{[ citation needed ]}

Related Research Articles

The Ghan is an experiential tourism-oriented passenger train service that operates between the northern and southern coasts of Australia, through the cities of Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin on the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor. Operated by Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions, its scheduled travelling time, including extended stops for passengers to do off-train tours, is 53 hours 15 minutes to travel the 2,979 kilometres (1,851 mi). The Ghan has been described as one of the world's greatest passenger trains.

The former Central Australia Railway, which was built between 1878 and 1929 and closed in 1980, was a 1241 km (771 mi) 1067 mm narrow gauge railway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A standard gauge line duplicated the southern section from Port Augusta to Maree in 1957 on a new nearby alignment. The entire Central Australia Railway was superseded in 1980 after the standard gauge Tarcoola–Alice Springs Railway was opened, using a new route up to 200 km to the west. A small southern section of the original line between Port Augusta and Quorn has been preserved as the Pichi Richi Tourist Railway.

Sir Charles Todd worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory 1841–1847 and the Cambridge University observatory from 1847 to 1854. He then worked on telegraphy and undersea cables until engaged by the government of South Australia as astronomical and meteorological observer, and head of the electric telegraph department.

The All Red Line was a system of electrical telegraphs that linked much of the British Empire. It was inaugurated on 31 October 1902. The informal name derives from the common practice of colouring the territory of the British Empire red or pink on political maps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utility pole</span> Post used by public utilities to support overhead wires and related equipment

A utility pole is a column or post, usually made out of wood or aluminum alloy, used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as electrical cable, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It can be referred to as a transmission pole, telephone pole, telecommunication pole, power pole, hydro pole, telegraph pole, or telegraph post, depending on its application. A Stobie pole is a multi-purpose pole made of two steel joists held apart by a slab of concrete in the middle, generally found in South Australia.

The first railway in colonial South Australia was a line from the port of Goolwa on the River Murray to an ocean harbour at Port Elliot, which first operated in December 1853, before its completion in May 1854.

The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was an electrical telegraph system for sending messages the 3200 kilometres between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Completed in 1872, it allowed fast communication between Australia and the rest of the world. When it was linked to the Java-to-Darwin submarine telegraph cable several months later, the communication time with Europe dropped from months to hours; Australia was no longer so isolated from the rest of the world. The line was one of the great engineering feats of 19th-century Australia and probably the most significant milestone in the history of telegraphy in Australia.

A Stobie pole is a power line pole made of two steel I-beams, joined by tie-bolts, and held apart by a slab of concrete. It was invented by Adelaide Electric Supply Company engineer James Cyril Stobie, who suggested the use of readily available materials due to the shortage of suitably long, strong, straight and termite-resistant timber in South Australia.

Beltana is a town 540 kilometres (336 mi) north of Adelaide, South Australia. Beltana is known for continuing to exist long after the reasons for its existence had ceased. The town's history began in the 1870s with the advent of copper mining in the area, construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line and The Ghan railway and began to decline in 1941 with the beginning of coal mining at Leigh Creek. The fortune of the town was sealed by the 1983 realignment of the main road away from the town. The town, adjacent cemetery and railway structures are now part of a designated State Heritage Area declared in 1987.

Birdum is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about 493 kilometres (306 mi) south of the territory capital of Darwin.

Australia was a relatively early adopter of electrical telegraph technology in the middle of the nineteenth century, despite its low population densities and the difficult conditions sometimes encountered in laying lines. From 1858 onwards, the major capitals were progressively linked, culminating in the addition of Perth in 1877. Australia was linked to the rest of the world for the first time in 1872, through the Overland Telegraph which ran some 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from Adelaide through to Darwin. The network continued to expand in size and sophistication until 1959 and in heavy usage until 1945, after which time telephone usage began to erode public patronage of telegraphy services. The final publicly provided telegraphy service was closed in 1993.

Stephen King was an English sketcher, surveyor, and explorer. He was part of the last John McDouall Stuart Expedition (1861–1862), successfully crossing Australia from south to north, and was appointed Surveyor of the Overland Telegraph party sent out by Darwent and Dalwood in 1870. He was called Stephen King Jr. during the lifetime of his father, a pioneer of Gawler, and to a lesser extent continued through his life. His father has been called here and elsewhere Stephen King JP.

Transport in South Australia is provided by a mix of road, rail, sea and air transport. The capital city of Adelaide is the centre to transport in the state. With its population of 1.4 million people, it has the majority of the state's 1.7 million inhabitants. Adelaide has the state's major airport and sea port.

The Cape York Telegraph Line was a telegraph line built on the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. It was completed in 1887 and stretched from Laura to Thursday Island.

William Whitfield Mills, usually referred to as "W. Whitfield Mills" or "W. W. Mills", was an English surveyor of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line who is best known for naming a waterhole in Central Australia Alice Spring, from which the town of Alice Springs now takes its name. He also named Heavitree Gap as a tribute to his old school in Devon, England.

Darwent & Dalwood was a partnership of Joseph Darwent and William Dalwood put together expressly to tender for work on the Overland Telegraph Line.

Richard Randall Knuckey, often referred to as R.R. Knuckey and popularly known as Dick Knuckey, was a surveyor on the Overland Telegraph Line in central Australia from 1871 to 1872. He later became chief officer at the electric telegraph department in Adelaide.

Earth-return telegraph is the system whereby the return path for the electric current of a telegraph circuit is provided by connection to the earth through an earth electrode. Using earth return saves a great deal of money on installation costs since it halves the amount of wire that is required, with a corresponding saving on the labour required to string it. The benefits of doing this were not immediately noticed by telegraph pioneers, but it rapidly became the norm after the first earth-return telegraph was put into service by Carl August von Steinheil in 1838.

Joseph Oppenheimer, was a German born merchant and inventor, and naturalised British citizen who spent most of his adult life working in the telegraphy industry in Australia and the United Kingdom. He held several key patents, including one for telescoping telegraphic poles.

The Peake is an abandoned ruin on the banks of the Neales River in far north South Australia, near the mound springs complex known as Freeling Springs. The Peake was established initially as an outstation on the Mount Margaret Station, before becoming the main homestead in the late 1870s. It was a supply depot for the construction teams building the Overland Telegraph Line in 1870–1871, and also served as a repeater station on the Overland Telegraph Line from 1870 to 1891. It was a vital part of Australia's telecommunication network in the nineteenth century. Today it is part of the William Cattle Company holdings.

References

↑ McMullen, pp. 17-18
↑ McMullen, p.18
↑ Engineers Australia nomination, pp. 11-12
↑ Huurdeman, p. 120
↑ "Shipping Intelligence". Adelaide Times . Vol. VII, no. 867. South Australia. 16 May 1853. p. 2. Retrieved 1 July 2023– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "Government Gazette". Geelong Advertiser. 1859-06-20. Retrieved 2022-03-20.
↑ "The Governor's Progress". South Australian Register. 1856-10-13. Retrieved 2022-03-20.
↑ Cryle, Denis (2017). Behind the Legend: the many worlds of Charles Todd. Australia: Australian Scholarly. pp. 59–60.
↑ "Siemens & Oppenheimer Poles". Monuments Australia.
↑ NRETAS (2010).
↑ "Frew Ponds Overland Telegraph Line Memorial Reserve". Heritage Register, Northern Territory Government.

Bibliography

Huurdeman, Anton A., The Worldwide History of Telecommunications, John Wiley & Sons, 2003 ISBN 0471205052.
McMullen, Ron, "The Overland Telegraph", The Australian Telegraph Office (CD ROM).
Nomination for Engineering Heritage Recognition: The Overland Telegraph Line 'Joining Point', Frews Pond, Northern Territory, Engineers Australia, June 2012.