Some wire is wrapped with paper tape at a speed of nine thousand miles a day.

Some is fashioned into fantastic shapes that look like absurd sea-monsters, but which in reality are only the nerve systems of switchboards.

And some is twisted into cables by means of a dozen whirling drums--a dizzying sight, as each pair of drums revolve in opposite directions.

Because of the fact that a cable's inevitable enemy is moisture, each cable is wound on an immense spool and rolled into an oven until it is as dry as a cinder.
Then it is put into a strait-jacket of lead pipe, sealed at both ends, and trundled into a waiting freight car.
No other company uses so much wire and hard rubber, or so many tons of brass rods, as the Western Electric.

Of platinum, too, which is more expensive than gold, it uses one thousand pounds a year in the making of telephone transmitters.