Science: Quick Connections

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Near Gatlinburg, Tenn., a C-47 cargo plane took off, climbed above the wild, wooded slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains. Flying low, at elevations between 1,500 and 5,000 feet, the plane reeled out 16 miles of continuous telephone wire in six and two-thirds minutes flat, linking Gatlinburg and Smokemont, N.C.

Developed by the Army Air Technical Service and the Bell Telephone Laboratories, the specially reeled wire, with a weighted parachute attached at the starting point, snakes out of coils in the plane at 250 ft. a second. The Tennessee-North Carolina line was turned over to the National Park Rangers, served for five weeks until a sleet storm sheathed the wire with ice and caused a break. By & large, wire-laying by plane is useful only in emergency: flood, earthquake, war.