Back in the days, every time I pealed open a bundle of those paper wrapped wires I had to stop and be amazed how amazingly reliable it was. EVERY TIME

https://www.facebook.com/groups/telecomarchaeology/posts/354...

This just doesn't look like something that will work wonderfully for 80+ years.

That stuff is lead-sheathed, isn't it?

I haven't ever gotten into it myself, but I had a DSL connection that would go wonky on sunny evenings due to an increase in reception of a nearby AM radio transmitter that drowned out the useful signals. (Amusingly, the hardware on my end provided charts that pinned down the frequency perfectly.)

That circuit had lead sheathed cable for part of its path. After one call to retentions, I had an AT&T convention at my house once or twice per week.

They were all in uniforms, driving fancy logo'd trucks. They all failed to make it work correctly.

Until one day, some dude with facial piercings who was dressed like me in jeans and a black tshirt showed up. I don't know what back office they pulled this guy out of, but he insisted that this was his problem now, that he was the most qualified person to correct it, and that he would be working on it until it was identified and fixed, and that he would begin as soon as he went back to get a bucket truck.

I don't know what all he got into. He worked until well after dark. And then he came back to the door and pronounced with great confidence that he had found an issue with some old lead sheathed cable and corrected it, and that this would absolutely resolve my problem.

And it did. 10/10 stability after that.

(Shoulda kept his contact info. He'd have been a good one to hire.)