It is essential in electrical work to have joints, splices, unions, and contacts made perfectly tight, so that the current will flow through them uninterruptedly. A poor contact or weak joint may throw a whole system out of order. For this reason all joints should be soldered wherever practicable. In line work, however, this is impossible, except where trolley-wires are joined, and these are brazed in the open air by an apparatus especially designed for the purpose. In telegraph and telephone lines perfect contact is absolutely necessary, and where attachments are made to insulators the main-line should never be turned around the insulator. The wire is brought up against the insulator, and with a [U] wire the main-line is tightly bound to it, as shown at Fig. 11. If it is necessary to bind the main-line more securely to the insulator, one or two turns may be taken around the insulator with the [U] or anchoring wire; then with a pair of plyers a tight wrap is made.
When joining two ends of wire together, never make loops as shown in Fig. 12 A. This construction gives poor contact, for the wire loops will wear and finally break apart. Moreover, the rust that forms between the loops will often cause an open circuit and one difficult to locate. Care must be taken to make all splices secure and with perfect contact of wires, and the only manner in which this can be done is to pass the ends of wires together for three or four inches, as shown in Fig. 12 B.
Grasp one wire with a pair of plyers, and with the fingers start the coil or twist, then with another pair of plyers finish the wrapping evenly and snugly. Treat the other end in a similar manner, and as a result you will have the splice pictured in Fig. 12 B, the many wraps insuring perfect contact. This same method is to be employed for inside wires, and after the wrap is made heat the joint and touch it with soldering solution. The solder will run in between the coils and permanently unite the joint. The bare wires should then be covered with adhesive tape.
Avoid sharp turns and angles in lines, and where it is not possible to arrange them otherwise it would be well to put in a curved loop, as shown at Fig. 13. A represents a pole, B B the line, and C the quarter-circular loop let in to avoid the sharp turn about the insulator. The current will pass around the angle as well as through the loop, but a galvanometer test would show that the greater current passed through the loop and avoided the sharp turn.