I asked my Dad about erecting telegraph poles, he spent his working life as an electrical engineer and erected a countless number of poles, bringing electricity to many houses for the first time. He brought me the book above and, strange for him, he asked for it back. This from a man who has spent the last twenty years getting rid of things; my school books, my Grandad's random collection of objects from his 'tippy bit', Dad is creating empty space, and making sure there is not much to be gone through in the event of anyone having to go through anything.
As he handed me the book he told me that the author had given it to him and then, two weeks later had killed himself. Dad said he 'committed suicide', guilty of self murder. Perhaps this event and its impact meant the book could not be given up, the event meant that a space could not be cleared. The book had to remain on the shelf next to Desmond Bagley and Wilbur Smith, it seems simpler than having to go through a process of getting rid of it.
I'm reading a dead man's notes about how to make poles stand up in the ground and it strikes me that he must have been a very practical and straightforward person. The diagrams and writing are aimed at a narrow and specific group of practical people with jobs to do. Like my Dad giving his early life to bringing electric light to farms and villages across Yorkshire. The books tells us about the ground, the depth of hole, transportation and graft, I see it as the practical side of modernity, symbolised in the vast galvanised steel pylons that divide our countryside. If my Dad were reading this he would say, "Steve, that's the National Grid - Pylons are distributing high voltage, the poles are part of the 12 KV system - after the substations - it's completely different..........IDIOT."
I think when we build our pirate ship I will spread the poles out a little to create a larger footprint and triangulate. Standing a pole up on its own with nothing to fasten it to seems to unnecessarily complicate things. The book is now on my shelf next to Colin Ward's 'Art and the built environment' and Edensor's "Industrial ruins". It still speaks of death though, I will be glad to return it.
