At the end of the 19th century London telegraph wires were run underground through big pipes that carried gas and sewage. When they pulled the wire wrong, they employed an interesting technique to fix it:
One of these lateral wires was hauled out to be repaired. The men doing this work failed to attach to it a leading line, by which the wire could be drawn through again. The means employed to correct the error were very unique.
A large rat, with a fine steel wire, was put in the pipe. Behind there was thrust a ferret. The rat ran from the ferret a short distance and stopped. It was feared that he would show fight and be killed. But he started on again.
He ran through the whole length of the pipe, and brought out the wire in good style, though closely pushed by the ferret.
Huh! I always assumed they used leprechauns.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday November 28 2018, @12:33PM (8 children)
I Am Absolutely Serious:
A Ferret towing a brush.
Those tubes are eight miles in diameter; I expect they employe a number of ferrets.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday November 28 2018, @12:37PM (3 children)
> Those tubes are eight miles in diameter; I expect they employe a number of ferrets.
No, really really fat ones.
(Score: 3, Funny) by zocalo on Wednesday November 28 2018, @05:03PM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @05:36PM
You're gonna need a bigger ferret.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday November 28 2018, @06:43PM
No, really really fat ones.
In my industry we use pigs [wikipedia.org] for a similar task.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Nuke on Wednesday November 28 2018, @01:21PM
Christ. Thta cetainly puts Musk's tunnelling efforts into perspective..
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Wednesday November 28 2018, @04:09PM (2 children)
A torus has two diameters.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday November 28 2018, @06:39PM (1 child)
A torus has two diameters.
Wouldn't it have 3?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @07:18PM
If you use 3, one is redundant.