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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 rleigh on Wednesday November 28 2018, @10:13PM
You might be right. This was well over 25 years ago, and I didn't get a very close up view of the process. However, the conduits were brand new and this was the first stuff being laid, so it wouldn't have damaged any of the other cables or fibres since all the conduits were empty. Not sure how much damage a rocket would do to the pipe itself since I've never tried it!