Why are trees still being used for telephone/electric lines instead of plastics?
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**Tree** is a composite structural material, nano-assembled for us by a process that’s been building tall sturdy poles for millions of years.
The big problem with using live trees as utility poles is that they grow and shed branches, which can knock the wires down. So we usually kill the trees and take the branches off before using them to hang the wires on.
The big problem with using dead trees as utility poles is that if you stick a dead tree in damp ground, it will eventually rot or get eaten by termites. We fix this by soaking the pole in creosote or other sticky preservatives.
Tree is cheap. Even after going to the effort of killing and shaving the tree and soaking it in preservatives, tree is still pretty cheap.
Tree is springy. It doesn’t easily blow down in the wind, especially if you take the branches off.
Tree is easy to hammer things into. You can hammer big nails into it and use them to attach stuff. You can hammer other nails into it and use them to step on when you’re working on the wires. You don’t have to bring welding equipment to attach a metal spike to a tree; you just have to bring a big hammer and maybe a drill.
Basically, tree works pretty well.
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