Lead-tin-arsenic wiping solder

SOME fourteen or more wiped joints occur in every mile of lead-sheathed telephone cable, and in making these joints from one to two million pounds of solder are used per year. To join cables a lead sleeve of sufficient diameter to accommodate the bundle of spliced wires is slid in place at the junction, the ends of the sleeve are beaten to conform to the circumference of the cable, and an air-tight and mechanically strong joint formed at each end of the sleeve by molding a solidifying mass of solder into the desired shape. This last step is called the wiping operation.