My grandfather when he was young took an even-then-old crank-the-handle-to-get-the-operator type phone and wired it to the body of his friends car.  Those phones were actually little electrical generators, you’d crank the handle to send a charge down the wire to ring the bell on the operators console.  When my grandfather’s friend grabbed the car door handle my grandfather cranked up the phone and gave him a terrible shock through the car’s body.

The friend was livid but got over it quick and they pulled the prank on the other folks leaving the house each in turn. 

I think that when I was told this story I was also told that they kept the old phone around to stun ponds full of fish, which would then rise to the surface.  That last part might’ve been true or a tall tale or I could have heard it somewhere else entirely.

What do I know, I come from a state where people often pronounce Target as a French word.  

It’s an alien concept these days – not assuming that someone already has something and helping them set up – but it worked for many years when neighborhoods were people who knew and interacted with one another, and didn’t just pass one another on the street on their way to work.

It does however sound like an (misguided or uninformed) attempt at urethral sounding, and I’ve met guys who quite like it, with the caveat to use quality equipment. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urethral_sounding

I was in an area that was hit by the utilities/communications blackout of Hurricane Sandy (thankfully, no permanent injuries or property damage where I was). Losing that communication, especially cell phone connectivity (which I take for granted as being more reliable than our landline) was a little disturbing.

How can we know if a neighbor is in trouble?

The fence wire telephone system is a great idea because it relies on no central hub.  It uses a series of basic protocols that are easily understood and could greatly benefit small hamlet type communities.  It uses materials that are easily acquirable even after a major disaster.  Just think if all your neighbors came running in an emergency to help.

We had the idea for a fence wire telephone system that post-disaster cold winter night, and although we didn’t implement it – it’s nice to know it worked a long time before we ever thought of it.

/something to file away for the future.

In fact it doesn’t scale at all.  It’s a neat hack for two people, but rapidly falls apart if more than two want to join in. 

Coax wiring (ThinNet) EtherNet and ArcNet were the prevailing physical layers.  

A question arose regarding whether IPX/SPX would be supported over some new physical layer – fiber NICs I think – and the response from the podium was “If enough customers are asking for it, IPX could be implemented to run over barbed wire.”