[GreenKeys] Copper Wire?

[jhhaynes at earthlink.net]

I've read that for early telegraph circuits they didn't use copper,
because aside from the cost it was of poor quality and had very low
tensile strength.  Hence they used iron.  Wonder when they started
refining copper electrolytically.

Bell wire in my childhood, say late 1940s, was bare copper wire about
18ga wrapped with a spiral red and white waxed cotton thread.  Used
for hooking up doorbells, but a lot of radio projects and such told
you to use bellwire, because you could get it at any hardware store
and it was fairly cheap.