Ed Minch quoted Todd:

        Remember the little steps that used to protrude from utility
        poles? A piece of galvanized iron rod, threaded on one and and
        bent at 90=B0 on the other for about 2" - to keep your foot from
        slipping off sideways. To install these steps, apparently the
        installer would drill a hole with his sticky-ratcheted Bell
        Systems Yankee brace (no doubt using the ratchet mechanism so he
        only had o push down on the handle while held to the pole with
        his belt and pole stickers), then put the threaded end of the
        new step into the hole, put the bent 2" section of the step into
        the hole in the hammer head, and using the hammer as a wrench,
        turn the step into the pole. Maybe they never had to use these
        things cause my example is minty new.

Ed, Todd is correct but for the fact that back in the day the Yankee
brace wasn't sticky. The lineman's hammer was a beast, and after
stepping a pole with it all week long the lineman in question "had no
waist". Apparently that's why some of the rest of us are so overweight
these days...

The old man reports from the 19th hole that once those steps went in
they didn't come out so easily. "We just beat the sh*t out of most of
them until they broke off" when trying to remove them, he said.

Note to sawyers: old phone poles are a clear and present danger to
bandsaw blades!

JL
------------------------------------------------------------------------