what are the round type objects on telephone wires?

Question

the round objects looks like a type of basketball on the wires on telephone poles. they are mostly around the highway.

Answer 1

Those are simply visual reference. This tells people on the ground or in airplanes where a usually un-noticeable wire is. Alot of the time they use these for aircraft, so that any plane that might be flying low has a visual reference to the wires, because they are normaly not easily seen from far distances, this helps the pilot to know not to fly near the "basketballs" :-)

Answer 2

Those cylindrical things are transformers I believe. High tension wires carry tens of thousands of volts whereas local streets carry much less, around 120V. Transformers are used to either reduce voltages or increase them.

I'm sure you've used an AC adapter, ie phone charger. It plugs into the wall which is 120V but its output is generally anywhere from 3V to 12V. The adapter is just a transformer which converts the walls 120V to a usable 3V to charge your phone.

Those cylinders do the same things, convert high voltages to a more usable amount in a local neighborhood.

Answer 3

Probably (and this is a guess) so that:
Airplanes can see that there are wires there (They *are* hunter orange and hunter orange=visibility).
or
Maybe keeps the wires from vibrating and making noise in a windstorm (but I like my first answer better)
or
Maybe keeps wires from hitting each other (which I really don't think is the answer, but hey, you never know)

Answer 4

Funny, I just asked someone that very same question on Sunday. It is because of an airport nearby, so that the planes can see the wires.

Answer 5

they are on power wire to warn aircraft - usually there is a airport nearby