[en] We report here on a semi-automatic system for the control and measurement of the wire tension in a large detector (23 000 wires) to be used by the UA1 Collaboration in an experiment at the CERN anti pp collider. The method consists in feeding an alternating current of variable frequency to the wire in the presence of a small magnetic field. The wire resonance frequency, which is simply related to the mechanical tension, is found by requiring a 90⁰ phase shift between the driving current and the oscillation of the wire. The control procedure is computer controlled and can be applied to any large system of wire chambers where a precise (< 1%) and fast measurement is needed. (orig.)