Telephone’s Automatic Answers to Subscribers

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28133, 23 November 1956, Page 14

Telephone’s Automatic Answers to Subscribers

Telephone subscribers will sympathise with the singer, Rose Murphy, who

. . . put a nickel in the telephone to dial my baby’s number, Got that B-r-r-t, B-r-r-t, B-r-r-t busy line.

Some of the noises heard over the telephone can be exasperating, but nevertheless they are an interesting example of automation. The telephone can give five automatic answers, some not very well known because they are seldom heard. They are:— Dial tone (400 cycles a second continuous). This means the equipment is ready to receive dialling and extend the call. Ringing tone (400 cycles a second, modulated at 16 2-3 cycles a second). It has a cadence of .4sec on. .2sec off. .4sec on. and then 2sec off. repeated). The call is through and awaiting an answer at the other end Busy cycles a sec. .ssec on, .ssec off, repeated). Line engaged. Overflow busy tone (900 cycles a sec., .ssec on, .ssec off). Like busy tone but more highly pitched. It shows the caller that he‘is not getting through because of congestion in the traffic routes in the exchange. Number unobtainable tone # (400 cycles a sec. A series of four blips—075sec on, -Lsec off—separated by, a pause of .4sec). This indicates eitler that the number the caller is trying to obtain has not been allocated to a subscriber, or that it does not exist within the group of numbers connected to the exchange. This is usually caused by mistakes in dialling the initial two figures, and the tone starts coming through as soon as the mistake is made. Where the latest tyne of exchange equipment is used —the step-by-step system—dial tone should be heard immediately the receiver is lifted. If there is no tone, either the line circuit is faulty or there is a disconnexion on the line. With rotary equipment, which is gradually being replaced at Christchurch, there may be a pause before dial tone is heard, indicating that equipment is not available to take the call immediately. There are three other noises that the telephone owner may hear without making a call: 1. The ringing bell, indicating a call on the line. . 2. Earth ringing, an intermittent tinkle, caused by trees on the wire, and

3. The howler. Secret Weapon The howler is the telephone branch’s “secret weapon.” Not as raucous as it once was, but still a formidable warning device, it emanates from the test desk, alongside the automatic exchange in the Hereford Street Post Office. It is used to advise subscribers that their receiver is off. It has a very solid tone, but ta avoid users getting a fright if they happen to pick up their receivers when the howler is applied, it starts at a low level and gradually builds up to a crescendo. Eight men are employed during the day on the test desk .testing and clearing lines, taking complaints, and directing faultmen to the job. -is part of their work they have to clear each day more than 100 lines blocked by receivers being left off. They point out that leaving receivers

off not only prevents cllls being made to the offender, but also keeps in uae all the time one of the 13 switches provided for each 100 subscribers, and this causes congestion. The test desk operators are advised of these hold-ups by persons who have been trying to get through and also by a warning system in the exchange itself. A warning bell rings in the exchange when a subscriber’s receiver has been on dial tone for 10 minutes. Some users, when given the howler, protest that their ’phones have not been off the hook but the operators say, sometimes the cord will fall over the mainpiece of the telephone, and the receiver will rest on this instead of the buttons.

At night the two operators on duty usually have 30 or 40 lines to clear. They may clear 20 or so by giving a ring or. if that is unsuccessful, by using the howler —but they do not use the howler after 10 p.m. except in cases of emergency. Of the lines that cannot be cleared, those of business firms are "plugged out” for the night, which means that nobody can ring in or out. Private ’phones are put on a “plug-up shoe.* enabling the Subscriber to ring out, but preventing anyone else from ringing him. Both these methods free switches which would otherwise be engaged for the jgight. _ ' {