SLOT TELEPHONES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 276, 10 August 1918, Page 8

SLOT TELEPHONES

AND THEIR ABUSE

STATEMENT BY DIRECTOR OP

TELEPHONES

WHERE THE PUBLIC MAKE MISTAKES

In the Supreme Court this week certain remarks were made reflecting on the capacity of the Government slot telephones to do the work they set out to do. They are, of course, a mechanical contrivance, and like any mechanical contrive nco to which the whole of tho public havo access are liable to misuse, accidental or intentional, and machines subject to such treatment cannot be expected to perform their ditties accurately. Tho matter of the complaints and strictures passed on the slot telephones in the Court was referred to the Director of Telephones (Mr. T. Buckley), who made a most interesting statement traversing the whole subject of slot telephones. Mr. Buckley said that it had been known lo the engineering branch of the Department for a long time, even right from the very inception of the slot telephone, that such devices wero not entirely satisfactory. From time to time the mechanicians had been engaged in varying and improving the device, yet it did not yet fully meet the requirements, which is to say, in ether words, that the slot telephone mechanism has not yet reached perfection.. This had been pointed out, and every effort had been made to meet the difficulty, but not with entire success. The slot telephone was introduced in the first place with an imported device which proved to be so unsuitable in actual practice (although in hundreds of trials in the laboratory it was noi found to' fail) that the Department had to deviso slot apparatus itself to enable it to carry on. It was not desired to multiply the number of slot telephones, owing .to' the difficulty with tho mechanism, until a really suitable apparatus could be obtained, but the demand for elot facilities become so clnmorois that their installation was continued even with the imperfect device, efforts in the meantime,being made to try and produce one more suitable. Later another type of slot device was imported, which whs used to somo extent in tho United Kingdom, but it did not prove to be equal to the device worked out by the Department, and was withdrawn except iu a foic places, The chief trouble is declared by manufacturers abroad to be duo to the difficulty of dealing with tho large-sized coin —tho penny. In England the filot telephone service was very restricted owing io a really good device not being available, In Australia ,it was also found that a suitable device was hard, to get, and from time to time inventors had,'siilimitted apparatus which on being tried out proved short of requirements. ■ It was easy to say "improve (he slot telephone service," but it was not so easy to devise or obtain apparatus which would enable that to be done. Tn tho United Stales there were suitable slot devices, and a considerable extent of service was given to the general public by means of them. They were, however, all for use with small coins such as the nickel and dime. - These were not used in the streets, but were; as a rule, placed in the shops of chemists or lobaeeonists and candy stores, where the user could be assisted if any difficulty arose. On the windows of euch places there was usually an announcement that a public telephone was within. The shopkeepers wero induced to allow their premises to be so used—premises were selected .where the shops observed long hours—Jiy gaining a commission on the amount of money passed through the machine. In some places such machines were worked by tokens, which were purchasable iu the store or shop where the telephone was located. The Department here did not find that the slot devices for the threepenny and sixpenny coins gave an undue amount of trouble. A large telephone company had been asked by tho Department to devise a machine suitable for slot service with pennies. Its reply was that no doubt it could do so, but it had not tho prospect of sufficient business in countries where pennies were used to warrant the heavy initial exppnso that might be expected to be incurred in producing a really satisfactory device.

The public were not blameless in the troubles that arose in the use of slottelephones. The slot, boxes of the G.P.O. had been closely observed. Frequently it had been noticed that a person would insert a coin and take up the receiver to listen. Not getting an immediato answer, he probably replaced the receiver 011 the hook, looked wonderingly, and then, perhaps, read the instructions. In-the meantime the operator had probably answered, but the answer availed nothing, for the simple reason that the receiver had.been placed on the hoolc. Having read the instructions, the person tried again, and this time, in all probability, succeeded in gaining connection. That was with the simplest kind of slot machines, where a person merely insert-' ed the coin and took up the receiver. Bent pennies were a frequent cause of trouble. People had actually been known to go out 611 to the road and pick up a stone with which to drive a bent (or perhaps a good one if the race were jammed) into tho slot. Then, of. course, there was tho perpetual trouble caused by peonjp' placing buttons, the tops of matchboxes, and pieces of metal into the slots, with varying results. • •

The war was, too t in a measure responsible for some of the difficulties encountered. Switchboard accommodation had been short. Arrangements had been made for automatic equipment, which, had its installation been completed at the timo expected, would have released fi\a manual switchboard. That would have mado the manual iplant available for bettor attendance to the slot load, by dividing it amongst ft greater number of switchboard attendants. At present the load or calling rate was at times very heavy, and calls could not be answered as promptly as was desirable. That congestion would be removed as -?oon ns the balance of tho automatic telephone material came to hand, enabling (lie new Courtenftjf Place exchange, to be brought into use. Makeshift manual methods •had been adopted to provide for subscribers to the utmost extent. Those methods had already reached the limit of practicability tnd could not l>o continued further. ■ It was expected that when the automatic system was in operation it ■would bo practicable to put Ihe slot telephone system nnon a sounder basis. The Department had recently received hro penny machines manufactured in tho States adapted for automatic methods. By Hl3 use of that type -nf machine it was hoped th«t much improvement would result, but it would bft unwise to ui*nhesy, however, us it bnd been found by experience that machines of good promise hud not nroved successful in ippx'tico. The machine .referred t« »w shown to our representative by Mr. Buckley. Its principle is different front all other machines, as the person who rinps m> is switched on to the number he wishes to sneak to. and notualk bears i> voice faintlv lit "rlTe nlhf- o-ul before lm iipi>il put his nemiy in. H* has In dn this, for though Worc'lmml he could hear d" , voice at the other end. that nerfon could not hen' , him, n\vi>'(f to a delicate electrical device which only permits the voice to come tliroiiEh the one way. The bloek, however, is removed by llm action of the penny actincr on a smnll lever in spassing. which clears the wire. Bv this device the person orisriiifilly ringing up lins Hie oplisfaelion of Vno'vimr before he inserts his pemw that there is soi»cbody spoaking from ' (ho number he wants.