SLOT TELEPHONES

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 165, 9 April 1926, Page 15

SLOT TELEPHONES

GROWING USE IN WELLINGTON “COIN LAST” SYSTEM GREAT BOON The public generally are scarcelv aware to what extent the slot telephone has become part of their lives, n-.i its removal would mean the greatly. • inconvenience. The Department is

, s receiving applications for the , i- ..on of these telephones in all sorts .. out-of-the-way places, but some discretion has to be exercised in the matter, for apart from the constant attention they require, there is the cost of the shelter, of lighting and of erecting and supplying the apparatus all to be considered against the possible income.

In certain positions these public telephones are going practically the whole of the clay. Curiously enough, those most used are the ten outside the General Post Office in Featherston Street. Though in this quarter of the city there are probably more private telephones to, a given area than anywhere else in the city, the users of the public telephones here are so numerous that at times little queues form outside the boxes, awaiting their turn.- On busy days, in fine weather, the receptacles in some of these boxes have to be emptied of pennies two and three times a day, whilst some of the suburban boxes may only require attention once or twice a week.

Of the greatest value to the public as well as the Department has been the introduction of the “coin last” system, as against the old “coin first” system of other days. This new system—its details are plainly conveyed to the public in every bureau—ensures that no one need place his penny in the slot until he hears the answering voice from the other end of the wire.

People are not generally aware of the ingenuity with which the slot telephones are constructed. The cashboxes are locked and closed when put into the machine, and are only opened tor the reception of the pennies by a patent device which acts as the box is slid into position. On the box being taken out the slot automatically closes until such time as a new box is slid into position. .Still locked, the boxes are conveyed to headquarters, so there is little chance of them being tampered with.