RECORDING PRECIOUS MINUTES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 135, 4 March 1937, Page 11

RECORDING PRECIOUS MINUTES

Care of Toll-calls Beciujse minutes are precious iu connection with telephone toll-calls, Post Office exchanges are equipped with devices for recording time without requiring the operator to constantly look at a clock. Right and left of every toll attendant can be seen recording clocks. When a subscriber asks for a toll-call a card is inserted in the clock, a lever pressed and the exact time printed. The call may not commence until a later period, but here is a register of when it was booked. Communication having been established and the operator being satisfied that conversation has commenced, the card again goes into the clock, which prints small reproductions of its dial on the card. One is devoted to hours, another to minutes of the hour and the third to further subdivisions of the minutes, so that when the conversation ends there is a printed record to within fifteen seconds of the exact time. The clock mechanism is locked and the record cannot be altered by the toll operator. A change in the illuminated disc on the board shows when the talk is ended. However, if the conversation is prolonged there is a periodical check to make sure that the line is in use and the recording clock again notes the time at which the check was made.

Overseas radio calls are also subject to careful oversight by the overseas tolls operator, who pays close atten tion to the quality of speech, stops the time recorder when there is interrup tion and only resumes it when normal speech is possible, thus ensuring that subscribers pay only for "good speech” time.