NEW CHIEF ENGINEER

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 172, 18 April 1939, Page 11

NEW CHIEF ENGINEER

Post And Telegraph Department DISTINGUISHED CAREER Mr. P. V. O. R. Miles, A.M.1.E.E., Chief Engineer of the Post and Telegraph Department, who has just succeeded to this position, has been actively concerned in the provision of several outstanding developments in communication, among which are the modernization of the longdistance toll system, the mechanization of the telegraph system, and the improvement of the interisland submarine cable facilities, including more recently the laying of the coaxial cable across Cook Strait, one of the first of its type to b£ operated for long-distance telephone communication by high-fre-quency currents. Three tours overseas have been made by Mr. Miles on engineering business. The first, in 1924, was to advise the Tongan Government on the modernization of its telephone service. In 1928, Mr. Miles was sent to Australia on behalf of the department to. report on the Commonwealth’s long-distance telephone network and the utilization . of the carrier system for telephoning. The third visit was to England in 1935, when he spent five months in London and other centres on a general investigation of modern developments in communication systems, with particular reference to submarine telephone cables, the carrier telegraph and telephone systems, and the multi-channel method of radio telephone communication. Early Training. Two years after joining the department in Picton in 1900. Mr. Miles was transferred to Invercargill for training in telegraph operation, and in the subsequent eight years he gained wide experience in various centres, meanwhile passing a number of technical examinations in the department which qualified him for appointment to the engineering branch in 1911. Mr. Miles then had a good deal of field experience associated with the erection of aerial lines, and his next appointment was to the G.P.O. engineering laboratory where materials and apparatus are tested and research work carried out. He also took a special course in communication engineering at Victoria University College. On taking the position of sub-engin-eer at Wellington in 1914, Mr. Miles was attached to the Chief Engineer’s staff and was associated with the preparation of plans and other details for the initial installation of automatic telephone exchange switching systems throughout the Dominion. Following two years of this experience, Mr. Miles was stationed in Masterton, where he assisted in the supervision and installation of one of the first automatic telephone exchanges to be operated in New Zealand. Becoming an assistant engineer in Wellington in 1918, Mr. Miles was responsible for outside construction work under the direction of the engineer in charge of Wellington district. From 1919 till 1921, as district telephone engineer stationed in Palmerston North, he was in charge of the Manawatu and Wairarapa communication systems, and carried out a comprehensive reconstruction of the outside equipment in Palmerston North telephone exchange area, the old singlewire aerial lines being superseded by cables carried in conduits, as a preliminary to the Introduction of the automatic telephone, which requires a complete metallic circuit for each subscriber.

Being promoted to the position of equipment and cable engineer at the Chief Engineer’s office in 1921, Mr. Miles dealt with the work of laying the first exclusively telephone cable across Cook Strait, this being a four-core cable which came into operation in 1926. From 1928 till 1935 Mr. Miles, in the capacity of transmission and cable engineer at the General Post Office, did the important work of developing the Dominion’s long-dis-tance telephone communications which now carry efficiently so large a volume of daily business. Cook Strait Cable. From April, 1935, till he took up his new appointment, Mr. Miles was superintending engineer of the G.P.0., one of his major responsibilities during this period being the plans and preparations for laying the coaxial cable across Cook Strait, and installing the delicate equipment for its operation by high frequency currents. Some of his recent work has included major extensions of the telephone toll circuits for long-distance calls, involving the provision of many multi-channel carrier circuits. Mr. Miles has also directed the initial Installation and operation on a number of the Dominion’s important telegraph circuits of the multi-channel voice frequency system of telegraph communication.