THE "AUTOMATIC"

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 148, 22 June 1917, Page 9

THE "AUTOMATIC"

WELLINGTON TELEPHONE

SYSTEM

TWO NEW EXCHANGES

HOW THE HUMAN ELEMENT IS

REPLACED.

The tendency in these days of science and efficiency is to eliminate, or at least reduce, whafc is known as the human factor. A tetter example of this would be hard to find than the case of the "Hello 1 Girl" who, ever since the telephone was first developed commercially, has enquired in various tones of voice over the wire what number is required, and has, in: fact, formed an important part of the business and domestic life of the .country. But the inexorable march of science seems likely to relegate the "Hello Girl" to the limbo of the past. The automatic telephone, regarded not so long ago as a mere toy, unreliable and costly, has now more than proved its worth and efficiency in New Zealand, and before very long the more or less melodious voice of the "telephone girl" will no longer be heard over the wires, and her place will be taken by a complicated mass of shining steel and brass with smoothly-running cams and rods, doing the work of switching on© subscriber to the other, cheaper, quicker, and, .provided the apparatus at the central-i-station is kept in good order, with the mathematical precision of a high-grade chronometer.

HISTORY OF THE "AUTOMATIC."

The installation of the automatic telephone system in Wellington, and :in other parts of the Dominion, makes a brigf history of the "automatic" of considerable interest. In all automatic .systems, the work of connecting, arid disconnecting the lines, of ringing the subscriber called, of refusing to' connect with.a line that is already in use and informing the !"caller" that such-line is "engaged," and the many other acts necessary in telephone service, are per-, formed without .the presence '-'of . any guiding intelligence at the central station. Naturally thero has been a bitter, fight against the "automatic," those op-. posed to it contending that it is. far too costly, that it is too complicated to give good service, and also that, the public "does not like to do_its own operating." Dealing with the first argument it certainly is more costly in the .first instance, but there are no operators to pay. As' to complexity, experience* has proved that the complexity of the automatic system,does not prevent it giving reliable service. The argument about attitude of the public, in Wellington, at least, is not upheld; there _ have been no complaints in this 'direction. Automatic . telephones, were invented about 20 years ago in a commercial form, but prior to 1908 the use of automatic apparatus ■was confined- almost solely to the "independent" telephone companies of America. Since that year it has been adopted in: many countries, -including England, France, Austria,' .'Germany, [Italy, Australia, Denmark, the Argentine, and last, but riot least, New Zealand. The apparatus, first, installed'in the Dominion was on the Strbwger system, manufactured by the Automatic Electric Company, of Chicago, but at the present time the one being fitted in Wellington is that manufactured by the Western Electric Company—two entirely different, methods of obtaining the same" result." ' "■' V „,.'• '•..■/•..■ \ THE NEW ClTtf EXCHANGES. ' A Post reporter visited the new substation which has been erected at the rear of the Courtenay-place Post Office, and which, when completed, will have a capacity of .2000 subscribers. _ A smaller station, with accommodation for 800 connections, has. been installed at New.- ---' town. In addition to these sub-stations, it; is quite possible that two other automatic exchanges will be erected at Ngaid and Kelburn. Ms'the city has advance*! so have the telephone requirements ■; of the public. Thanks to,the Postand Telegraph Department, the telephone system of Wellington has kept well up to,the\ times,; and the installation of the automatic'apparatus is the very "last word" in this direction. The reporter was shown over the new Courtenay-place station by Mr. J. Orchiston (the Chief Telegraph Engineer), Mr. A. H. Campbell (the Supervising Engineer), and the representative of the Western Electric Company, who courteously explained all there was to be ••seen. ■> The exchange, which is. in a two-story fireproof build, ing, is completed with.'.the exceptional about 10 per cent, of the material, which is held, up in England, and which there isi no immediate prospect of obtaining. Had it not been for the war, and the sinking of the Tongariro off aBuII Bock, the' new exchanges would probably have been completed.. and in commission- by now, but an unfortunate chain of cir. ciimstances has delayed matters. When the Germans invested Antwerp, the parts which were being manufactured at the Western Electric Company's branch works 'there" were hastily bundled into a barge and taken across to England. A factory was set up at Woolwich, and . the-''manufacture ' Tesumed. Then the War Office commandeered all the workmen, .and the plant was! once more shifted, this time across the Atlantic to Hawthorn (Chicago). However, it was found necessary to return to England to manufacture certain parts, and things are now running comparatively smoothly. ■;'■•■■ INSIDE THE EXCHANGE! • . The first thing that, strikes the visitor to the Courtenay-place Exchange is the group of the big lead cables which lead to the instrument-room upstairs. There are seven 1 of: these cables, each as. thick as a man's forearm, and containing nearly 35,000 wires in all! : In each, cable there are thus over 12,000 wires to be sorted and unravelled and connected up -^-each to its proper place, on. what.is known as the "distributing-frame" upstairs. At 'the back of the building on the ground'floor is the charging-room. Here the' electrical machinery and storage batteries which supply the current! for operating the telephones are situated. Extraordinary, care has been taken to guard against a breakdown, and a duplicate of everything has been provided. The storage, batteries are charged by ;a dynamo coupled to an electric motor, which takes its current from the city electric mains. Should this source of supply fail for any reason, there is a duplicate charging sot deriving its source of current from the city tramways powerhouse. There is practically no possibility of both supplies failing, but in the very remote event of such being the case the storage batteries are quite equal ■to the task of running the. system for at least twenty-four hours. The batteries are automatically kept charged, and the current to and from them is controlled by a handsome switchboard at one -end of the ■battery-room. THE SWITCHING MECHANISM. .Upstairs, where the entire switching ! mechanism is located; the room seems to be filled with nothing but wire. Thick wire, thin, wire; cable as thick as Manila hawser' and wire so fine as to be hardlyi visible. Each' of these small wires is .coveted with a different-colour-ed! insulation :tp distinguish it from its neighbour.- To the unpractised eye the difference -between, say, orange and yellow is not apparent at all, but if the orange-covered wire goes on the peg which is meant for the yellow, then the

whole of the previous work is undone, and the result is chaos. The wiremen employed on the work are, of course, experts in their line,- and mistakes of this character are very few, and are soon rectified. Each wire has to be soldered in place, and .million's of joints have, already been made. : The whole of the floor space upstairs is filled with the huge steel frames carrying the apparatus that does the work of ■ switching one subscriber to another, and'which are known as "line-selectors." ■■These -are the "heart" of the whole system. All the instruments and wiring are mounted on these frames, and a space is left between each frame, for the sake of accessibility. The frames are (divided-into panels, each of which has a separate electric motor to drive the spindles of the "line-selectors." The. technical, language required to fully describe the operation of the"•" line-se-lectors " would- be about as intelligible to. the average reader as Chinese, so it will not be attempted. Suffice it to say that as soon as^ a subscriber- removes his receiver from the hook, the "select tor ' commences to rotate, and in doing so passes a metal " brush ',' over a series of copper contacts. When the brush comes upon the contact which corresponds to the front number dialled by the subscriber, it stops rotating, and transfers the duty of finding the second number required to another "selector" on a different frame, and so on. The mechanism, works smoothly and silently, 1 and even to the lay mind appears a very sound piece of workmanship.

CONNECTING WITH. MAIN EX-

CHANGE. • . "How will a subscriber on Courtenayplace Exchange be connected' with another, say, on the Wellington Exchange?" the reporter asked. Mi;. Orchiston explained this very simply. Every member on the various exchanges will have a call letter placed first. Thus, the subscribers, to, Courtenay-place exchange will be numbered, say, 4000, and upwards, and the subscribers; to the main exchange 6000. and upwards, and so on. Number 4370, for instance, canriot possibly, be in-any exchange except Courtenay-place, and No.----6557 must be, on the Wellington Exchange. This will mean that as soon as Courtenay-place subscriber 4370, who wants No. 6557, dials the first numeral "6," an instrument at the Courtenayplace sub-station -will automatically switch him on .to Wellington Exchange. This will mean, in'effect, that every number in the city will have, to be altered, so as to have at least four figures'in it. ■There is installed at the Courtenay-place station a, piece, of apparatus which is almost uncannily human in; its action. It is briefly as, follows : —There will be ten "trunk" lines from Courtenay-place to Central, and it ie not very likely that they will all be used at the one time. However, should a subscriber,; wishing to connect with the main station, find all the lines 'in use, this little instrument stores up, as it were, in its own mind, the number which has been dialled. It may bo a minute, or perhaps ten minutes, later that .one, of the main lines is disengaged, but as soon as this happens the apparatus at once sends out the call already dialled •by the waiting subscriber, without any subsequent effort at all on his part. Like all "half-and-half" arrangements, the combined.manual and. automatic system, at, present being used in Wellington and other centres of the Dominion,: cannot help but give "half-and-half" service. There have been numerous little annoyances—subscribers getting the "engaged" signal from numbers not engaged, one number being cut off from another suddenly, and being unable to get on again,, and so-forth —but when the telephone system of the. entire city is equipped with "automatics" these troubles will;disappear. - ; . '

WHAT OF THE OLD MATERIAL?

"And what,". Mr.' Orchistoh was asked,,in conclusion, "will become of the old manual 'phones and all the appurtenances? Will they be relegated to the scrap-heap?" "By no means," said the Chief Telegraph Engineer in reply. "The country districts are beginning to realise the importance of rural telephonic communication, and'the demand for secondhand instruments is considerably in excess' of the supply. Half-a-dozen farmers get together, and have a.small rural system of their own. The motor-car may be: a big factor in bringing the countrydwellers into closer touch with the town, but the telephone plays-a far more important part. A few years ago, where ten country connections were made a hundred were made in the city. Now the position is entirely reversed."