AUTOMATIC TELEPHONY

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 62, 10 September 1921, Page 5

AUTOMATIC TELEPHONY

/DOMINION'S IDEAL POSITION.

" Greajfc Britain and North America are now convinced that inachine-switoh-ing (automatic) telephony is the only economical system of meeting the future.' needs of telephone service. . This conclusion was arrived at in New. Zealand in 1911," states the Chief Engineer, in a report to the Postmaster-General. At a later stage he says: —"For'the large multi-office areas in the United States and for the five largest cities in Great Britain the, Western Electric panel- system has been adopted. The system being installed in our- four chief centres and several provincial towns is the Western Electric rotary, and it is already giving service in several European cities and one or two towns in England. The panel and rotary are both ' impulsestoring' systems —i.e., the impulses are received and stored in ' registers.' The panel, because of its being manufactured in 500-line units, is considered more suitable for large areas; some authorities £O so far as to say that no other existing system' is capable of handling • telephone* traffic in such ■ large multi-office areas as London and New York. From what I have seen of the Western Electric Company's panel and rotary machineswitching telephone exchanges, I am of an opinion that in some respects the. rotary has advantages over \ the panel, especially for conditions oxisting in New Zealand. Rotary is cheaper to instal, and costs less to maintain. • - '

" New Zealand is in an ideal position for the introduction of modern m&ohincswitching apparatus. We have only three of what may be termed modorn manuallyoperated exchanges—viz., Invercargill, Timaru, and Hastings. The _ branching multiple magneto switchboards in the cities and larger towns have, in the majority of cases, reached a condition where they are' both difficult and expensive to maintain. Under the conditions existing to-day in tho counpry. it will be economic*! to install automatics in quite small communities, especially in localities adjacent to centres where the exohanges can be unattonded, only visited at regular periods for charging batteries and a, little routine testing. Automatics would provide continuous service at places where the number of lines is'so small that even if the rates were very high tho exchanges, if operated manually, would show- a serious loss. Even in our small localities, where we have a comparatively large numbs, of party lines, automatics could be,, installed. "The magneto telephones on the loiipparty lines would not havo to bo changed to enable these subscribers to enjoy automatic service; dials for callinor could be attaohod to the magneto telephones. Tho party-line subscribers under this system, would bo given individual numbers, and thus called by automatic code ringing. Tlie magneto rmgors of these party-lino telephones would be used for calling from 'one to another party on the same ■ line. Tliis would avoid tho, necessity for placing expansive vovertivo riwrinff apparatus in