LONDON'S TELEPHONES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 18, 22 January 1927, Page 16

LONDON'S TELEPHONES

AUTOMATIC TO BE INSTALLED

THIS YEAE.

Hidden in the recesses of the General Post. Office buildings in London is a long narrow room in which is installed, for the sole use of students, the latest marvel in telephoning. A "Morning Post" representative visited this Auto* matte Training School, and also the automatic exchange in Holborn, which is expected to, be opened early this year. Four model exchanges, called North, East, South, and West, were ranged round the walls of the room, leaving sufficient space for the wiring to be examined. Down the centre of the room five or six students' w.ere seated at a table, engaged in adjusting small parts of the delicate appartus, their work afterwards being submitted to the tutors for their approval. In testing, when" purpositive faults were cleared, telephone numbers were 'dialed" from one exchange, and after a lapse of less than. 15 seconds the familiar ring of the telephone bell could be heard. During the time between the completion of the "dialing"-and the ring of the telephone bell came faint clicks, buzzes, and the flashing of miniature lamps of all colours, in rapid succession, making the machinery appear alive. .-,■■■• ■

The students, said the engineer/ were selected: from men expert in the old system, and divided .into" two groups— those training for work in the provinces and those for London, when the problems of automatic telephones were con^ siderably more acute. The period of training for, work in the first class was two months, while the London class required three months to gain proficiency They were receiving full pay, _"The real difficulty," : s aid' Mr Brown, the,engineer, "is.the transition between the dying of the. old system and the introduction of the new. It would be impossible for the Post Office to erect all the automatic exchanges simultaneously, enabling subscribers' to wafce up one morning and say: 'Now we are automatic' For a long time automatic will work side by. side with the manual. , Subscribers • fitted with automatic, and who wish to communicate with a number on- a manual exchange, will 'dial' the number and exchange m the usual way, and the number appear in illuminated figures at the exchange. The operator has then merely to insert the plug into the appropriate socket, and connection is

The new automatic exchange at Holbprn represents a marvel in engineer--9999 "^T%- T n a^o^odate 9999 subscribers,, and about as many Pairs of wires enter th e : buildinSZti^^* ***** —^