NEW TELEPHONE OUTFIT

Evening Star, Issue 18094, 9 October 1922, Page 5

NEW TELEPHONE OUTFIT

TO BE SUPPLIED TO DUNEDIN. START MADE WITH AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE. “No thorough faro ” stores one in the face at the foot of the Dowling street steps. The blocking of this way is necessary on account of a start having been made by the Fletcher Construction Company with the work that is prep:©atory_ to the roaring of the new automatic telephone exchange. The old buildings on top of the steps are already demolished. Mr R. D. 'Veitdb, the district telegraph engineer, was good enough to permit a ‘ Star ’ representative to look at the plans of the new building. It will practically cover Sfia whole of the quarter-acre section, the only reservation on the section being a pathway all round. The building is to be of brick and concrete, two stories in front and one at the rear, with a basement at the back for stores. The one-story portion will be known as the switch room. In it the automatic equipment will be installed. The power room and the battery room ■ are to he on the ground floor of the two-story portion, and this portion is also set apart for the toll room, where the trunk line switching will be performed on the second story, and will still be attended to by lady operators, a staff of ten or twelve being required. The total ultimate capacity of this exchange will amount to 10,000 subscribers’ lines. At present the Dunedin total is about 4,500, so that the new arrangement will more than double the capacity. Access to the building for the underground cables will be by means of a tunnel drive from the underground manhole in Dowling street to a point directly below the footpath in front of the exchange building, and then_ by a shaft of about 3ft .into the automatic switch room. Simultaneously with .the erection of the equipment in the new building, a similar arrangement will be carried out at_ the South Dunedin and Roslyn buildings, which have been completed for some time. • Under favorable conditions, and with no unforeseen delays in the delivery of the automatic equipment, the whole work may be completed within two years from the present date. The existing approach to the site, up the steps, is awkward and unsightly : but it is to be hoped that the City Corporation will make some change in this approach before the new exchange is opened. When the change-over, takes place, not only will a new switching enuiproent be brought into operation, but the whole of the present aerial cable will be supplanted by the cable that is now being drawn into the ducts that have been placed underground throughout the city, and new telephones will also have to bo used. It will therefore be seen that Dunedin is going to he furnished with a telephonic outfit that will be completely new in every respect.