AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE WORKING EXPLAINED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22694, 20 July 1948, Page 4

AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE WORKING EXPLAINED

The operation of the automatic tele* phone system and the automatic exchange formed the basis of a talk given by Mr. G. Tyer, telegraph engineer at Gisborne, to members of the Gisborne Rotary Club at their weekly luncheon in the Bon Accord yesterday. The first patents for a telephone were taken out in 1876, explained Mr. Tyer, and it was only three years' later that patents for an automatic service were lodged. During the following 10 years the automatic service was improved and the present automatic sys«tern was still based on the automatics switches patented in the early 1880's. The operations involved in the automatic system from the time the telephone receiver was lifted from the cradle until it was replaced were explained by Mr. Tyer with the aid of a model.

The ultimate capacity of the Gisborne automatic exchange was 10,000 telephones, he said. However, this did not mean that 10,000 separate switches were necessary in the exchange as it had been found that only about 10 per cent, of the telephones were in use at any one time in normal circumstances. Therefore, the number of switches in a 10.000 telephone exchange could be reduced to about 1000, thus saving space. Mr. Tyer was thanked for his address by the chairman for the day, Mr. J. Thompson.