AUTOMATIC TELEPHONES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 29 January 1927, Page 6

AUTOMATIC TELEPHONES

NEW SYSTEM INSPECTED. MEMBERS OF. CHAMBER OF ’ COMMERCE 4 GUESTS OP POST AND TELEGRAPH department. For an hour and a half last evening a . large : number of Hawera business men wandered’ through what was to most of them, a* maze of the most wonderful mechanical devices for placing telephone subscribers in communication with one another. The party comprised members'' of the Chamber of Commerce, who had been invited by Mr L. J. Bull, postmaster, to inspect the newly completed automatic telephone installation, before it is put into operation to-night , at eleven o’clock. Even to the veriest tvro in things pertaining to mechanics and electricity there is a fascination about the inside of an automatic telephone exchange. It is safe to assume that-many members of the large party which visited the exchange last evening went merely out of curiosity to see what the inside of the room looked like, but lc was not long before their interest had been caught by the wonderful arrangement of wires _ which autoiiiati'caly place one subscriber in communication with another. The first impression that the lay mind fathered was one of mechanical orderliness. It was all very well arranged and' doubtless very efficient, but a man who had never felt any curiosity to find- out what was the difference, it anv, between an accelerator and a clutch, or any other contrivance that had anything to do with what lie dismissed from his mind as “machinery, found Ms interest intrigued in spite of himself. The party of visitors split up into sections and each section made the tour of inspection under the guidance of a mechanician. No one could fail 1 to become interested and curious to hear more once the mechanicians had warmed to their subject. Those men, far" from being bored by the hopeless task of trying to make clear to the newcomers something which had taken them years of application to their jobs to master, were moved by pride in their completed work to make the strangers see- something, if only a little, of what they sav r in it themselves. Their enthusiasm was contagious and soon the man who had never' felt any desire before to know what made the wheels go round w T as anxious to be shown just why and how it was that five seconds after he- dialed his ’phone his neighbour’s ’phone would ring. When he was told he could be a subscriber to a four-party or to a ten-party line, and that the “machinery’’ would select the right number for him every time, he, like the man from Missouri, felt that he had to be shown, "before he could credit it. THE AUTOMATIC PARTY LINE. And he was shown. The mechanicians had temporary telephones installed to represent both four-party and tenpartv lines. The ten-party line has one "number of four numerals, common to the whole line, but each of the ten subscribers had' a different numeral which, when added to the four for the line, gave his code call. Thus a number was called up by tie guide. In different sections of the “board” could be heard first one numeral and then other “rattling” until contact had been established with all five, and then, from the ten-party ’phone on the other wall, came the clear ringing of the bell, giving the code call —long, short, long. Each ’phone of the ten, on the circuit would receive that call, but it was only calling one subscriber. The other subscribers would know not to answer be-ca-use-their call was different —two short and one long, and so on. Yet they are aIL on the one wire, the selection being done by. the automatic board! On. the four-party line only the telephone actually called rings in response, the others remaining silent. To many of the visitors this was the most fascinating feature of a fascinating system. A POOL PROOF SYSTEM. But thfise were only a few of the automatic marvels to which the visitor was introduced: the wonders were too numerous to be catalogued here. The mechanicians explained how the system was made almost completely fool-proof. The “almost” is the mechanicians. Long years of dealing with telephone subscribers has convinced him that the rate is still maintained at “one a minute.” But to the visitors it seemed that a. counter had been thought out for every likely, and many unlikely, brands of foolishness. By means of little red lights and other devices the mechanician on duty is informed exactly where a fault has developed and why—though one may hazard a guess that the mechanician has his own ojiinion as to the “why” if anything goes wrong with his beloved system. He may not know till ./he has examined the position of the red light just what the subscriber has done, blit he will bet quite a large sum of, money before he has looked at the Warning light that a subscriber has done something wrong. THE MANUAL SWITCHBOARD.

The visitors were taken into the old manual switchboard room, where the operators were at work connecting and disconnecting as the shutters tell. It was a new experience for most of them to see in the lle.sk the lady who says “I’ll give you a ring.” They heard her make this promise to several unseen persons while they were there. Whether she did give those promised rings or whether somebody in Kaponga is still waiting to get Opunake the visitors will never know, but they discovered that at least one of their assumptions about the telephone service was wrong—the lady does not dissolve into thin air after she has made that promise: she goes on making similar promises to other people and takes notes on a little pad at the same time. However, after Saturday the old manual board, with its hard-worked, .alert and capable attendants will have disappeared from the Hawera exchange, the only operators left being two on tolls. The absence of the switchboard attendant is going to leave a gap in the everyday life of the regular user of the telephone. No more will he gain a little extra, attention by speaking in his best voice when he is anxious to get a number which has been engaged for what seems hours. He toll get the number, or he won’t get it, as the case may be. He may be sure of getting it if it is right and proper that lie should get it, but if he asks for. special consideration he will ask in vain. The most heart-rending story of urgent business has never been known tc arouse the sympathy of an automatic switchboard. CALLING “TIME.” A striking example of the utter lack of feeling that the system can exhibit Was shown, by a mechanician who demonstrated the proper way in which to 'call" “time.” The subscriber who

wishes to learn the correct time must dial a given number and listen, and the answer-; will come to him promptly and with finality—and then black-out. For some reason that seemed perfectly obvious at the time it was being explained, the .subscriber must not ask “ what is the correct time please.” Heiuust dial the required- number and simply listen; if lie speaks he will break contact or do something equally heinous, and will be cast into outer darkness, so far as telephone communication is concerned. If he obeys instructions, and just dials and listens he will receive the information lie seeks and nothing more. He will receive no encouragement to enter into an argument about it,'because by the time he has explained that according to his grandfather’s gold hunter the post office clock is slow, and he has never known- his gold hunter to vary a minute in three generations, and the post office clock never was any.good anyway and-never would be till we got a change- of Government, he, will find that he.'is talking into a dead end; This arid'many more things were learned by the- visitors last evening, who left the post office feeling they had- learned much, their only regret being that all the subscribers who will be using the system next week could not bo present to learn what a boon has been conferred upon them by the installation of •the now automatic board. ADVICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.

A word of advice issued by the district telegraph engineer is worthy of notice by all subscribers: lip had not the slightest doubt that subscribers would be delighted with, the new service after it had been in operation a week, by which time it would have “sotrtlctV down” and the subscribers become used to the new conditions, but he asked, in fairness to the system, to the mechanicians and to everybody concerned that subscribers refrain from making unnecessary calls during the first week.

At the conclusion of the inspection Mr E. Dixon (president of the Chamber of Commerce) and Mr H. G. Dickie, M.P., thanked the postmaster (Mr L. J. Bull), the deputy-chief telegraph engineer (Mr C. S. Plank), and the district Telegraph engineer (Mr J. McDermott) for their thoughtfulness in inviting members of the Chamber of Commerce- to be present, and they also expressed high- appreciation of the pains taken by the departmental officers and the mechanicians to make the inspection of tli& greatest interest to -the visitors. Mr Bull suitably replied, saying that the mechanicians were entitled to all the praise. The department' was out to give the public good survive and he was confident that the telephone subscribers of Hawcra would have every reason to be -well pleased with the new system.