CLEARER SPEECH.

Hutt News, Volume 11, Issue 12, 18 August 1937, Page 4

CLEARER SPEECH.

CITY AND HUTT The installation of "loading coils" on the trunk cable between the Wellington and Lower Hutt telephone exchanges has now been completed, and a marked improvement has been effected in the volume and quality of the speech between the city and Lower Hutt areas. The loading coils are "lumped inductances'' which are inserted in each pair of cable conductors at intervals of six thousand feet. Their effect is to cause the "attentuation" or "transmission loss" in the conductors to remain relatively low over the most important part ol' the speech range, the result of which is to increase the volume of speech obtainable over a given length uf cable, hence the term "booster 1, which is sometimes applied to "loading coils." There are 200 pairs of conductors in the Lower Hutt trunk cable. The loading coils have been installed at eight points along the cable route. The eight groups of "200 coils" or "inductances' are contained in cast iron pots each of which weighs approximately half a ton. These pots are accommodated in footway manholes which have been specially constructed for the purpose. The installation work, which has extended over a period of some months, has called for the exercise of much care on the part of the cable jointers to avoid interruptions to the service, as their operations were being carried out on the one and only working cable in commission between the central and Lower Hutt exchanges. Now that the work has been completed subscribers generally, it was stated, will enjoy the advantage of much-improved speech to and from the Lower Hutt area. CORRECT USE OF TELEPHONES. The Post and Telegraph Department. points out that a most important factor in the satisfactory .use of the telephone is to speak into it properly. The lips should almost touch the transmitter mouthpiece. Shouting is quite unnecessary with the sensitive instruments now in use. The greatest temptation to do so is when the parties to a conversation are separated by hundreds of miles, but if they realised that at intervals along New Zealand's main telephone lines are electrical repeaters which boost up the impulses the shouting tendency would disappear. Speaking close to the transmitter also gives the advantage of reducing the effects of any extraneous noises. There is no danger to health in the use of the same transmitter by large numbers . of people, for this point has been subject to careful bacteriological tests with completely negative results.