PUBLIC PHONES
PAYMENT FOR TIME USED. A new attachment is to be fitted to slot telephones in automatic telephone areas which will ensure that use of these convenient facilities' will be strictly according to the amount of time paid for. Hitherto there has been no official limit on the length of a conversation for the penny, toll, and hundreds of annoyed people have written to the newspapers and to tho Department; complaining of waiting outside slot telephone boxes for periods up to an hour while the telephone has been used for a never-ending conversation.
What will happen when the device designed by the Post Office engineers is fitted to automatic slot telephones is that the caller, -having ascertained that communication is established, will drop a penny into the slot, and as it falls it will operate not only the mechanism opening the circuit for clear speech but trip a catch setting a clockwork in motion. This ticks away steadily for three minutes, and just before the end of that time actuates a buzzer, conveying a plain message to the speaker that if tho conversation is to he continued another penny must be placed in the slot. If this is done another three-minutes’ time is purchased.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19350625.2.22
Bibliographic details
Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1935, Page 4
Word Count
205PUBLIC PHONES Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1935, Page 4
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