“TIME IS MONEY.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 175, 24 June 1935, Page 10

“TIME IS MONEY.”

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 the deI partment complaining of waiting out- | side 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 en- | gineers is fitted to automatic slot telephones is that the caller having ascertained that communication is established, will drop a penny into the slot, and ns it falls it will operate not only the mechanism opening the circuit for clear speech but trip a catch setting a clock work mechanism 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 the conversation is to be continued another penny must be placed in the slot. If this is done another three minutes’ time is purchased.