TOLL CALLS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 374, 4 March 1937, Page 6

TOLL CALLS.

Recording Precious Minutes Daily.

Because minutes are precious in connection with telephone toll calls, post office exchangee are equipped with devices for recording time in short intervals without requiring the operator to constantly look at a clock. Right and left of every toll attendant can be seen recording clocks. When a subscriber aeks for a toll call a card is inserted in the clock, a lever pressed and the exact time printed. The call may not commence until a later period, but here is a register of when it was booked. Communication having been 'established a(nd 'the operator being satisfied that conversation has commenced the card again goes into the clock, which prints small reproductions o£ its dial on the card. One is devoted to hours, another to minutes of the hour and the third to further sub-divisions of the minutes so that when tlie conversation ends there is a printed record to within fifteen secords of the ex act time. The clock mechanism is locked and the record cannct be alter ed by the toll operator A chai ge in the illuminated disc on the* board shows when the talyk is ended. However, if the conversation is prolonged there is a periodical check to make sure that the line is in use and the recording clock again notes the time at which the check was made. Overseas radio calls also are subject to careful oversight by the overseas tolls operator who pays close at-

tention to the 1 quality of speech, stops the time recorded when there is interruption and only resumes it when normal speech is possible, thus ensuring that subscribers pajr only for “good speech” time.