TALKIE TELEPHONE

Cue (NZERS), Issue 1, 15 June 1944, Page 5

TALKIE TELEPHONE

B From successful tests recently completed it seems Certain that the telephone of > the future will combine some of the functions of a talkie and a weather bureau. Already, ? experiments have brought forth a robot voice which tells callers the time and the weather forecast. ' One of the main achievements has, however, been in the field of long distance service, which has now reached the testing stage where a long distance call can be put through without any human assistance. . At present a toll call requires the service of several skilled operators before the final connection is made. In the .new system, an operator in the town where the call originates calls the number by dialling or punching keys on a modern keyboard, consisting of numbers on the adding

machine principle, instead /-of plugs, y. .. z The message is A transmitted to the mechanical brain, called a « marker », which searches out an available trunk line, tests a path to the destination and electrically sets up all connections—all in the space of one' second. . If all lines are engaged overflow calls are held in a ' special circuit and released in order of priority when the lines are clear. A trouble indicator - on the marker also reports the nature and place of any fault on a line. Other innovations \ expected shortly include an instrument enabling a home-to-home toll call and which records the toll charges on a printed ticket. While operators will always be required in large numbers, recent ’tests seem to indicate their absence from « the air » in a few years.