The Telephone System of To-Day
A Paper Read Before

The Insurance Society of New York
November 24, 1903

BY

C. J. H. Woodbury
Assistant Engineer, American Telephone and Telegraph CompanyBoston, Mass.

WB^2*t

THE TELEPHONE SYSTEM OF TO-DAY
A PAPER READ BEFORE

THE INSURANCE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK
November 24, 1903.
By C. J . H . W O O D B U R Y , Assistant Engineer, American
Telephone and Telegraph Company, Boston, Mass.
The remarkable development of electricity applied to the
Service of man for illumination, conveyance of power, and the
transmission of Speech during the ten years following the exhibition of 1876, at Philadelphia, is an illustration of theaphorism that "progress always advances by leaps," and was probably without parallel in human history excepting the development of Grecian art in twelve years from a condition of
mediocrity to the Golden Age of Phidias.
It is always pleasant to record improvements and advances
in any State or condition. The trite phrase that ' * electricity
is in its infancy" is a time-honored one, having been used
in 1792 by George Adams, Philosopher and optician to His
Majesty George the Third, in " An EJfoy on electricity Explaining the Principles of that ufeful Science " in which he
states on page 35, " As electricity is in it's infancy when confidered as a |cience, it's definitions and axioms cannot be ftated
with geometfric accuracy."
EARLY ATTEMPTS AT TRANSMISSION OF SOUND.

The endeavor to communicate sounds by vibrations is not
a new one, the string telephone being described by Dr. Robert
Hooke, in his book on " Outaeousticons " in 1667; but over a
Century earlier the transmission of vibrations to a diaphragm
was applied during the Second Siege of Rhodes in September,
1552, as related in the History of the Knights of Malta* by
Major Whitworth Porter.
In this siege the Turks sunk shafts and drove galleries beneath the principal bastions. Gabriel Martingo, a Venetian
engineer, in charge of the fortifications, excavated pits into
which he inserted long rods, against the Upper ends of which
he placed a drum, and the vibrations of the earth in the tun*Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, London, 1858, Vol. 1,
page 453.
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nels made by the Turks were transmitted to this drumhead,
which enabled the Knights to determine their location and to
sink cotmtermines and destroy the advance of the enemy in
this manner.
As an example of the wish to extend the limits of Speech,
by means of electricity, reference is made to Harper's Magazine, for June, 1867, where it is related on page 131, that after
a telegraph office was burned, an instrument was temporarily
installed in a carpenter's shop.
One noon the instrument clicked vigorously, and the carpenter placed his lips to the instrument and shouted, " Operat o r s gone to dinner; be back in half an hour," meantime receiving a shock in his lips which served for remembrance.
This man had the desire, thought, and conception in his endeavor to apply electrical apparatus to the transmission of
Speech, but he did not accomplish his purpose and failed to
produce an invention.
There is nothing new in the conception that eventually
something would be produced to add materially to the ränge
of the human voice, but invention is a practical result in the
victorious Solution of a new problem and is not a futile attempt or a passing wish.
Humanity has always desired to add to the potentiality of
the voice, by attempts to extend the ränge of utterance, but
the masks of the Grecian actors, speaking tubes, and stringed
diaphragms were of as little purpose as signal fires, tom-tom
beats and semiphores, and the füll measure of the strength of
the invention of Alexander Graham Bell is shown by the fact
that the telephone Stands as the only successful result after
centuries of effort.
T H E TELEPHONE INSTRUMENT.

When one removes the telephone from its hook and presently
holds conversation with another in the same building or in a
distant city, there is set up a train of action possible only
under the concurrent action of science and handicraft, labor
and capital.
It may be worth while to trace some of these Steps and the
results to which they are tending in modifying methods of
life in business and personal äffairs.
The telephone System ministers to the needs of civilization
in lengthening the potent life of mankind by the utilization of
time.
Your consideration is asked for the telephone System, rather
than for the telephone as an instrument, an invention which is
the most delicate piece of philosophic apparatus yet made by
man, in that it is operated by less energy than any other contrivance.
It transmits in miniature the infinitesimal overtones which
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indicate the character of sounds, the individual quality of a
voice or the source of a tone, through the whole ränge of
vibrations far beyond the limits of the human ear.
Yet as an essential portion of the general subject, something
should be stated relative to the methods of its Operation.
The telephone differs from all other electrical devices in
that it is the only electrical appliance which does not require
skill on the part of its users. It is equally the servant of all,
a polyglot it speaks all languages and acts as a faithful messenger for the whole gamut of sounds.
While this device is of the utmost simplicity in its construction, yet the phenomena of its Operation are based on a complexity of principles, some of which can be explained only on
the basis of a hypothetical framework.
The action of the telephone is based upon two fundamental
principles.
First, the relations of electricity and magnetism are of such
reciprocal nature that if a closed coil of insulated wire is
wound around a magnet, variations of magnetic strength
produce corresponding undulations of electricity in the wire,
and the apparatus is to this extent a generator of electricity;
and, conversely, if the electric current traversing such a coil is
varied, the attractive power of the magnet is changed in like
manner.
Seebnd. The attractive power of a magnet varies with the
distance of the armature from its poles.
When a pair of telephones are connected together, the ends
of the line wires are attached to the terminals of the coils
surrounding the poles of the magnets in the telephones, and
when the sonorous vibrations of the voice are directed against
the soft sheet-iron diaphragm of the telephone, its vibrations
produce corresponding undulations in the strength of the
magnet, and this in turn generates variable electric currents
in the coil wound around the magnet, and thence throughout
the whole electric cireuit of which the coil at the other telephone forms a portion, and at this other telephone the undulations of electricity produce like changes in the strength of the
magnet whose varying power causes the diaphragm to vibrate
in unison with that of the first telephone, and to give forth in
miniature a repetition of the sounds which were imparted to
the first telephone.
Telephones were formerly used in this manner without a
battery, and while the transmission was clear even to distances
of 500 miles, yet the sound was " a s weak as the voice of a
keared conscience," and hardly equal to the commercial
requirements of public Service, particularly amid the rumble
of cities, and could be used only where there was absolute
quietude.
The telephone is no exception to the general experience of
the retrospective simplicity of a great invention, and while its
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operation has been described, no one has yet been able to
explain why the telephone talks.
Even if the diaphragm is removed from a telephone the
magnet and coil of wire remaining will give forth the speech
whose vibrations it receives; also a condenser even when
crudely made by inserting sheets of tin foil between the pages
of a pamphlet will produce sounds in like manner.
While the telephone was an invention of radical novelty,
made without the assistance of precedents to govern its assemblage, yet its degree of perfection is such that it has escaped
improvement, and is to-day in its entirety as produced by Dr.
Alexander Graham Bell.
T H E /TRANSMITTER.

The former method of using a pair of telephones transmitted
speech with the utmost clearness, but of such minute volume
as to be inadequate for satisfactory service amid disturbing
noises or for long distances, and the transmitter was invented
for the purpose of producing greater variations in the undulations of an electric current applied to the telephone circuit
than could be done by the application of magnetism in the
telephone.
This result is accomplished by applying electricity from a
battery, and changing the conductivity of this circuit in unison with the vibrations of sounds imposed upon a diaphragm,
without the intervention of magnetism to produce such
variations in the current.
The general purpose of the transmitter may be compared
to a method of varying the flow of water conveyed through a
soft rubber tube by intermittently constricting its diameter by
applying changing pressures upon it at some portion of its
length.
Its electrical principle is based upon the fact well known to
every telegraph operator that the contact of a telegraph key
with a well-defined pressure is necessary to obtain a satisfactory flow of current through its connections; and the transmitter in general use applies this principle in a more delicate
manner, by using a number of loose particles of material
whose conductivity is improved by pressure which increases
the points of contact.
Each end of the telephone circuit is attached to one of a
pair of discs of carbon, between which are a large number of
granules of hard carbon, and as the pressure upon these carbon discs is increased, the conductivity of the circuit and the
flow of electricity is augmented accordingly.
In the transmitter, the center of a flexible diaphragm presses
slightly upon one of the carbon discs, and the fluttering of
this diaphragm alters the pressure upon the carbon granules,
and, therefore, their conductivity in the electrical circuit of
which they form a portion.
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This variable electrical current is conveyed by the telephone line to the coil of wire already described in the telephone
used as a receiver, and through its influence the changing
strength of the magnet is varied more than could be done by
the original method of using a telephone to transmit the speech.
There are many variations in the form of transmitters, and
in fact every loose or variable electrical connection may in the
light of the present state of the art of telephony be made to
serve as a transmitter.
Piles of nails, boxes of coke, watch chains, metal turnings or
filings, toy balloons covered with powdered plumbago, coils
of wire, plumb bobs touching a surface of mercury, streams
of conducting solutions and arc lights have served such purposes by way of experiment, while in place of the thin iron
diaphragms,, boiler heads an inch thick, iron plates two inches
thick, the side of a frame house, and even that of an iron
steamship have been used as diaphragms.
It appears incomprehensible that such rigid bodies should
flutter at the sound of a human voice to an extent which would
permit them to convert such vibrations into electrical undulations which form the initiative of the electrical transmission of
speech, and the only explanation of such experiments is that
molecular vibrations are important elements in the unexplained phenomena of telephony.
This brief outline of some of the elements of the telephone
and the transmitter should not induce one to overlook the fact
that intense scientific research and able mechanical skill were
necessary to develop these instruments to an efficiency which
has 6nabled the transmission of speech without skilled usage
even up to distances reaching nearly two thousand miles.
ADMINISTRATION OF THE TELEPHONE SYSTEM.

T h e telephone would have remained a piece of physical
apparatus, an example of the correlation of forces, an instrument to aid in the study of sound, and a wonder to all had it
not been for the production of the switchboard, and particularly of the Blake Transmitter, which saved the situation in the
development of the telephone system.
It was indeed fortunate for the world's work that the organization of the telephone system from' its inception was in the
hands of leaders equal to the task of concentrating the labors
of many persons upon the sole purpose of furnishing practical
operative conditions for the transmission of speech as a public
service enterprise.
Its first president, Col. William H. Forbes, was endowed
with wisdom to plan and vigor to execute these duties, in the
spirit of imagination to foresee future possibilities, combined
with a knowledge of present events which he shaped to existing conditions.
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To John E. Hudson, an eminent member of the bar, were
largely due the measures which established the system in its
strong legal position, and to him also is due in large measure
its development as a great national enterprise.
The present executive of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company, Frederick P. Fish, was for many years its
counsel in the complex causes of patent litigation, and it has
been under his administration that the recent growth of the
telephone system has surpassed that of earlier years.
The work of these men has been executed by faithful lieutenants from the greatest unto the least in this army of seventyfive thousand unseen toilers.
T H E TELEPHONE CIRCUIT.

Before tracing the operation of the events set in action by
the removal of the telephone from the hook, let us follow' the
lines from the instrument to the switchboard in the latest type
of the telephone system.
PROTECTORS AGAINST FOREIGN CURRENTS.

On the way from the subscribers' instrument if any portion
of the wires are aerial, protectors are inserted in the line for
the purpose of maintaining the service and defending the instrument against other electric currents imposed upon it by
possible contact between telephone wires and those of electric
lighting or power circuits or even lightning, any of which
would disarrange the delicate wires in a telephone, some of
which are so fine that three and nine-tenths miles would weigh
only a pound, and these protectors are so sensitive that they
would shut from the telephone the battery currents used in telegraphing ; and in like purpose the other ends of the lines at
the telephone central stations are equipped with protectors to
exclude the whole range of electric currents applied for lighting, power, the numerous signalling systems, and also
lightning.
The form of apparatus used by the Bell Telephone Companies, which are especially careful in this regard, consists of a
device inserted in each line wire which is threefold in its
nature.
The first element consists of a fuse made of an alloy which
forms part of the circuit, and is contained in a tube of vulcanized fiber. These fuses will deflagrate when exposed to currents of seven to ten amperes, the capacity of the fuse being
varied according to the type of the apparatus.
The next element consists of a pair of small blocks of carbon whose larger surface- measures about one by one-half
inch, and one of these blocks is connected to the telephone
circuit. The corresponding block of the pair of carbons is
separated from it by a perforated sheet of mica and is electri8

cally connected with the earth. A small cavity in one of the
opposite faces of the carbon is filled with a button of solder
such as is used in automatic sprinklers, and which melts at
160 deg. Fahrenheit.
The distance between these carbons is such that electricity
at over three hundred and fifty volts will pass from the carbon
connected with the telephone circuit across this space to the
opposite carbon and thence to the Earth, thereby relieving the
telephonic apparatus of electric tension exceeding three hundred and fifty volts.
Thus, if the foreign current exceeds the carrying capacity
of the tubular fuse, its deflagration opens the circuit at that
point. If, however, it is less in volume than the carrying
capacity of the fuse, and over three hundred and fifty volts
tension, it leaps across the thin space separating the carbons,
and thence passes to Earth. The resistance of the tiny arc in
the space between the carbons is sufficient to slightly warm
the carbons and cause the fusible metal to flow from its recess
and fill the space between the carbons and thus establishes a
conductor of low resistance to Earth.
This diminished resistance generally causes a sufficient
increase in the current imposed upon a line to cause the tubular fuse to deflagrate and open the circuit, if it did not do so
on the first occurrence of the contact which imposed the foreign current on the telephone circuit.
In order to protect the fine wires of the telephonic apparatus
from injury by currents which are too small to operate the
tubular fuse, and of too low tension to pass to earth through
the carbon cutouts, a third element, known as the heat coil is
employed, in which a fine German silver wire which forms a
part of the telephone circuit, will be heated by a current of
one-sixth of an ampere to a temperature sufficient to release a
conductor ordinarily secured by fusible solder, and pass the
current to Earth. This latter device is not used at the subscribers' end of the line in those modern types of telephonic
apparatus in which the circuit is normally open, except when
the telephone is in use, because such coils are an interference
with the best conditions of telephone service by adding to the
electrical length of the line, and if a foreign current came in
contact with the telephone line at a time when the instrument
was in use, it would produce noises to such an extent to absolutely prevent the transmission of speech, and the user of the
telephone would naturally place the receiver on the hook and
thereby open the circuit.
The result of this protective apparatus has been so successful as to establish conditions of immunity in the Bell system
of telephony against mishaps to the apparatus resulting from
foreign currents and lightning after an experience of many
years throughout the Bell Telephone system. Such a telephone office appears to be, like a locomotive, the safest refuge
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in a thunder storm. Notwithstanding the number and range
of location of telephone central stations, it has not been possible to obtain information of any injury by lightning to any
person in such a place.
TELEPHONE LINES.

Following the course of the lines from the subscriber's
instrument, the aerial wires are of copper which has been
treated by the hard-drawn process, as commercial copper is
too ductile and has but little of the elastic property of resilience
by returning to its original length when stretched by a load of
snow or by a low temperature.
Hard-drawn copper might be classed as one of the modern
inventions which the ancients stole if the accounts of early
implements may be accepted, but investigations showing that
bronze had been supposed to be copper have absolved these
people of anticipating the work of Mr. Thomas B. Doolittle,
who produced hard-drawn copper by omitting the annealing
during the latter part of the process, and obtained copper wire
which retains the electrical conductivity of commercial copper,
while its tensile strength is doubled, and it is devested of the
tendency to continually stretch under its own weight.
The substitution of hard-drawn copper wire for iron wire
formerly in use has increased the limit of telephone conversation under other equal conditions about four times, and by its
better conductivity has diminished the waste of electricity
used in telegraphy or electric lighting and transmission of
power, or, what has been more important, has extended the
limits of their application.
For local use, these wires are generally one-tenth of an inch
in diameter, and for long distance lines, larger wires about
one-sixth of an inch diameter are used.
The contact of these wires with those of other electrical
circuits used for lighting or for power to which reference has
been made is not the only difficulty, for the mere proximity of
other wires conducting these powerful currents will, if they
are of changing polarity, produce sympathetic currents by
induction in the telephone wires, and acting on the telephone
are the occasion of various noises which at times interfere
with the transmission of speech through the telephone, furnishing examples of wireless telephony which are impediments to the usual service.
This interference by induction is minimized by transposing
the telephone wires to various positions on the cross-arms, so
that the result will be neutralized by imposing such conditions
of position that these disturbing elements will counteract each
other.
The wires of underground cables are laid in twisted pairs
so that they are immune to inductive influences.
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!

An aerial line is subject to the attack of all manner of disintegrating conditions, poles decay and break, branches fall
from trees and wreck the wires.
It is as unfeasible to make a pole line equal to stress of
weather beyond peradventure as it is to make the rigging of a
vessel equal to the impact of all storms, for when a sleet
storm builds the wires to icy lines, three inches in diameter,
sail is set for the gale to sway the lines until the poles are
broken.
During a recent winter, the destruction of aerial telephone,
telegraph, and electric light lines in the New England States
was estimated to be greater than the loss by shipwreck on the
New England coast.
This breaking of lines has been prevented on local wires
whenever it has been feasible to substitute aeriel cables, each
containing a number of wires, in place of the open wiring, but
for long distance and toll wires it has been necessary for electrical reasons to retain open wires.
The gales on the summit of the Rocky Mountain passes are so
severe that neither poles nor lines will withstand the stress of
winter weather, although lines have been built with poles set
only fifteen feet apart, yet the sleet builds them up to large
dimensions which yield upon the impact of winter gales.
Communication, however, is permanently carried on along
these routes by means of submarine armored cables which have
been buried in trenches excavated among the rocks.
In addition to the facilities for concentrating forces for immediate repair in case of wreck, the lines are inspected by a
patrol to give forewarning of imminent breakage.
These men brave the wilderness and face the elements
through Sun and through storm, the miasm of southern
swamps to the rocky fastnesses of western ranges, in the
rigors of heat and in cold, all in order to give every assurance
of human power that the response will be made when the
telephone is taken from the hook. As in the other services of
civilization, it can be truly said of the telephone service:
" W h e n we taste the spices of Arabia, we do not feel the
scorching sun which brought them forth."
Difficulties with aerial wires are by no means confined to
those occurring under the severe conditions of northern winters,
for each country appears to have troubles of its own.
When telephone lines were first built in Mexico, it was
naturally assumed that the absence of severe weather conditions would warrant the use of lighter wires and small porcelain insulators, but these lines proved of great interest to
parrots and ring-tailed monkeys who make nightly visits to
the lines in such great numbers for gymnastic practise as to
break the wires, and it became necessary to use as strong construction as in northern climates.
In forest districts, wooden poles are occasionally gnawed
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down by bears, who hear the humming of the wires and vainly
seek to break in to some hive of bees.
The King of the Belgians has had telephone wires placed
over his territory in Central Africa—one line crossing a
jungle 750 miles in length. Here it is not feasible to use wood
poles as is customary in other countries as they are perforated
by white ants, and it is necessary to attach the lines either to
trees or upon tubular iron poles. These poles appear to be a
great curiosity to elephants, whose inquisitiveness emulates
that of the blacksmith's apprentice, who cut the bellows to
find where the wind came from, and they pull up the poles
with their trunks, probably in search after the source of the
humming noise, or perhaps to ascertain whether such strangelooking trees have succulent roots, and it is therefore necessary to secure the tops of these poles by guys running to
higher trees wherever such conditions exist.
In Africa, as well as India, the natives are prone to steal the
wire, and it becomes necessary to remind them that * * honesty
is the best policy " by disconnecting the telephones from the
lines during certain portions of the day, while the lines, instead
of being used for telephonic purposes, are made part of a
grounded circuit from a high tension alternating current
dynamo and this application of science prevents any native
from touching the wire twice.
In all countries, wasps make nests in the recesses on the
underside of insulators, and the proverb relating to those who
live in glass houses does not restrain them from showing
umbrage in the most pointed manner whenever their tenancies
are invaded by linemen.
At the southern portion of the United States, it was found
that certain small insects deposited their eggs in the tubes containing fuses, and the formic acid secreted by the larvse corroded the fuses and opened the circuits, and it became necessary
to encase the fuses in the most secure manner.
Along the South Atlantic coast, fish hawks make their nests
on poles, and the linemen are obliged to carry sheath knives
at their belts ready for defence against the fierce attacks of the
parent birds.
Every possible precaution must be taken to avoid contact
between high tension and signalling lines, and prevent the
occurrence, rather than to rely upon protective devices to defend the plant against physical injury, because the operation
of a protector suspends the service over that line until the
operative parts have been renewed.
At cross-overs it is preferable that the high tension line
should be above, as its wires are of larger diameter and generally fewer in number than the signalling wires.
The simplest method to prevent contacts in such positions
is to make the upper,span so short that the radial distance
from the lower wire of the upper span to the nearest wire in
lfe"

the lower span is less than the width of the upper span; and
then to dead end wires to prevent overhauling in case of breakage occurring on adjacent spans.
In many instances this method of line construction is unfeasible, because the poles for such a short upper span would
interfere with the requirements of travel in a highway, and
other methods of preventing contact in case of breakage must
be adopted, usually by grills made of guard wires connected
by slats transversely across them, or by nettings.
When different lines are parallel to each other, the distance
between them should be so great that the higher line could not
touch the wires of the lower line if it fell towards it.
In all cases where high tension and signalling wires approach
each other, every precaution should be taken to provide against
possible contact by the use of heavy material in construction
and guys and braces to the poles as may be needed to assure
their stability, in order to prevent occurrences which would interfere with the continuity of the service.
UNDERGROUND WIRES.

The aerial lines pass from the poles into underground conduits in the congested parts of cities, flying from the mishaps
of storms and crosses to other difficulties which are largely
those of greater expenditure and electrical problems.
The underground system is older than the aerial system of
electric conductors in applied electricity, for a portion of
Morse's invention of the telegraph consisted in methods of
burying the wires, but the first seven miles from Baltimore
laid underground in lead pipes placed in a plough furrow
proved inoperative.
When a foreman on the work, because he could not bury the
wires along the stone viaduct at Relay Station, placed them on
poles with cattle horns from a neighboring slaughterhouse as
insulators, the expedient proved so successful that the remainder of the line to Washington was built in this manner,
and the first portion reconstructed.
The underground conduits consist of groups of continuous
ducts, generally three inches in diameter, and made either of
vitrified tile, cement monoliths reinforced with iron, or creosoted timber, but circumstances often lead to peculiar modifications, as at St. Paul, Minn., where the streets are catacombed
with tunnels which are readily made through the soft white
sandstone which underlies that city, and the telephone cables
are attached to the sides of these tunnels. Some of these tunnels emerge through the face of the bluff where grated doors
furnish light and ventilation.
Every few hundred feet these conduits lead to an underground chamber for the purpose of obtaining access to
the cable to provide for branches to the service of
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patrons, and also joining the ends of sections of the cables
together.
These underground cables consist of from two to six
hundred twisted pairs of wires insulated with paper and the
whole covered with a lead sheath.
The electrical difficulties of telephoning through underground conductors were at first prohibitive in their nature,
but improvements enabled this to be done later, but in the face
of conditions which rendered one mile of underground the
equivalent of fifty-two miles of overhead wire; but in the modern cable one mile of underground is the equivalent of twentyeight miles of overhead copper wire one-sixth of an inch
diameter, or twelve and a half miles of overhead copper wire
one-tenth of an inch diameter.
These conditions are so severe that on long lines it is necessary to pass around intermediate cities to avoid underground
wires, and in the suburbs of large cities are switching stations
by which connections may be provided to enable patrons to
send their messages by branch lines direct into the cities, or
permitted to continue on the main line to places beyond.
Conditions of safety and good service require that a telephone underground system should not also include lines of
electric lighting and power circuits, and serious mishaps have
occurred in the few instances where the attempt has been made
to place these diverse types of electric circuits adjacent to each
other in the same underground system.
The rapid corrosion of the lead sheaths of underground
cables, even in localities where lead pipes had laid uninjured
for many years, was an unexpected occurrence of the most
serious nature; and it remained for the late I. H. Farnham, of
the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, to discover * in August, 1891, that this impairment was caused by the
return currents of the grounded circuits of the trolley railroad
systems, whose passage through the earth, from the cars where
they left the motors to the ground plates under the generators
at the central power stations, produced chemical effects similar in principle to those of electro-plating, by which metal was
removed from the underground telephone cables, gas and
water-mains, and deposited beneath the rails.
At the instance of Mr. F. S. Pearson, Chief Engineer of the
West End Street Railway,in November, 1892, the currents used
in trolley railroad practise were reversed in polarity from the
customary method prevailing at the time, so that the trolley
wire would be positive to the earth, and the return currents
would tend to build up material on all continuous metallic
underground construction until near to the central electric
power station, where the electricity leaves such conductors
for the ground plates under the generators operating the
trolley system, and would therefore produce more active im* American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Trans., Vol. XI., page 191.

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pairment by the removal of metal at this point, were it not for
large copper rods connecting these underground pipes and
cables to the ground plates.
This course reduced the difficulty in the measure that it was
capable of being carried out in practise, for electricity follows
divided lines in proportion to their relative conductivity, and
a certain amount will follow along the underground conductors until it reaches a direct path of electrical conductivity
leading to the ground plates.
This treatment of the problem appears to have been more
satisfactory with continuous underground conductors, such as
electric cables, than it is with underground pipes having joints
of different electro chemical equivalencies.
The divergence of the return currents from the rails has
been reduced by bonding the rails together with copper rods,
or by casting iron around the ends of the rails, and also the
use of heavier rails.
OFFICE DISTRIBUTION OF WIRES.

The terminals of the underground cable at the telephone
central station emerge from their lead sheaths and are spread
out upon a large iron rack known as a distributing frame,
where the insulated wires are equipped with protectors for the
same purpose as those at the subscriber's instrument, and the
wires are changed from the order in which they are received
from the cable to another classification, and thence to a similar rack called the intermediate frame where the wires are
grouped to the individual operators, which latter arrangement
may be changed from time to time, as the number of telephones to which an operator can give attention varies according to the character of the service; that is, a business house
conducting much of its affairs by telephone, uses many messages a day and requires more of an operator's time than a
residence with its infrequent use of the telephone.
T H E SWITCHBOARD.

The function of the switchboard is merely to place the ends
of the wires from one telephone in electrical contact with
those of any other telephone in the exchange, with suitable
signals for calling the operator and the party addressed, and
this system has been amplified until one human voice can
reach to districts including considerably more than half of the
population of the United States; and the interlacing has been
so complete that its service reaches the smaller villages.
The first switchboards were based upon the telegraphic
device of placing any two of half a dozen lines in contact,
and the further development merged the principle of the annunciator used in hotels or in passenger elevators, in which a
15

falling target or shutter, called in like manner, the attention
of the operator. With the needs of the patrons, the switchboard grew, new features were added, and old methods became
discarded; every conquest of improvement meant an abandonment of former devices.
In these new switchboards the dropping shutter has been
supplanted by the flash of a lamp to signal the operator; the
turning of a crank to generate a current for moving a shutter
is no longer necessary, and the subscriber removes the telephone from the hook and is ready to begin; galvanic batteries
are not installed at the subscriber's equipment, but the whole
of the electric energy is supplied by storage batteries at the
telephone central station.
When the subscriber removes the telephone from the hook,
which is merely an electric switch arranged to be operated in
this manner without conscious effort on the part of the subscriber, a small electric bulb about the size of the end of a
lead pencil and imbedded in the switchboard becomes illumined with an opalescent glow which attracts the attention of
the operator, who inserts a plug at the end of flexible conductors into a small socket perforating the face of the switchboard just above the electric light, and this corresponds to the
telephone of the subscriber, and the socket guides the plug
to contact with the ends of the wires from the subscriber's
telephone, and the insertion of the plug in the socket also
extinguishes the signal light.
A touch upon an electric key places the operator's telephone
in circuit with the telephone of the subscriber who hears the
inquiry for the number wanted.
On receiving directions, the operator inserts the plug at the
other end of the same flexible conductor into the socket corresponding with the telephone wires of the party desired, and
this lights one of a pair of signal lamps imbedded in the table
projecting from the front of the switchboard.
If, however, the operator hears a click, on inserting the
second plug, this serves as a signal that the desired line is in
use elsewhere on the board and the line is reported as being
"busy."
It is more personal trouble for an operator to report a line
as being busy than it is for her to complete the connection.
When the party called to the telephone removes the instrument from the hook to receive the message, this light on the
table becomes extinguished.
After both persons have finished talking, the hanging of
their telephones on the hooks flashes the pair of lamps oh the
table, which glow until the operator, perceiving the signal,
pulls both of the plugs from their sockets.
If, instead of a subscriber at the same switchboard, one
is desired at another exchange, the proceeding becomes more
complicated, and many of the arrangements of the modern
16

telephone central stations and methods of administration are
designed to provide for this extension of the service.
When a call for a telephone connected to some other switchboard is received, as the operator cannot reach a line directly
to the desired telephone, the call is transmitted by an office
line to a special operator at another switchboard, where it is
noted on a memorandum blank, and the time automatically
recorded by means of a clock registering stamp; then the
call is transmitted by trunk lines to the desired telephone
central station, or it may be to some station which can reach
the desired subscriber, and in some instances it is necessary to
transmit the message through a greater number of telephone
offices, each one building up the line by additions, and every
operator also keeping, by means of the time stamp on memorandum blanks, a record of the hour and minute of each step
from the initial call to the final termination of the conversation and the release of the lines.
As soon as an operator has finished the entries on a memorandum blank it is placed in a small orifice, where it is carried
by air pressure, through tubes in the manner similar to the
well-known cash carriers, to another department where it is
compared with similar memoranda made on the same conversation at other points on the line by clerks, and these form the
authority for the charge for the toll service.
These memorandum blanks are compared by clerks, and
must balance as in other book-keeping, and form the authority
for the charge for the service.
In some instances, where there is a great load of service on
long distance lines, the communication from one central station to another by the operators for the purpose of obtaining
the desired party at the telephone is carried on by telegraphing over the telephone lines; for there are methods by which
this can be done without interfering with the transmission of
conversation at the same time on the identical wires, and these
lines branch near to their terminals where each class of electrical currents is transmitted to its proper instrument, whether
of the telegraph or the telephone system.
A telephone switchboard is an exception to general forms of
construction in that the cost per unit increases at a greater
rate than the enlargement, and this is due to the fact that, as
the operator who receives a call from a subscriber must be able
to reach the terminals leading from the switchboard to any
other telephone or to the switchboards at other stations, and
therefore, each set of telephone wires must have as many
sockets and branches as there are operators' sections at the
switchboard.
For example, in a small switchboard with two operator's
sections, there would be two sets of such branches and sockets
for each telephone line, while in a large switchboard with fifty
operators' sections, there would be fifty sets of such connec17

tions for each telephone line instead of the two sets mentioned
in the first instance, the number of this class of connections
multiplying twenty-five times for each telephone, in order to
enable each operator to reach all subscribers connected to that
switchboard.
This difference in cost may be appreciated by reference to
the material entering into the composition of a switchboard
for 10,000 telephones and one for 600 telephones, the individual items in each being alike and of the same cost.
In the larger switchboard, there are 2,500,000 soldered connections, or 250 to each telephone; and in the smaller switchboard there are 43,000 soldered connections, or about seventytwo to each telephone.
In the larger switchboard, there are 10,000 miles of wire, of
one mile to each telephone; while in the smaller switchboard,
there are 220 miles of wire, or about one-third of a mile to each
telephone.
Many other details follow similar proportions, and in some
minor items the ratio of cost per telephone is in favor of the
larger switchboard, but the whole expense per telephone is
vastly greater for the larger switchboard.
There are other precedents in construction, where an increase in size adds disproportionately to the cost, as bridges,
where the expense of a larger span is disproportionately
greater than a smaller one of equal strength; and in like manner large pipe organs cost more per unit of capacity than
smaller pipe organs.
Another instance of increased cost per unit of measure
which is familiar to all is that of fabrics, whether it be an
Oriental r u g wherein the cost of a large one is greater per
square foot than a small one, down to ordinary sheeting where
cloth of full width for such purposes, costs more than cloth of
the same weight whose width requires one or more seams.
This increase of complication of detail growing upon itself
would reach a prohibitive cost in large cities had it not been
found feasible to depart from the original plan of one central
telephone station in each city, and to introduce a modification
by apportioning large cities into telephone districts, each with
its telephone station connected to the others by numerous
trunk wires.
A telephone switchboard is a marvel of complexity of detail
in extreme contrast to the simplicity of operation, and no one
person can have the repute of its design, but it is one of the
few inventions which were made by the concerted effort of
many experts working together for a purpose.
The mechanical intricacy of the modern switchboard may be
well appreciated by the fact that, even with present methods
of special machinery, and the organized application of skilled
artisanship, it requires as long to make and install a large
switchboard as it does to build and equip a merchantman, the
18

time being from one to over two years, and the cost of the
central station plant may reach $1,200 per foot of length for
the larger switchboards, and perhaps half that cost per foot for
a switchboard adequate for a city of fifty thousand inhabitants.
These central station costs are a small detail of the whole
cost of the system, although it is the greatest concentration of
value and forms the vital part of the whole exchange.
There is an exaggerated opinion of the damageability of a
switchboard by water, and while it is perfectly true that it
must be thoroughly dry for practical operation, yet switchboards have been thoroughly wet and restored to good service
by drying out. It is the general custom to provide waterproof covers for switchboards as well as for generators and
motors whenever it is considered that there is any hazard of a
water damage from fires in other parts of the building which
might cause an interruption in the service.
One of the floating statements which probably originated
among the wheels in the head of some man set to the task of
filling a funny column, runs to the effect that a glass of water
would cause $1,000 damage in a switchboard, and the statement is absolutely a false one.
When a switchboard is started in the service, the elements of
its active demolition begin; repairs and adjustments are necessary, extensions become needed for increased capacity, wear
and tear has been outclassed by the more iconoclastic depreciation from subsequent invention, and in a few years the old
board becomes obsolete, and the expensive apparatus is burned
for the intrinsic value of the copper which it contains.
The requirements of perfect adjustment and continuous
operation in a telephone system necessitate the expenditures
involving amounts beyond the dreams of avarice.
The charge for maintenance is far greater than that of the
operation of the telephone system, being the greatest single
expense. One-third of the gross revenue of a telephone company is necessary to preserve the plant in good order without
any reference to the cost of extensions or of operation.
T H E VARIABLE U S E OF TELEPHONES.

The grouping of the use of the telephone may well serve as
the basis of a sociological study of the habits and customs of a
community, but for studying the conditions of service for
which provision must be made, the number of communications
each hour of the whole day is taken from time to time, and
the result plotted in a diagram whose hills and valleys indicate
the relative load of service on the system.
Whatever disturbs travel also affects telephony, as may be
noted by the increase in the number of calls, even to full
capacity, during storms or in extremely hot weather.
In all cases, the night use between 7 P. M. and 7 A. M. is a
19

small proportion of day use, and while these calls are largely
of the important nature of emergency calls for fire department, physician, or police, yet in number they are slightly
over one per cent, of the calls of the whole twenty-four hours;
but the calls during the day begin to increase suddenly at
some hour in the forenoon after the morning mail has received
attention, and approaches the congestion limit in the middle
of the day, falling off suddenly as offices are being closed, and
resuming activity in the larger cities late in the afternoon
when arrangements for dinner or theater are being made.
In the West the general business day is longer than at the
East, while in New York, the plotted diagram indicates by the
short duration of the intensely busy period that many might
avail themselves of Charles Lamb's excuse to the Bureau officer in the East India Company's office, and make amends for
being late at their desks in the morning by leaving earlier in
the afternoon.
The short time taken for lunch, or indeed its omission in
New York, does not make a sufficient break in business affairs
to produce a depression in the curve, while in another city the
depression is so great as to suggest a noonday dinner at home,
perhaps followed by a nap of forty winks.
T H E EXTENT OF ITS INTRODUCTION.

The total amount of telephone line of the Bell system
throughout the United States averages three and twenty-nine
hundredths miles for each telephone instrument, and, excluding
the long distance lines, fifty-five per cent, of the wire is
underground.
When a person calls up another telephone, the average line
plant at his disposal is six and fifty-eight hundredths miles;
truly " it is cheaper to talk than to travel."
The long distance wires interlace the whole system into a
unity from the Atlantic to the western side of the Mississippi
Valley where the short gap of 140 miles which now exists will
be closed in the immediate future to connect with the similar
system of lines binding together the various cities of the
Pacific slope.
This growth of the lines of the system is the result of a
purpose to extend the use of the telephone to every town, no
matter how small, throughout the United States; and in all of
the cities and towns to put a telephone, at the most reasonable
rates, * * within easy and immediate reach of every person whose
income is sufficient to permit him to ride on street cars."
The extent to which this policy has been put into actual
construction is indicated by the fact that, while the last census
gives a record of 10,602 incorporated cities, towns, villages,
and boroughs in the United States, there is telephone communication to 26,128 different settlements, and the continued
20

growth of extensions postpones, year by year, the saturation
point of telephone service which has been recurrently anticipated by conservative persons.
T H E OPERATION.

The telephone business in its complications on one hand,
and its close relations with the needs of its patrons on the other,
is one requiring active zeal.
As a certain French prisoner in the Bastile could always see
an eye at a hole in an upper corner of his cell following his
every movement, so with as vigilant, although more agreeable
espionage, there is always an ear waiting at the office end of a
telephone line to take the directions of the subscribers in
giving service.
Under American conditions, the equipment of the plant and
its attendance must be adequate to give practically instantaneous service at all times, even though the demands at night
are but slight in comparison to the requirements of the day.
Reference is frequently made to the low cost of telephone
service in European countries, but it should be remembered
that it is furnished under lower wages and material conditions
far different from those of this country.
The Government owns the buildings, and the department
does not pay taxes, rent, or maintenance; the Army Engineer
Corps builds the subway as a Goverment charge; and the pole
lines are built by another department without any charge to
the telephone system for material or right of eminent domain.
The demands of American patronage require that the plant
and attendance should be adequate to provide prompt responsive service; but in these countries there are so few toll lines
that requests for long distance service are received in the order
of their application, and the patron must wait, — be it minutes
or hours, — until a line is at liberty.
The methods of Oriental potentates who send their seneschals to agitate the pools in the palace yard in order to keep
the frogs from croaking during the Shah's siesta are repeated
in two European monarchies whenever the emperor uses the
telephone, as all the operators are obliged to leave their positions at the switchboard, and withdraw in military evolution
from the room while his majesty holds converse.
The striking feature of the two great applications of electricity which are used by the public, namely, the street car and
the telephone system, is that, however complex their mechanism, their use is extremely simple.
There is, however, no premium on ignorance in the use of
the telephone by either subscriber or operator.
It has been a matter of slow growth for the subscribers at
large to use the telephone in the best and simplest manner,
and that is to speak clearly rather than loud, and to avoid the
21

use of merely formal words in calling for the number wanted.
Nothing reveals more prominently the innate courtesy of a
person than the manner of address over the telephone,
whether to operator or subscriber.
Operators are prepared by a short course in a special training school which differs from other institutions of learning,
except West Point and Annapolis, in that they are under pay
during the period of tuition.
The result of such systematic work in connection with
improved apparatus in New York, which is cited as an
example, because the exact statistics are at hand, has reduced
the time of making complete local connections during the last
five years 3 / ^ seconds, which may appear a short time to any
one, except when waiting at a telephone, — or looking into a
gun, — but this small amount of time, when applied to all the
telephone connections of the Bell system in the United States,
amounts to 10,098 hours a day saved to the subscriber's time,
or about 3 / ^ years in eight-hour days. The saving of time
in disconnections, largely owing to the common battery switchboard signalling the operator by lights rather than shutters,
enables the lines to be released when a conversation is at an
end, 3 ^ times as rapidly as formerly, and this is of great
advantage to the subscriber in making repeated calls.
These improvements in calling save 1,400 years of subscribers' time every year, and over three times as much time
in disconnecting, a part of which time is available for the
benefit of the subscriber, but no one has ever ventured to
estimate the gross amount of time saved by the use of the
telephone.
This vast system provides for over 10,000,000 calls per day,
or nearly 2,500 calls a year originating at each telephone, and
this means that an equal number of calls are received on the
average telephone, so that each telephone averages being in
use 5,000 times a year.
Why wonder, then, that these conversations, concentrated for
the most part in the middle of the day, sometimes interrupt,
and " the line is busy, —please call again.''
This interruption has been largely diminished of late years,
first by the installation of two telephone sets by a subscriber, one
being omitted from the telephone book,* so that it is not subject
to interruption by calls, and this instrument is therefore always
free for use by the subscriber.
The second step in the development of the use of the
telephone is an example of the modern principle of the conduct of business affairs in the subdivision of matters, so that
each element may be attended to by one excelling in that
branch; and in telephony this is done by concentrating the
lines from the several telephones in an establishment to one
desk, where, under the service of a skilful attendant, the
desired connections are obtained.
* The Telephone Door. Angus S. Hibbard, Electrical Engineering, December,
1894, p a g e 259.

22

Private branch exchanges are not limited to commercial
houses and manufacturing establishments, but high office
buildings are equipped with telephones as well as elevators
during construction.
This concentration reduces the number of lines from the
telephone central station to this group of telephones, and,
while the commercial advantages of the method are so apparent that the number of these private attendants in New York
is more than twice the number of telephone central station
operators, yet it must be obvious as an underwriting principle that there is an advantage from an insurance standpoint
in this arrangement, for as everything has some relation to
the fire hazard, that of the telephone is based on the exposure
of the wires leading to the subscribers' instruments to foreign
currents, and if the number of these wires can be reduced
from a pair leading to each telephone, down to two or three
circuits leading to a normally open switching arrangement,
which in turn can connect to any of these telephones, then
the chance of occurrences resulting from foreign current is in
like manner minimized, without reference to the defense afforded by the protectors.
Furthermore, the entering wires are equipped by protectors
as may be required, near to the entering point; and the whole
group being under the care of an experienced attendant,
better service can be obtained, as in case of any interruption to one circuit, some other circuit can be used to call
for necessary repairs.
This interruption to service has been reduced to a very
slight matter, and this is generally owing to an enlargement
of the plant, where the changes are made at night. In New
York the interruption to each substation from all causes is one
hour and twenty-one minutes a year, * generally without the
subscriber's knowledge, as is shown by the fact that the complaints are only one to 15,138 lines per day, or once in fortyone years per telephone, f.
The subscriber to a telephone loses personal identity, and
his name merges into a number.
When telephone central stations were first established, the
names and positions on the switchboard of the subscribers
were known to operators with strong memories; an epidemic
of measles occurred in Lowell, Mass., and Dr. Moses Greeley
Parker, a member of the Board of Directors, viewed with
alarm, from his standpoint as a physician, the possible condition of affairs if more than two of the four operators should
be taken with the measles, and proposed that the subscribers
should be numbered.
His associates demurred, as they were of the opinion that
* Trans. Am. Inst. Electrical Engineers, Vol. XX., page 181, John J. Carty.
f Trans. Am. Inst. Electrical Engineers, Vol. XX., page 189, E. F. Sherwood.
23

the subscribers would give up their telephones sooner than
submit to the indignity of being known by number, but in
view of the contingency of the service being paralyzed they
finally yielded, and to the surprise of all, the new arrangement was cheerfully accepted by the subscribers, who appreciated the improvement in service which resulted from the
change.
Essential as the telephone is now to the conduct of affairs,
no one can state, except as a general principle, why a person
subscribes for a telephone.
While a large town uses more than a small one, the ratio of
telephones to population differs materially in various places to
an extent beyond what may be attributed to the personal
energy of those in charge of local affairs; and in like manner
the relation of the number of telephones to the number of
horses, electric lights, business houses, assessed valuations, or
any other of the details of census enumeration fail to give any
basis of close comparison.
However, there are several lines of general similarity which
cannot be tabulated in the logic of numbers.
Where highways are bad, there is a large amount of toll line
telephone traffic. A hilly town uses far more telephones than
a similar one on flat territory, and in some particulars one in
a warm climate appears to give more patronage than a similar
town in a cool climate; all of which shows that there is force
in the injunction, " Don't travel; talk."
In the use of the telephone there is originally one element
of surprise to be mastered.
The senses are cooperative in their relations with each
other, taste is rendered more vivid by smell, sound and sight
accompany each other; with the use of the telephone there has
been need of practise to accustom one to the sound of a voice
through the telephone without the help of other senses to determine its position which may be near or far.
The Arab proverb, " Speak, that I may see t h e e / ' does not
apply to the telephone.
The impersonal question and its rebounding answer is developing methods of concentrated mental effort, which are
adding to the potentiality of the individual.
The Orientals are great users of the telephone as the telegraph is not adapted to the transmission of their written languages, on account of the great number of their characters, and
messages are necessarily translated into some modern language, and after receipt interpreted back into their languages
with the inevitable tendency to error. The Japanese are especially large users of the telephone.
The telephone can be used by Chinamen who understand
each other's dialect, of which there are about seventy-five varieties in China.
There is a Chinese switchboard in San Francisco, at which
24

the operators must know the four principal dialects of the
provinces which furnish the immigrants to this country.
As an example, the sign for Telephone Office, can be read
by any Chinaman, but the pronunciation would be different,
as noted by examples from two of the leading dialects, and its
universality in this respect is comparable to Arabic numerals,
which can be understood by all civilized nations, although read
in far different words.
T E L E P H O N E OFFICE.
AS W R I T T E N BY A CHINAMAN.

New Chwang
Dialect,

KO

Mandarin
Dialect,

English
Translation,

CHIANG

^ ^ » r

•

ZM*&

SPEAK

DEN

TIEN

OU

YIN

^^m/^m

SOUNDS

KO

KUNG

4 ^ \ ^

PUBLIC

SHEE

SZU

m^rffe B

LIGHTNING

COMPANY

The telegraph has made correspondence more concise and
checked the tendency to "degenerate into fine w r i t i n g " ; the
type-writer is bringing the spoken and written English together, for the Chinese have not the monopoly of dual
languages, and the telephone is making direct and definite
propositions and replies in the three minutes between hello
and good-by.
Like Queen Victoria's published diary, it has given sanction
25

to colloquialisms, and even slang, and imparted to words new
significance not stated by the dictionary.
It appears that these changes originate with the subscribers
rather than the telephone companies; for instance, a telephone central station is generally referred to as an exchange,
while a telephone exchange according to its use in patents,
contracts, and by courts is the telephone plant within a circle
thirty miles in diameter, for the original concessions of the
telephone company were like the Spanish land grants in the
Western Hemisphere, except that the circles do not overlap,
nor are their centers moved at the will of the stronger holders.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONY.

The toll line service began with the line built from Boston
to Lowell in 1879, a n ( ^ t n i s revealed both the functional possibilities of the telephone and the great many technical difficulties which have been overcome, and in the space of twentyfive years the length of long distance telephone lines has increased from 27 to 275,000 miles. But these lines are not to
be considered as comprising all of the lines outside of any
municipality, as they can be attached to lines about 4,000,000
miles in length and radiating at these points, reach to the desired subscriber.
The long distance commercial service may be considered to
date from the New York and Chicago line which was opened
on Oct. 18, 1892, by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell in the presence of a concourse of persons eminent in electrical affairs,
and on Feb. 7, 1893, Gov. William E. Russell and a body of
prominent Boston men opened the line from Boston to Chicago.
When a person uses a long distance telephone, a large
amount of property is at their exclusive service, — for instance,
in speaking from Boston to Omaha, as one business firm does
every morning, the value of the fraction of line and apparatus
at their sole disposal is, at the present price of copper, over
$283,000, while it requires the service of nine operators at the
switchboards at various points along the line.
The weight of this copper is one million, one hundred and
thirty-one thousand pounds, or five hundred and sixty-five and
one-half tons, and the wonder is not so much in the fact that a
human voice can cause vibrations in its unison throughout this
immense mass of metal, even to its uttermost limits of 1,600
miles with those delicate touches of tone, which determine the
individuality of one voice from another, as it is that the telephone is so delicate that it can catch these vibrations and
transmute them into speech. Truly did Archimedes exclaim,
" When I stamp, the world trembles! "
T H E REAL ESTATE.

The permanent nature of the underground conduits of cities
26

requires that telephone offices should be as permanently
placed in relation to these conduits, and it has been necessary
for the telephone company to buy land and erect fireproof
buildings where the wires are placed underground, as it would
not be prudent to be subject to the mutations resulting from
leased buildings.
The telephone company is now among the largest real estate
owners in the country, and it probably has the largest number
of buildings of any single commercial organization, and a still
larger number of holdings of real estate, and also the ownership of the largest number of fireproof buildings.
In order to make every feasible provision for the permanency of the telephone service, the buildings erected by the
telephone companies are, with the exception of a few, having
mill floors, entirely of fireproof construction, and the designs
are especially made with a view to obtaining stability under
heavy loads, and to afford resistance to fire.
They are equipped with subsidiary fire apparatus, and the
windows opening towards exposures are provided with fire
shutters.
In smaller towns, where special telephone buildings are not
warranted, and it is necessary to lease space for central stations, the utmost care is exercised to select the best buildings
available for the purpose, and these are generally that type of
building well known in small towns where the first story is
occupied by a national bank on one side of the front entrance,
and a savings bank or the post-office on the other side.
There is a general inspection of central station property
which includes reports on general order as well as matters
pertaining to the service and the conditions of the electrical
apparatus.
In addition to night watchman's patrol on such properties,
notwithstanding the constant occupation of the operating
room, there is a constant supervision of the central station
apparatus against all disarrangements, which is equal in the
larger central stations to an inspection of the plant every
twenty minutes.
Wires are placed underground in cities, some of the apparatus is in duplicate, and reserved portions are stored at convenient points, and the operation of the whole plant is under a
constant supervision. The electrical apparatus is frequently
tested, inspectors patrol along the route of aerial lines, trials
of service are made at subscribers' instruments, and the apparatus examined in addition to electrical tests made from the
central station without the subscribers' knowledge, even the
electrical condition of t h e earth as modified by the return
currents of the electric railroads is frequently measured.
All of these initial conditions and precautions of operation
for the purpose of maintaining the permanency of the service
have also reduced the fire losses on these properties to a nomi27

nal amount, that of the New York Telephone Company, since
its incorporation, being less than five and one-fourth per cent,
of the premiums.
In other manner than refraining from having cause to make
claims, the telephone company has proven a most efficient ally
of the underwriters' interests, for each instrument is a fire
alarm, and in many towns the only fire alarm, is always ready
to transmit emergency calls to the fire department, the police,
or other help in addition to the ordinary commercial and
personal uses of the instrument.
MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATIONS.

The telephone habit is causing subscribers to use their telephones a greater number of times each day, and circumstances
are finding new uses, which in turn become grafted into the
system.
A few years ago, when an ocean liner was stranded for a
few days on the New Jersey coast, a man rowed out to the
vessel, with a telephone set attached to a twisted pair of waterproof insulated wires, which served as a submarine cable, which
connected to a telephone line on shore, and officers and passengers used the line until the boat was pulled into deep
water, and finished her voyage.
It is the custom to anchor vessels in the lee of the coral reef
which forms one side of the harbor of Honolulu in the Sandwich Islands.
When a vessel comes to her moorings, the local telephone
company attaches a branch cable at one of the many taps of a
telephone cable which runs along this reef, and pass it over the
stern of the vessel, and also a telephone which is installed in
the cabin, and in this manner provides facilities for transacting much of the ship's business by telephone, even to reporting to the custom house authorities.
, From this was but a step to the present custom of connecting steamers by telephone while they are lying at dock, and
this may have been anticipated by the practise of connecting
fire boats by telephone when they are moored.
Express trains at the West are frequently connected by telephone at stations where there is a stop for a few minutes; and
the trolley cars of long lines in Ohio have telephone booths.
The special train which carried the Commercial Club of a
western city on an extended trip was equipped with telephones
at each seat which furnished the passengers, through a private
branch exchange, communication with each other and with a
mixologist of rare skill who held sway at the life-saving
station in the buffet car, and at stations attachments were
made to the telephone lines of the general system.
The cars of the funicular railroad on Mt. Tom near to Holyoke, Mass., are equipped with telephones, connected by sliding
28

contacts to a pair of wires at the side of the track, so that the
motormen on the two cars can communicate with each other.
Railroads, particularly trolley lines, are largely managed by
telephone, and the installations at large terminal stations are
on an extensive scale.
Wrecking trains are equipped with telephones which can be
connected with a telephone line along the right of way, and
communication established with headquarters of the company.
Business meetings and conferences are held by means of
telephones, which are joined together in such a manner that
the whole number, instead of merely any two, can hear what
any one says.
The Board of Directors of a Chicago corporation has members also at Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Detroit, and meetings
i r e frequently held with these men at their telephones taking
part in the proceedings.
At Presidential conventions, a person near the stage, telephones in a low tone, an account of the proceedings, which is
repeated by another in a neighboring telephone station, where
the wires are connected to a number of telephones, and these
messages are repeated in like manner at each change until its
amplitude extends over the country wherever there are telephone lines, and at various points the information is taken
down by stenographers.
Political slates are shattered in the most iconoclastic manner by means of canvassing done over the telephone.
In hotels the telephone is used for calls from rooms to the
office, obtaining quicker and more accurate service than can be
secured by waiting for a bell boy, by whom the message may
be forgotten or distorted, and these room telephones can also be
used throughout the general telephone system.
Oaths are administered over the telephone; it is against the
rules of the company to utter them. Threats are made from
the safe vantage of a sound proof booth, and lawyers have been
at variance as to alleged libels in the same manner. That
lovers woo and swains propose over the telephone is an everyday remark, but a young man in Muncie, Indiana, had some
difference with a miss, and was shown the door, with the
injunction never to call again. Asking permission over the
telephone a few days later to call again, her reply was to fire
three revolver shots into the transmitter, so that the young
man had good cause to remember that absence of body was
preferable to presence of mind.
In the manufacture of steel, the melted iron runs from the
tuyeres of the blast furnaces into crucibles on cars, which take
it to the steel converters a half mile or more distant. When the
metal is flowing into the crucible, a boy takes a ladleful which
cools quickly and is analyzed at once by a chemist, and the
result telephoned to the steel superintendent, who is thus informed before the arrival of the molten iron as to the amount
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of spiegeleisen to add to obtain steel of the desired characteristics.
Telephone lines penetrate mines, extend through air locks
of tunnels and caisson foundations; they ramify about extensive manufacturing establishments and form part of the
equipment of vessels; they accompany the advance of armies,
and the commander is kept in communication with the firing
line.
It is of great value in giving the results of target practise,
especially with artillery.
None of the applications of the telephone furnish greater
alleviation to humanity than its use in hospitals, particularly
those devoted to contagious diseases.
There have been several instances of pupils living at houses
under quarantine, who continued their studies at home, recited their lessons, and successfully passed examinations over
the telephone.
In short, its applications are becoming more extended as the
emergency of yesterday becomes the precedent of to-day.
TELEPHONE RATES.

As in the case of railway traffic, the cost of furnishing customers with the facilities for their communications is a problem
whose details require close analysis, and the accumulated experience on this subject is applied to the benefit of customers throughout the long range, from the large establishment whose conduct of affairs requires an incessant use of
telephones during the busy hours and thence down through
numerous subdivisions of service, with corresponding diminutions of rates, to farmers' lines where twenty instruments on
a circuit give a service which fills the need, and is well worth
the moderate cost.
The fundamental unit of the cost of telephone service is
based upon the use of the instrument or the number of the
calls rather than the instrument itself as a basis, and the
results of improvements in apparatus and methods of administration is continually diminishing the cost of telephone rentals.
The public has shared the results of these improvements by
a steady reduction in rates, and it may be asserted that the
telephone is the only public service which has voluntarily
reduced its rates.
The extension of the telephone service, both in numbers and
in purpose, is making it more of a necessity whose value is
recognized.
This increase during the year 1903 amounted to 629,197
telephones and 677,229 miles of line wire, which, with its
attendant construction, cost $35,368,700, being an increment
of twenty per cent., which brought the whole number to
Z^II^S1! telephones, requiring 3,958,891 miles of line wire to
reach their patrons.
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This work is requiring extensive investment of capital to
make these extensions and to build the plant in such a permanent manner as to give assurance of the continuity of this
valuable service, and it is of the most favorable significance
that this aspect of the system is being so thoroughly accepted
by the patrons, who appreciate that its affairs must be conducted on a basis which will assure good and permanent service, and that it is essential that the service must be paid for
at a price which will continue its quality and maintain the
plant, giving a reasonable profit which will not only conserve
present enterprises, but also attract additional capital as it
may be needed for future growth of the business.
In recent times there have been many instances where the
early history of public electric lighting enterprises has been
repeated by telephone companies that gave service at rates
which ignored the constant drain for maintenance and depreciation.
Some who have entered the telephone business in the spirit
of commendable enterprise have learned too late that the elements of depreciation and the provision for future growth are
of such moment that the estimated rates were too low, and
that self-preservation required an increase, even though it was
necessary to invoke legal aid to remove the restrictions on
rates which were embodied in franchise and charter in perfect
good faith that such provisions were to be kept to the letter.
I t has been claimed that there have been errors in not ruthlessly charging depreciation and renewals into expense, but
to charge them into construction and capitalize the amount
with the inevitable sequence of logical results.
The experience in other lines of industry during the last
few months have furnished notable instances where every dollar wrongfully charged to investment, when it should have
been charged to operating, directly impairs the capital and
creates a deficiency which must be reimbursed by additional
capital or take the same consequences as follow losses from
any other cause which impairs capital.
As the telephone ranks as the most widespread application
of electricity in its direct relation to the individual, so the
business conduct of its affairs must be administered upon the
basis of revenue sufficient to maintain the plant and to earn a
legitimate income on the investment.
Like all electrical enterprises, the forthcoming continuance
of the increase in the number of telephones will require a
corresponding augmentation in the amount of capital which
must, as in the case of railways, be obtained from investment
outside of the revenues, as the results show that the standard
upon which telephone rates are based does not provide for a
sufficient surplus to furnish amounts adequate for such enormous increase in plant; but the problems of extension differ
from those of the railway in that telephones are not installed
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until subscribed for, and therefore their earning capacity begins at once; and, in addition to this immediate service, any
use which such telephones may make of the toll system,
increases the earnings of existing plant.
There is every reason to believe that the income resulting
from the permanency of the patronage, and the present
knowledge of the expenditures required for operation and
maintenance, will combine to render such investments desirable
and on a far more secure basis than in years agone, when an
uncertain present and a conjectural future made the proposition far more indefinite than the present sound basis of telephone investments.
The electrical transmission of speech and its instantaneous
reply is the last step in the progress of modern enlightenment
in that concentration of effort and result which reaches to
every phase of life in its modification of commercial and personal relations between individuals isolated from each other's
presence.

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LINES OFTHE

-£
^

BELL TELEPHONE COMPANIES
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS .
SCALE OF MILES.