The Key West Citizen Newspaper, December 6, 1952, Page 9

~ Tremendo us Grov In Local Phone _ Company Since Inception In 1883 Thirty-One Subscribers To Service When Company New Equipment Produced By Western Elec. Bell System Owns Dependable Source Of Materials Now New telephone equipment in Key West, from the shiny black dial instruments in homes and offices here, to the. intricate switching equipment in the new central of- fice building was manufactured by the Western Electric Company. Western Electric, the manufac- turing and supply unit of the Bell System, was purchased in 1882 be- cause it assured the growing tele- phone industry of a dependable source of standardized, high quali- ty equipment at reasonable prices, Western has factories operating in 17 cities and also maintains a nationwide system of 28 distrubu- ting houses, stocked with the thousands of items the telephone companies need from day to day. When an emergency strikes, these telephone ‘‘supermarkets” ean rush supplies to the scene of disas- ter in a matter of hours. Western also maintains a large, carefu!' trained force of men to install the telephone central office equipment it manufactures. These factories turned out some 150,000 different parts in whatever quantities needed by the Tele- phone System. Large amounts of equipment and supplies which Wes- tern does not make are purchased from ‘other business concerns. In a recent year, Western Electric purchased from 27,000 large and small suppliers located in 2,800 towns and cities in all the 48 states. It also made purebases in many foreign lands. Congratulations to... Wait For Dial Tone, Save Time The dial signal . . . a con tinuous humming sound, is the signal for you to go ahead and dial your number. If you do not hear the dial tone at once, be sure to wait for it before dialing. you try to save seconds -by dialing before you hear the dial tone, you may lose minutes by getting a wrong number or no ‘number at all. When the dial tone is slow in coming, it means the central of- fice equipment is temporarily crowded with calls. Operator Need Is Still Great Dial telephone service was first introduced in 1921 when it became apparent that there soon wouldn’t be enough qualified women to operate the growing number of switchboards. Yet there are far more operators on duty now than there were back in 1921, I.N. Dorsey, District, Manager for Southern Bell, explained this by saying that long distance service plus the continuing need for good manual service has more than off- set the conversion of three out of every your U.S, telephones to dail. To meet the continuing demand, Bell System technicians are work- ing to extend the advantages of dial operation to long distance service, The Mason-Dixon line, surveyed in 1766, is still the traditional boundary between North and South in the United States. ' SOUTHERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY Sound Conditioning with Acousti - Celotex ACOUSTI ENGINEERING CO. OF FLORIDA Aconstical Engineers and Contractors 9737 N. W. 53rd ST, MIAMI, FLA. TEL: 64-6581 Products for every sound eonditioning problem CONGRATULATIONS! - To SOUTHERN BELL'S Progress With Key West FOR THE CORRECT WESTERN UNION OBSERVATORY TIME You Can Now Dial 2-5912 | ef 508 Duval St. Key West, Fla. Experienced Jewelers for Three Generations WE CONGRATULATE . SOUTHERN BELL TELEPHONE on its NEW DIAL SYSTEM A MAJOR STEP IN THE PROGRESS » OF KEY WEST FLORIDA KEYS AQUEDUCT COMMISSION jerated the Began; Now 5, 800 Served _ Telephone service was first inaugurated in Key West on May 18, 1883, only seven years after the tele- phone was invented. The first exchange served 81 sub- scribers. Extension of the service was comparatively slow dur- ing the early years and the number of telephones had on- ly increased to 59 by 1900. By 1905, the number jumped to 271, and by 1910 had reached 521. During the decade to 1920, telephones almost doubled, bringing the total in Basic Policy Still Workable After 25 Years Twenty-five years have passed since the American Telephone and Telgraph Company, parent firm of the Bell System, first stated public- ly the basic policy which has guid- ed its telephone companies in serv- ing the nation. This policy ts “te continue to furnish the best possible tele- phone service at the lowest cost consistent with financial safety and with fair treatment of em- ployees.” This historic statement recogniz- ed the Bell System’s responsibility to treat equitably and fairly the three great groups of pecple most concerned; customers, stockholders and employees. J. N. Dorsey, District Manager for Southern Bell, said this week that this three-fold policy has guided the firm’s every action in- cluding the decision to install dial telephones at Key West. “Telephone people have not only been able to make service here and elsewhere more valuable, but they have managed to pay divi- dends regularly to more than one million shareowners of company stock who have invested their savings in the business. And, at the same time, they have made the telephone business known the nation over as a good place to work.”* Goodbye To Hello Girls Arouses Regret In Many Dial service means the end of the “voice with a smile” at Key West switchboards to a great ex- tent—a fact that some customers view with regret. Chet Cold, local manager for Southern Bell, said this week that in some places customers have been actually sorry to see the manual service go and with it the personal attention to this type of telephone calls. This partiality to the courteous telephone operators on duty around the clock in manual ex- changes dates back in 1879 when the first woman operator was hired at New Haven, -Connecti- cut. “Prior to that time, boys op- switchboards, often with more noise and confusion than with efficiency. boy who operated the first switch- board in 1878,” Cold relates. With the hiring of the first woman operator began the Bell System ‘tradition that has per- sisted to this day—courteous; friendly, pleasing service, the “voice with a smile.” Tiny “Brain Cell” Vital To Dial Use A radical improvement in the {dial telephone system's tiny |“brain cells” — the high-speed | switches which can pick out the | dialed number from among |thousands of connections in the telephone network—has been de- | veloped by Bell Laboratories. The new switches, or relays. | | | It was a} ’ ——— In January, 1945, Key West had 2,996 telephones. In the period since World War II, the city has seen its greatest growth both in population and in telephones. To- day, there are more than 5,800 telephones serving the metropoli- tan , and the demand for additional telephones is increas- ing. Southern Bell moved to its pre- sent location in 1917 and took over a building existing on the site. The building was enlarged in 1920 and has served until the present expansion program. Last year the Company an- nounced that the new dial sys- tem would be installed and that th go extensive large new building to be con- structed to adjoin it. This work has now been completed and the entire structure has been air- conditioned. Cost of this construction work, together with the new dial equip- ment and work incident to provid- ing the improved facilities, has been. set at over $1,000,000. This expenditure is only a part of the large amounts spent by Southern Bell since World War II to ex- pand and improve service for Key West telephone users. Expansion and improvement activities by the Company in Florida, for the post war period have involved the ex- penditure of more than $127,000, 000. Key West telephone development has been rapid, but Southern Bell expects the future to bring a con- tinuing heavy need for telephone facilities and is making plans to meet these reeds, Bell Tel. System Is Slice Of US. The Bell System ts a°slice—a cross-section—of America, owned by more than 1,150,000 people. It is the first business in the world to be so widely owned. You need not go far from home to find.one of its owners. Could be there’s one living next door to you, or working down at the corner store. In fact, Key West citizens are among the more than 15,000 Bell System stockholders living in Florida. Better-than one out of every 45 families includes someone who owns A. T. & T. Company stock. These share- holders live in 19,000 communi- ties, big and little, all over the country. You’re likely to find owners at the Key West telephone. office. Of about 800,000 men and women who work for Bell Companies, more than a third own A. T. & T. stock, The money that builds the telephone system comes from the | savings of the many rather than the wealth of the few. American Phones |A Real Bargain To earn the money to pay for a home telephone, a man in Stock- holm has to work half again as }many hours as a citizen of the United States. A Londoner must work twice as long and a Parisian five times as long as we do, to pay \for his telephone service. These figures might not be true 'to the very last penny as you read this, due to the changing times, but they do go to show that telephone service is one of the best ba. gains jin the American family budget. In ; general, the cost of a telephone |here is the lowest in the world, compared with the money a man gets on pay day. Furthermore, service here has a |New Long ‘Distance Method ~ t \ Has Been Developed And Put Into Use By Bell Company ’ CODE NUMBER MAY NOW BE DIALED BY LOCAL OPERATORS Whenever you make a long dis- tance telephone call, under the new the services of an amazing new development called operator toll dialing. This major advance in handling long distance calls is being made available in Key West, coinci- dent with the changeover to dial service. The special equipment will enable local operators to dial distant long distance telephone. numbers without going through other operators. You are familiar, if you make long distance calls, with the regu- lar manner in which your call is handled. You get the long distance operator first. You tell her where you want to call, say Chicago. She then calls a routing operator to determine the best route. If it is direct, she is then connected with a Chicago operator, who connects her with the telephone she is call- ing. If the direct circuit is busy, she may be routed through a num- ber of operators along the way. Under the new method, if she is calling Atlanta, Chicago or any of a number of other maior cities over the nation, the operator will first dial an appropriate code number followed by. the telephone number she is seeking. Almost immediately the distapt telephone starts ringing. If the circuit to a particular city is busy, the equipment automatically selects other routes until an open one is found. According to Key West manager, C. A. Cold, the telephone customer can, help to make this more rapid system effective by keeping a re- cord of numbers frequently called and by providing the number to an operator when placing a call. An even more startling develop- ment is now being tested by the Bell System. This will enable tele- phone users to dial direct “‘any- where in the Unitéd States.” A country-wide numbering plan plays a key role in the new system. Good Safety Record Shown By Phone Co. ‘The highest tribute paid by the National Safety Council, the Award of Honor, was recently presented to Bell Telphone Companies in recognition of an .accident fre- quency less than one-fifth that of industry in general, The Communication industry has ty performance in each of the’ past eight years, according to the Pre- sident of the Council. During the past two-year period, 1950-51, tele- phone employees established a fre- quency rate of less than one acci- dent for éach half ‘million hours worked, compared with more than four for industry in general. In Monroe and Dede Counties, and the outstanding safety record of telephone employees in this area has played an important part in the winning of this award. Based on a comparison of the safety record since 1920 with that of a 1926-30 base period, C. F. Craig, President of the A. T. & T. Company, credited an improving safety program with preventing 700 fatalities and 57,000 injuries in the Bell System ix the past 21 years. “Directoryitis” ‘Will Be Key West Affliction Soon | Residents of Key West are due to be afflicted by an epidemic of “directoryitis” when the change- over is made December 6 to the i new dial system. Fortunately, past experience indicates that telephone users are quick to adapt themselves to new ideas and the epidemic will prob- ably be short-lived. | Several inevitable facts, ever, make it almost how- sure th can operate in less than three-| pr, der reach. Many more people— | the new telephone directories w thousandths of a second ar control as many as 24 dif | functions at the same time. lare faster, more sensitive. ea to manufacture than older types and have a life expectancy of one billion operations — equiva- lent te one operation every sec- ond for more than 30 years. Relays are sets of tiny switches controlled by ap elec’ a call thraugh the nerve ce f the dial system. see that desired the teleph« he cal & egg. p| Use friends, relatives or customers can be called; many more can call €Y | you. Your telephone in America is | | PHONE, = in value—low in cost. j Southern Bell now has more than 547.000 telephones im Florida as jcompared to 239,855 just seven years ago. Beil 600,000 ruction in Florida im the last seven years. has spent for more k ano’ pa Versstion excggs mm dmergency. . ‘phone number before calling telephone Si be well-thumbed and will wear jout much quicker than usual The first fact is that ALL NUMBERS in Key West je your memory, you'll ai- lways have to look up that You can give yourself a ak lby being sure to THROW away your OLD telephone directory and you must use i dial service, you may be using topped all major industries in safe- | Southern Bell operates 385 vehicles, | First Phones Were Strictly | For Business | Still Of Immense Value In Home And Industry When the telephone was first in- vented, it was used primarily as an instrument of business. As tele- phone lines spread over the coun- try and new developments were put into use, the telephone got wider usage and found its way into American homes as an instru- ment of necessity to better living. However, one of its main uses is still in businéss. The grocer fills daily orders from custom. ers over the telephone; Many re- tail businesses sell thousands of dollars worth of goods to tele- phone customers; and industry keeps in contact with branches throughout the world because of this instrument. The value of the telephone to business is immense. Mr. Smith can place a call to Mr. Jones in New York and tell what prices the good he is selling are bringing at a precise hour or minute. He can order goods, and know immediate- ly whether or not they are avail- able, and what can be substituted. He may have extensions placed strategically throughout his busi- ness or plant, so that he can keep in constant touch with the opera- tion. If he is manufacturing, he ean tell exactly whether or not prodaction is smooth; or if there is a bottleneck, he knows immediate- ly and can eliminate it ~ all through the telephone. There are other services pro- vided to business. The teletype- writer service enables him to fill orders, give orders, and keep in touch with other branches by writing them over the wire. This allows him te have all messages in writing to insure complete files in case he ever needs to refer to them. There are many similar factors which make the telephone im- portant to business operation. For that reason, you'll find few busi- nesses today which are not depen- dent on the telephone for the con- duct of their business, ty December 6,1952 THE KEY WEST CITIZEN FIRM TEARS PRODUCTS) APART FOR LIVING NEW YOUR A firm which makes a good living by demolish- ing everything it can get its hands on is the U. S. Testing Co. Labora- tories. Some 30,000°American manufac- turers of everything from deterg- ents to basketballs pay it to take Page their products apart to see if the, are as good as the clams on the la bel. Many companies pay to haw their competitors’ merchandis tested regularly. A lady recently asked the lab oratory to find out if the staing on her husband's necktie were lip: stick. The company refused the job when she said she wanted te know what particular brand. CONGRATULATIONS... to the Southern Bell Telephone on your fine NEW BUILDING Thompson Enterprises, Inc. HDWE. DIVISION Dial 2-3132 Congratulations TO SOUTHERN BELL TELEPHONE CO. FOR ELECTRICAL REPAIRS AND SERVICE Dial 2-6131 Key West Electric Repair Co. 611 FRONT ST. OF KEY WEST SOUTHERN BELL TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH CO. YOUR NEW BUILDING IS A CREDIT TO THE CITY THE NEW DIAL SYSTEM IS A FORWARD STEP AND | AN INDICATION OF YOUR FAITH | OF OUR FAIR CITY BEST WISHES FOR YOUR CONTINUED no matter how »| SUCCESS CITY ELECTRIC SYSTEM DIAL 2-5651 OUR NEW NUMBER