New Britain Herald Newspaper, January 27, 1923, Page 9

RIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1928 SATURDAY, J ’ \FUTURIST ART SUBJECT OF JESTERS’ CRACKS Public Bound Together by Net of Wirgc_&mn; up by Telephone Co. | Four Calls Every Minute Ahswered by Girls in Cen- tral Exchange, Peek De- hind Curtain Reveals. e Not all jobs are Yeds of roses, was the epinion of & Herald reporter who accidentally strayed into the New Britaln exchange of the Bouthern New England Telephone company, “Where's the manager?” demand ed journalistic interloper, “I want to know why I didn't get Bill Jinkins, at 411,44 this afternoen? It's over an hour since I called, Are you sure.the opersters aren't spending their time gossipping with their sweethearts? “L am dorry, Mr. Pencilpusher," sweetly answered the chief operator, q;n since you called an hour pgo b, operators have handled nearly ,000 calls, and I am afraid might not remember your tase.' And that's just exactly what the The New Britain exchange average of 41,403 telc- phone calls every day. There are 30 operators eonstantly on duty during the busy part of the day and these operators are kept answering calls at the rate of about one every 10 sec- onds. Possibly in the olden days when, in order to got the operator, there usually being but one on the job, a subscriber had to grab a little handle and turn it like a coffe grinder for a few minutes, Wwh the operater would sing out, “Hello,” conversations were carricd on hetween operators and friends. DBut today, it Bill calls up Mary and wants to “chin,” Mary must ask Bill to call after working hours, or get a relief girl to work in her place while she talks. Needless to say there is very little talking done that is not strictly business. Operators Cannot Listen In, “I don't want to tell you over the phone,” said a man. “You never know who is listening.” If he refers to the operator, he need have no fears. In New Britain cach of the 30 operators sits facing something like 7,000 holes within reaching dis- tance of less than three feet. Each of these holes is about five-sixteenths of an inch, or the thickness of an or- dinary lead pencil, in diameter. Into these holes she is shoving little round plugs as fast as her arms can work, presenting much the same appear- ance as the flying shuttle off a sew- ing machine. When a subscriber lifts his receiv- or off the hook there is a flash of light, in front of the operator, and she responds, ‘“Number, pleasc."” Sometimes in clear tones gets the re- spon.e, “four seven six, please” in a poiite and cheerful tone. Often she gets a gruff demand, “Gimme six gru-u-mph “steen” and she either must get the person calling to repeat the number more distinctly or take a chance of understanding the number wanted. Sometimes she gets it right and sometimes she doesn’t. If she doesn’t the subscriber never accepts the blame, he or she simply calls down the wrath of the gods on the head of an operator, Wwho by, this time has handled a dozen or more other calls and férgotten all about it, “Temple of Voice Transmission.” The telephone exchange was called, in a recent editorial in a New Haven paper, “The temple of voice trans- mission.” No more appropriate title could be bestowed upon it. Sixty-one operators work around a semi-circular switchboard in shifts ranging from 30 down to a halt dozen or less in the wee small hours of the morning. These 30, who work during the bus- iest part of the day, sit side by side in the semi-eircle, looking at a large black panel in front of them which resembles a gigantic punch board. Calls come into this board so rapidly that for an operator even to dream of holding a conversation during the business hours of the day would be entirely out of the question. Thirty girls at a time handle during the av- erage day 39,429 local calls, 1273 calls to Hartford, Bristol, Plainville and Southington, 500 calls to other points in. Connecticut and at least 200 out of the state, This is an average day's work. When it is realized that most of these calls come in during that portion of the day between 8 a. m. and, 10 p. m., or within a period of 14 hours, it almost staggers the imag- ination to conceive how they are handled, or how John Doe ever man- ages to get Richard Roe without ex- periencing all kinds of difficulties. Human Bechive. Four to six times a minute the op- erator answers a call and she keeps this up all the time she is on duty. It is extremely hard work. Arms fly back and forth, shoving in a plug here, pulling out a plug there, while to the visitor's ears comes a bahel- liké confusion of never ceasing mur- murs of: “line’s busy,” “number please,” "I'm hinging your party,” etc., making the place a veritable beehive. ' So rapidly must the girls work that there is no chance to explain misun- derstandings to subscribers. This is one of the countless jobs which falls on the supervisor's shoulders. If a subscriber becomes balky or abusive or unreasonable, the operator wastes no further time on him, she may have a “waiting list” of calls, so she simply calls the nearest supervisor and . the case is passed bigher up. There are they FOUR AUTOS| GIVEN ELKS’tFAlR — gt — ELKS’ HOME, FEBRUARY 2 TO 12 LEXINGTON SIX *Touring BUICK FOUR Touring Sedan . Tickets Now On Sale | | five supervisors, under the direet con- trol of a ohief operator, If the sub- | scriber get no satisfaction from @& | supervisor the case is passed along to the ehief operator and a eourt of last appeal to the district manager. Or if it 13 mechanieal trouble, to the wire ehief, who is on the job or sub- Jeet to call 24 hours a day and who| goes out in all sorts of weather and under all sorts of conditions of per- sonal inconvenience to heip keep cus. tomers satisfied, There are In the exchange or switchboard operating department, | besides the chief and supervisors, two assistant ohlef operators, who share some of the burdens, two clerks, one | instructor for new operators, who| has charge of a regular school for operators conducted at the local ex- change; ope central office observer: two information operators and 10 toll line operators. The central office observer keeps a double check on all lines where there | is any trouble reported, 1If a sub-| scriber reports inabllity to get a re- ply within a reasenable time or other ungatisfactory service, this op-| erator, who sits in a private room alone and has her own branch switchboard connected with every line In the city, places that line under observation for a week or two and keeps a written record of every-call made ‘on the line, the time consumed in getting the necessary service, and all information desired, which is filed at the central ocice in New Haven, Howling the Howler, One of the most important branch- es of the service is the wire chief's or repair department, When Mrs. Grundy cannot get good service she makes a complaint to a repair clerk, who promptly connects her line with a switchboard in the repair depart- ment, and it is watched. If necessary, a man is sent out to make what re- pairs are necessary. Sometimes the trouble can be cleared up from the office. One source of trouble is that of people on a party line leaving their receivers off the hook, thus throwing the whole line ont of service. But it seldom happens twice to the same person. The wire chief after trying all other means to attract the attention of the subscriber, puts on the “howler.” This so-called howler is a mechanical contrivance which emits through the receiver In the subscriber's home a most unearthly screech. Anyone alive within 100 yards, able to walk, would feel a natural impulse to *shut off the darned thing” when the howl- er gets working. The wire chief has an average of 1,200 cases of trouble each month he and his men must clear up. Some of these arc extremely hazardous. In the first snow storm this winter two telephone company automobiles were stranded all night in snow drifts at Shuttle Meadow lake and were tied up all night, and one man had his ears frozen. 1In times of storm meén must go through the woods, wherever there is an interruption to the serv- ice, and, often at the risk of their lives, make necéssary repairs so that subscribers in their comfortable homes can speak with ease. This same loyalty is typical of the average op- erator. Whenever there is a big fire, or some calamity, such as a blizzard, when demands on the service almost double, every operator who can do so, goes to the exchange. In a report sumbitted to the American Telephone and’ Telegraph company, the Wash- ington, D. C., manager tells of a busi- ness man-in that city, who after struggling through a snow drift in January, 1922, overtook a girl who was having difficulty getting through the banks of snow. He helped her tor a few blocks and then said, “This is too much for me, I'm going to turn back and do my business by tele- phone, you bétter ga home too."” The young woman replied, “No, I must go on, you see I'm a telephone operator.” The repair department consists of | the wire chief, three mepairmen, two | dropmen, two installers, two testmen, to central office men and two clerks. | These men handle .more than 4,000 contract orders, including installings, removals, etc., per year. They have 6857 pairs of wires to look after, in- cluding 120 cables with over 650 wires.to a cable. In strong contrast to the magnitude of the present system is the report of the first commercial telephone sys- tem in New Brifain, The first Commercial Telephone kEx- change was opened in New Britain, in Central Block, 277 Main street, in the latter part of 1879, permission being granted by the common council on| November 26 of that year to allow the company to set poles in the streets. This resolytion was presented by Councilman L. W. Curtis, and signed by Mayor Ambrose Beatty. It went under the name of the New Britain Distriet Telephone company, and its incorporators wére Giles L. Reynolds, 8. H. Taylor and Willis Rockwell. Mr. Reynolds was a native of Good- speed Landing, Conn., and was a bookkeeper in the Stanley Werks. He also was a telegrapher and sent tele- grams direct from a Western Union key at the Stanley Works. | Willis Rockwell was a son of| George Rockwell, at that time head of the New Britain Knitting com-| pany. | Mr. Taylor was a telegrapher in the | Western Union Telegraph company. In order to interest the people in buying stock in this company, the| promoters had installed, previous to| AWAY | STUDEBAKER SIX LIGHT Touring DODGE FOUR Sedan Dancing Every Evening | ence between a copper wire and a cot- ! requested to ‘“‘call me at 5 { morning.” “TEMPLE OF VOICE TRANSMISSION” This shows a view of the main switchboard in the Aperating room with 27 operators on duty. To the extreme left are three vacant posl tions, which have been opened this week and which will take care of 500 additional subscribers. The first girl standing is a supervisor, the second, reading from left to right, is the chief operator, and others standing are ad- Qitional supervisors, The desk in the right foreground is the chief opera- tor's desk, the one in the rear is the information desk and the panel at the extreme right end of the switchboargd is the toll line hoard. ——————————————— the opening of the exchange, a-tele- phone in the old passenger depot, and one in Bassett's grocery store, now Abbe's Hardware store, for .demon- stration purposes. This company took over several private lines between merchant's homes and their stores, one of these being 8. H. Wood, jewel- er, the line running from his store on Main street over the tops of several houses to his home on Areh street. The Stanley Works also had a line be- tween their office and the shipping room The exchange started off with about 25 subscribers and at the time that the company was taken over by the Connecticut Telephone company, the number had grown to 69 in the latter part of 1880. Mr. Reynolds remained as manager of the company until 1882, when he went to Philadelphia and there or- ganized the American Pulley com- pany, making steel pulleys, and through this made a large fortune, Two interesting resolutions appear in the minutes of the meeting of the common council in 1881. One on May 18 was a petition from the city time- keeper for an appropriation of $20.00 to connect his store with the tele- phone office, in order to get the cor- rect time. This petition was referred to the fire department. On June 15, a petition was received from the chief of police, asking that a telephone be installed in his office in order to save time. These petitions were the suh-I ject of considerable debate, but were finally granted. ; The Connecticut Telephone com- pany became the Southern New Eng- land Telephone company in 1884. Can't Fool the Chief. ‘While it is true that every com- plaint gets special attention, if it is made through the proper channels, any attempt on the part of an excited or fussy subscriber to “bawl out” the operator is wasted energy, as that op- erator is seranely on her way taking care of other calls, while the sub- scriber between attempts to kick over | the furniture is telling his troubles to a young woman who has had ex. perienge enough to know the differ. WHERE THE WIRE distributing room where all| In th@ Ne 120 Main cables are transmitted. Britain office there are the opposite side and not visible in this one frame, si®wn on the left. On the opposite side and not visible on | cable: | which go from CHIEF HANGS OUT switchboard cables the frame to the operating room. The switchboard to the right is used by the wire chief and his assistants to observe lines in trouble while they are under obser- vation or repairs. X the picture are and said their phone wouldn't stop ringing, when inspectors found it was the door bell. These are but a few similar incidents. All operators are instructed not to| wait for a number if the police or fire departments are called. The Western | Union and Postal Telegraph office: can be called without number, like-| wise the New Britain General hos- pital, and any operator will immedi- ately accept an emergency call for a doctor and phone the first physician! she can find. An illustration of the range of the! ton clothes line and can tell her hear- er all about “service” from A to Z and half way back again. | If it is a toll call and the subscriber | insists he did not talk more than two minutes, when the toll operator says three, the chief simply squelches the| angry one by explaining sweetly that there are little tickets that are placed in a clock during the conver- sation. The operator pulls one lever when the conversation starts and an-| other when it stops. Then she reads| the time on the cards. The clock| usually declines to enter into the dis- pute, but has never been known to| retract a statement. But with. all Yhat, conducted with courtesy. Irom the effice of the district manager him- self where he and his office staff must meet the angry world with disputed bills, through the wire chief's depart-| ment where thousands of wires run through steel frames from immense, cables to the switchboard above,| through the handsomely, furnished!| rest rooms where girls go when re-| lieved, because no one could stand | n of a whole day without rest| at the pace required, through the dining room when rosy cheeked and! dimpled maidens make hot coffee in- to the main operating room itself, one is grooted with smiles and respeetful courtesy. i #What do you do to cure your most chronic kickers?" asked the dazed seribe “Bring them in here and show them what we are up against,” was the reply. “And it always works,” came as an after thought. Some of the troubles the telephone man goes up against are extremely Judicrous to everyone except the tele- phone company. It was found neces- sary some time ago lo cut out the custom of operators telling the time. It was fonnd that women were using this privilege to boil eggs by. Also, it was the custom a few years ago to use the telephone system as an alarm clock. The night operator would be in the { everything is Jmergency Service, Inspectors have found telephones with the receivers off and the line| stretched, the wire being used by children as a play wash line. They| have found women washing the wires and bell boxes, thus getting them wet | and putting the service out of busi-| ness. One young man used his tele-| phone wires one time to operate a| radio phome. People have called up]‘ telephone today is the fact that it i possibfe for one to talk from Los Angeles, by way of San Francisco, | throngh Denver, Salt Lake City, Oma- ha, Chicago and New York to Key West and across the water to Cuba on a direct line, for $22.35. There are more commercial tele- phones in the Stanley Works today than there were in New Britain in 1890, There are more in New Britain today than there were in the state in| 1895. In 1881, New Britain, one of | the pioneer cities in the evelution of the telephdne, was one of six ex- changes in the state. The others were Bridgeport, Ansonia-Derby, Hartford, | Meriden and New Haven. New Brit- | ain then had 85 telephones out of a total. of 1,528 in Connecticut. Today | New Britain has 6,867 while the| state report showed 198,903 at the, end of 19 EDWARDSHAYBE PORTO RICANBOSS | General the charges against Reily and are now prepared, it is said, to give their de- cision as to whether he will be allowed to resign. Secretary Wee! who comes from Massachusetts, favors appointment of Edwards to this place, {if Reily is to go, and provided of course, that General Edwards will accept. the place. General Ed s, since his re- tirement several months ago, has been living on a farm in Massachu- setts and greatly enjoying his rustica- tion. Whether he will consent to come away from his life of ease to again get into public life is regarded by his friends as doubtful. General Iidwards is well acquainted with Porto Rico. It will be recalled that he served for seve years Chief of the Insular War Department and had charge of all American governmental affairs concerning Porto Rico, the Philippines and Alaska. This makes the General well qualified for the place as Go ernor of Porto Rico, Secretary Weeks — ANNOUNCEMENT EXTRAORDINARY A Real $2.00 Show Commander of Yankee Division Considered for Island Post | IRGE H. MANNIN w1 of New Britain n. 27. Rdwards ankee™ Division in | RY (HEC (Washington Ru Washington, D. C., { General Clarence commanded the "V srance, and is idolized by thousands | of the “YD" officers and Connecticut, may be appointed as the | Porto Rico to suc- or x‘n||,: Major next Governor of ceed B present governor Governor Reily is in Washington | now forsa conference with the pres- | ident which may settle the question of | whether he is to return to his Porto| Rican post of be dismissed. Governor | Reily has been the subject of charges| of a serious nature for over a year. He has been roundly attacked in both | B the 1. 8. Senate and House on several | occasions. | He returned to the United State about a month ago and after a brief | conference with President Harding| went to his home in Kansas where he has been since. Secretary Weeks and the President have been considering who | i soldiers in | B Mont Reily of Kansas, the § | CHARLIE ABOT A OH BABY” THE FIRST 66 TIME | HERE | as | General Bdwar Sureau in the | France at the end of the war he w Charles Francis Says Picture Was Painted By a Cockeyed Artist and Gets First Prize. of we Charles W, TFrancis $17 West, Main street had what consider the best idea in the Missing Dialogue Contest picture which has been run- ning this week. He will get the first prize for the following example of wit: First Boy brother painte Second Do, cock-eyed one Charles Feroleto, who lives on La Salle street also had a good an- swer to the question, “What are they saying?” and will be awarded the second prize of three dollars at the | “Herald” office. This is his sug-| gestion: | This is the one my “Which brother, the Duesseldorf dispatch says martial law practically has been declared in *|that eity and surrounding Ruhr dis- tric closing theaterd, ca and other public places at 10 p. m. German time. Essen report ifldicates that Marshal Foch will have headquarters in ¥ sen and will direct customs in occu- pied Ruhr region. Paris declares that reparation com- hope of effecting compromise between French and Germans in Ruhr diffi- culties. len at noon today will finally give over direction of United States Rhine r gion to Gen. Marty of Irench forc Brussels reports that Belgian labo party has issued a manifesto rck- | ing French and Belgian occupation of | the Ruhr. | Butler, pre ty in addres tent | at | Nicholas Murra of Columbia tni Columbus, O., declares there is | likelihood that -prohibitibn —amend- ment can be enforced in United States. | Chicago reports that an *“all na- tions rally” to form basis of nation- | | wide hody to oppose Ku Klux Klan | |anda kindrea organizations will be held | P e —— | contends, if a change is to be made. It will be remembered that upon is' return home from:| all Divisio; ‘ | feted in Connecticut and ovi | New England by “Yankee men and sympathizers, Who werc | dignant over his being detached while, | in IPrance from command of the ot 3 ¢l ‘\\‘i(l\ whieh he had endeared himseif. LYCEUM ALL NEXT WEEK in- o | 30 OF THE PRETTIE mission has dispelled any immediate | Coblenz asserts that Major Gen. Al- | First Boy—"Dad says this 1s & plece of art Second L other pleces o W. J. Gorman of Elm street gets third prize. He worked the prohibi- tion gag wtih some success, as fol- lows: First Boy—'"That looks like ‘Moon« ms on the Hurhmock.’" Second Boy—"It looks more ‘moonshine on the stomach.'" Next week will be the last of the contesi, as we have decided to dis- continue the pictures. If you wish to wia a prize, sharpen up your wits and submit a dialogue before next Friday ncon. Where are the be like ———————————————e e Brief News Dispatches From all Over the World in that city February 26, mecting to continue for one week. Washington makes definite an- nouncement that President and Mrs. Harding expect to go to Florida for rest after congress adjourns. Enrico Caruso at New York, off late Park Benjamin an- settlement of contest insti- | tuted by Benjamin children, to set aside their father's will. FFormer Governor lLowden of Illi- | nois in New York address critioizes | policy of isolation for United States in Furopean crisis. New Haven—Baseball Commission- er Landis in an address at the New Haven Dastern league club dinner, de- clared that baseball pools menace the game and must be put out of busi- ness. Iuxor, Egypt advices say mighty | king whose tomb was recently dis- covered is to be X-rayed if his mum- my is still found in burial place. Templeton of | Hartford — Governor | conferred with H. T. Montague Waterbury on the fuel situation. Haven—National Commander of the American Legion urged r aid to war veterans. :w Haven — Horace H. Chitten- den, father of former Mirector R. H. Chittenden of the Shetfield Scientifie school, died at his home here. New Owsley ~(‘'ommittee on railroads sident I, J. Pearson and Vice-pr ent 12. G. Muckland to ap- s hearing Wednesday on the resolution empowering the committee {o inguire into serviee on the railroad, neral Manager C. L. Bardo will al- attend, Hartford invited Iri New Haven — Sale of Pleasure ich, Bridgeport, to a creditors coms mittes of the Ingersoll Iinginecering Co., for $397 , the single bid ore red by the court. We've Finally Landed the Biggest Attraction of the Year ST PEACHES | BEBE | DANIELS in “THE SPEED GIRL”