OUR TELEPHONES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1599, 16 November 1912, Page 6

OUR TELEPHONES.

AUTOMATIC INSTRUMENTS OR. DERED. FIVE HUNDRED FOR WELLINGTON. Although it will be somo littlo time before tho present telephone system 6 in. Wellington ajjd at Auckland can bo replaced by the automatic fiystom, which tho Government has determined to instal in these cities, a partial introduction of the automatic system will take placo almost immediately, Orders havo already been sent to tho Automatic Electrical Company of America for one thousand automatic telephones of tho Strowgor pattern. These instruments will arrive within two or three months. Five hundred aro to be installed at Wellington, and an equal nurobef at Auckland. The system now in operation in Wellington and Auckland, as iB well known, is practically obsolete, and difficulty is being experienced in keeping pace with the increase in subscribers. In order to meet the situation in Wellington and Auckland, it was necessary to .order additional instruments, and the PostmasterGeneral considered it best and most economical to provide now subscribers with, automatic telephones in anticipation of the timo when tho automatic installation would bo completed in tho two cities. If ordinary instruments had been obtained for now subscribers they could not have hoen employed for very long. Specifications for automatic installations in Wellington and Auckland aro almost ready, and before lone tenders will be called simultaneously for the equipment required in both cities. It will not, of course, bo possible to operato automatically the telephones which arc to bo installed in Wellington and Auckland to meet immediate require- ■ ments, Pending a complete installation a combination of tho automatic and compound battery exchange systems Will be employed. The subscriber provided with an automatic telephone will call the exchange by taking tho receiver off tho hook. This will cause R .email lamp tn glow in sight of tho exchange attendant. If the subscriber has, Called another automatic subscriber tho exchange attendant Will make the. desired connection by turning all automatic, dial, If a. subscriber poss?s«ed of an ordinary telephone has' been "rung," tfib call will be transferred by tho attendant who i receives it to another switchboard, where, the ordinary manual exchange system .is .in operation. It is. not anticipated that tho best results will be obtained under this compound system, but it is considered better to follow, this plan thai! to, inistal an additional number of ordinary telephones, only to discard them a littlo later. - Ono great.feature of tho automatic erfAterm is the 1 cheapness with which it can be operated. Ono. skilled operator can attend .to the Occasional faults and'failures that occur in a thousand, wires. To attend to tho same number of'telephones under tho existing system, tho' services of about I twenty girls, 'are required' during tho twenty-four hours. At some places, automatic exchanges are left Unattended, save for an occasional visit. When Mr. Buckley was on tour in America on behalf of. the local Post and Telegraph Department,, he found! 6everal small automatic exchanges which wore left unattended when in full operation. An exchange serving 1500 subscribe ers he found attended by three' or four men, and even in this case constant attendance; was not required. The' ordinary telephones that are displaced in Wellington and Auckland by tho introduction of automatic instruments will be used by the Department lip other parts of the country,''.so that there will be no loss under this head.