LOST NUMBERS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 101, 23 January 1935, Page 16

LOST NUMBERS

Information Operator’s Duties « SOME STRANGE QUESTIONS Little known but much valued, the information operator of the telephone exchange sits at a desk behind two large and imposing revolving card indices, on which is available for immediate reference the name of every Wellington telephone subscriber. One directory is alphabetical, the other numerical ; each name is printed on a cardboard slip, so that it may be withdrawn and replaced if a subscriber’s address changes. People who have been informed that operators do not listen in on automatic exchanges have expressed surprise, when, on dialling certain numbers, the exchange breaks in and informs them that the subscriber has changed his number or is away on holiday. As a matter of fact all such numbers arc immediately connected with information, which knows at once when any change in a number occurs, and is readily enabled to inform subscribers of such change. Just at present the information operator is having a busy time, because new directories are shortly to be issued, and a large number of subscribers, later to be transferred to the book, are at present unavailable to the public except through “information.”

The information department is asked far more questions than are within its scope to answer. “Information” is evidently taken by a number of people to mean a sort of general oracle. Here are one or two examples of the strange questions put to the operator. During a period of water shortage one subscriber wanted to know if it were permissible to use his hose to clean .the windows. Au amateur male cook found it necessary to inquire if he could use whisky insteadof brandy in a trifle. The date of the battle of "Waterloo was once asked by a budding historian. Then again “information” is often the butt of cranks who ring up and lecture the operators. One woman per j sisted in saying unkind things to them for about two years before she was detected. That is one disadvantage of the automatic system; calls cannot be conveniently traced to the person ringing. At least this fact is clearly evident; to be a successful telephone operator tact and a large amount of patience are necessary; at times the tempers of operators, particularly after a day of their arduous work, must be very near the breaking point, but an operator will seldom depart from his invariable civility.