OLD-TIME TELEPHONES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 201, 10 September 1937, Page 11

OLD-TIME TELEPHONES

Precautions Taken To-day A reminder that telephones wcre n-ot exaetly so good in the old days as they are at present is provided bytho rccent pubncation of instructions to sub* scribers wliieh appeared ih front of an Americau directory., of lifty years ago. Subscribers are informed "that tlie central oliiee wil] not respond during a tlranderstorru. ' ' They are also told, when ealled, to spealc and not wait for the central oftice to Btart them olf. Oustomers are also informed that ' ' at times, subscribers one hundred miles away can be heard witli astonishing distinctncss; at other times, grcat difffculty is experieneed and it is found lmpossible to licar. Points within Jifty miles can usually be reached without difiiculty. " New Zealand telephone subscribers many years ago also had their troubles during the thunderstomis, as the earth v/as used for the return cireuit, only one wire being provided for each hne. To-day all telephone circuits are eompletelr metallic, enabling conversation to proceed regardless of almospheric disturbances. As a precaution against the introduction of .stray currents eitlier froin the almosphere or povror lines every telephone cireuit is protected bv a dcvice whicli depends for it.s- opcration on the i^variabJe teudency of lightning to jump a short gap rather than deviate from the straight path. These precautions are taken at the subscribers' ecjuipment, at all junctions between underground and overhead cables and finally at every separate instnllntion in the central telephone exchange.