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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 17, 14 July 1911, Page 4

FARMERS' TELEPHONES. J The British Post Office is trying an ex- ] periment in the telephone department which rony set an example to our own officials, and hasten the day of cheap country telephones. This is the introduction of farmers' telephones, at a charge of £3 per instrument per year,' wero not less than five are on the same line. For this sum it is intended to give an unlimited number of calls on the "parent" exchange. All calls on the trunk lines, or through other exchanges, will be charged at the usual rates. The proposal is being tried at Bransley. The idea is to get up to 15 or Hi instruments on the, one line, splitting the circuit, putting eight on each. When one ol an eight is rung up, all eight bells will ring. But each of the eight farmers would have a distinct call. A sort of Morse code could be,arranged. For instance..! the first three or four could be called ] up with one, two, three and four ring's respectively, No. 5 with a long and°a| short ring. No. 6 with a short and long ' ring, No. 7 with a long, short and long* ring, and No. S with a short, long and short ring. These farmers' telephones have been in operation for some time in America, and have proved of enormous value for many reasons. There as many as 20 are on one line divided into two circuits, and a perfect system of Morse code calls has been uevised. The farmers are allowed to ring up the station and get the latest weather report. An-< other advantage is that not only are telegrams transmitted over the* telephones from the post offices, which are often many miles distant from the farmhouses, but under a special law, a postmaster may, on being requested to do so by the addressee, open letters and read their contents over the wire. But these advantages are not wholly unmixed. All subscribers on one circuit can overhear each other's messages. A »ood story is told by a telephone operator. He was going his rounds, and, arrivin" at a farmhouse, discovered that the "good wife," wno was busy over her washtub, had strapped the earpiece to her bond, so that she could listen to all the messages sent or received by her nine neighbors on the same circuit. At present no means has been devised to prevent this eavesdropping