Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1880-10-30
tCommuucatcd.l
The Telephone Exchange" System.

Experience Of various telephone exclanges
in large cities throughout the world, although
limited, has developed the fact, that as the
number of subscribers increases, the number of
communications increases in at ledsia ten fold
ratio.
are five communications day apiece, then
with fire hundred subscribers there will be ten
communications a day by each subscriber.
To make the necessary connections and dis
connections at a central office, quickly, reliably
and with uniformity, without confusion, has
been question Of great difficulty.
Various plans of making, and varieties of
apparatus have been devised, tried, found
wanting, and abandoned, and now all large
Exchanges are using a third and fourth sys-
TEN, and yet irregularty and confusion are
frequent. This ID chiefly owing to the fact
that all these systems absolutely require SO
large Il staff of operators. Time, however, is
dent that the best system is that which will
occupy the least time.
The systems referred to above, are all essen
tally alike, though differing more or less in
detail. They may be called the conc Wire
Systen,' which works as follows: One sub
scriber wishing to communicate with another,
signals to the central Office by dropping an
indicator or ringing bell. The office con-
meets him by telephone, and asks the name of
the person with whom he wishes to comrnuni-
cate, ana on Delng informed, ne rings TO the per-
son wanted and connects the two together. This
would seem simple enough, but when press
of business arises, confusion is the probable re-
suit. But the system invented by Mr.. +.
Shaw, engineer of tho claw Telephone Com
pany," of New York, and worked by that
company, known as tho 1.-TWO Wire SYSTEM"
requires the least possible time for making
connections and accordingly is superior to all
others. 1t may be described thus Each
subscriber is connected with the central office
by t,oo wires, the first, is the usual wire,
which may, if preferred, have more than
one subscriber in circuit, the second is the
"calling wire" aud has from 80 to 100 sub
scribers in circuit The private wires are
used exclusively between the subscriber. and
| the calling wires exclusively for calling tho
central Office to connect or dsconnect the pri-
vate wires. At the central Office a trans-
hitting and 10 receiving telephone are con-
nected permanently with each calling wire,
and au operator is seated with the receiver con-
stantly at his ear, and a transmitter close in
front of him. n1 fn,f-., rrn,ss
i
are not used.
Ifany subsfriber. say cal, wishes to COM
municate with, say 547, he puts the receiver
to his ear, presses push button, which there
by connects him with the calling wire, and
says in his tnnsmitter, 23l -547. The oper-
ator in the central Office instantly repeats, 23l
| -547, whichis heard at tho same time by the
caller, who fen releases his push-button,
and by the switch board operators, who then
ring tho bells OF both numbers. and connect
them together. When no CAD has finished
his communication he presses again his push
button and s.ys disconnect 23i, or 5i7 may
say disconnect547. 100 ai aYoiesG
BY this systcm it may be noticed that in the
central Office thu only words spoken were 23i
aud SAT, and, dpconnect ono or other. Other
systems need mere talking, aud Of course the
more there is, the greater risk Of confusion,
mistakes, and d'lay.
Under tue "lvo Wire SYSTEM" the " call
err |" and the "a led " are both made known
to the central 4iice In almost an instant Of
time, and II thet only remains TO ring the bell
OF each and c,snect them; in actual practice
this 10 usually bne in ten seconds. Thus ten
times as many sessages may be sent in a Civ
| en- time as coull be accomplished under any
other system. AL not only more quickly but
more systematically. Again, subscribers may
connect and dseonnect ut will, in rapid suc-
cession, an inva tubls feature Of she invention.
Orders may y given and received between
different central pfices connected by Trunk
Iiocs." lust ~ etwesn the central Office aud
the subscribers.
On this plan v Law Telegraph Company
work five csatraI Offices in New York, and can
sst.blsh onam$ lcsr'a between sabseribers
copuectsd with diaersat Offices, almost a.
quickly s4bsswan those connected win tho
came 0aIcs.
The two wire Psssn' improved to the istest
a.,s h nov bsi@g introduced in Honolulu, as
N. . Hawaiian Ball Telephone Company"
Ths supsrasus by - inspected and al ques>
t;ous .ns wsred At the Company's ONCE over