Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-09-02
THE CITY OF TELEPHONES.
Nobody In Cincinnati Need be With
out His owe Wire.

sixteen NOuuE AcAA4N1 IL NoNA ~ mus
-ost1lme sat IN a line in Fourth street
1fice Yesterday afternoon. They were
IN talking in mOnOsyllables to sixteen
other people in various parts Of the city.
4 Young man sitting at a desk in the
rear Of the line held a micrOphOne to his
-. and heard what each Of the thirty
-Va1 persons said. 1t was strange chO-
-us Of voices, and yet the young man
lid not appear to get tired, for he had
held the instrument to his ear for many
hours, and wOuld do so for hours to
come. The young ladies were the people
who answer "HellOp to you when you
20 TO the telephone. They sit in the
Central Exchange, on Fourth and Wal
nut streets. and answer the requests
y $50 subscribers. Each lady has
so many subscribers TO attend to, and
nom early in the morning until o'clock
az night she listens to the requests q the
The people al the wires and answers
hem. There is no time for reading or
9sfrC. The micTOphOne is so adjusted
that She can hear all hat IS said without
-rouble. and there are few minutes in the
5av when it is not talking. A messenger
frv walks Up and down behind the line
1f Young ladies', and when one of them
receives a call from the telephone little
-beck is made out, and this is given the
messenger. who carries it off to a clerk,
who thus keeTs q constant record of all
that is going on outside. This office, on
Fourth and Walnut, is never closed.
The lights in its windows are bright
until the sunlight in the morning makes
zas unnecessary. There are eight other
exchanges in the city. namely: on Front
street. Freeman, Elm Broadway, the
Public Landing, Brighton, COvingtOn,
and Ninth street
Each exchange has direct connection
with all the others. They are also con
1ected with Richmond, Lawrenceburg
and Aurora, Ind, and Hamilton and
Eaton. Ohio. Next week a wire will be
begun to connect direct with Dayton,
Ohio. The Cincinnati City and Subur
ban Telegraph Association has the repu
-ation in other cities of giving the best
service and being the most efficient Of
any in the country. 1t has in use nearly
1000 wires, and employs over 100 Ope
rators. to say nothing of the various
other employees, such as clerks and cleo
.ricians. Capt George n. Stone, Gen
eraI Manager of the association. said
Yesterday 10 q Commercial reporter that
The telephone business has been an TX.
pertinent with this company, as Il has
with all others. 1t took a good deal Of
time to perfect the arrangements, and
they are only now getting their arrange
ments in the shape they would like TO
have them.
AT first. said Mr. Stone. 1--WE put as
meuy as seventeen subscribers on one
circuit or wire We charged these So
per month This was in the early stages
Of telephony. aud there was no micro
phone 1t was difficult to hear well at
best. and there was so little use for the
telephone then that it looked as if though
one wire would accommodate any number
Of subscribers. These things soon began
70 change The desire for telephones
seemed to grow with what it fed on.
Each month compelled US to reduce the
number Of subscribers to the wire From
seventeen we came down 10 five, and
increased the rate TO 81 per month for
each subscriber within a half-mile of the
Exchange. We were compelled to build
new wires all the time, and for each
nalfmile Of distance we charged
81 extra We found soon that people
living several miles from the exchange
could not afford the price. About this
time the transmitter came into use. Now
let me tell you something about this
transmitter and micrOphOne. The early
Edison telephone did not have them.
They were invented by Bell. It was a
question for some time whether they
would be successful. The National Bell
Telephone Company was organized and
the stock ranged down al something like
fifteen cents on the dollar Suddenly
Mr.. Bell who had been hard at work in
his laboratory, completed his invention.
From a slight improvement the Bell
telephone became a decided success.
Stock doubled and then quadrupled.
Men who had gone to bed
with q few hundred shares of
stock worth little or nothing,
woke up TO find themselves rich. Mr..
Bell had his patents complete His in
strument ran everything out of the mar
ket, and Of course he had the business
ia his own hands. He determined to
place a royalty of so on every trans
mitter and so on every microphOne,
and, Of course. he got it. The result is
that we pay $50 year royalty on every
telephone in use This little thing you
talk through and the instrument you
hear from you can't buy for love or
money Twenty dollars a year rents
them, aud if we break one we pay $25
TO replace t. OF course, this put prices
up. We put in special wires for one
subscriber with telephone and transmit
ter at IS per month 10 any point within
a radius Of One-half mile from the Cen
trail Exchange, and 81 for every addi-
tiOnal half mile.
How did that plan work?'
Very well. All our business men
availed themselves Of the special wire
but the 81 for additional distance did
not do so well. We therefore concluded
TO equalize the rates. and at present we
furnish a business subscriber with a
special wire, telephone. and trausmitter
any where in the city of Cincinnati, Co
vingtOn, Newport, Clifton or AvOndale
for S. 33 per month. and residences in
the same limits with special wire at So
per month, or three subscribers on ore
wire at 81 10 per month. The equaliza-
ton increased no subscribers more than
s. SO per month, and decreased many
from 81 to SO per month.
How do these prices compare with
other ci'iesY"
Well, for special wires 10 business
houses, for one half mile TO five miles, in
Cincinnati, the rate is 800 per year. In
CHICAGO the price Is 1925 per year up to
one mile. then it goes TO $3.50 for one
and a quarter miles, $175 for one and a
half miles, 1925 for three miles New
York city is $50 per annum for one
mile, 1886 for a mile and a quarter, and
S222 for anything over two miles. Pitts
burg ard New Orleans are cheaper than
Cincinnati for one half mile, being $S4
and SIS, respectively. For one mile
Pittsburg Is 1920 and New Orleans 800,
and they both increase-New Orleans to
5000 and Pittsburg to $25Q-for three
miles"
It will be seen from Captain Stones
figures that Cincinnati is supplied at ex-
ceedingly cheap rates, and It only takes
little experience in other cities TO make
Cmcinnatians more than cOntented with
Che service