Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-02-21
THE TELEPHONE SYSTEM.
Gigantic Growth in Popular Use Of the
Wonderful Invention.
In the Great Cities and Between the
Small Towns Of the Country.
Rapid Development in Texas--The
Longest Line In the State.
speo,., ccrrcspondence Of The Gazette.

speoisi Correspondence Of the Gazette.
Austin, February l9.--The general
office Of the Southwestern division o.
the Erie Telegraph and Telephone
company is located in Austin. The
large ex customs of the service in Tex
as, inuuc,d its removal from Little
Rock Ark which state, with Texas
compri .es this division. Mr.. j. X Dun
bar the general superintendent, Is
man Of splendid business capacity, ac'
tive, adroit and progressive, and with
al clever genial gentleman, who can
give n conversation an interesting
turn, as well as explain the
mysteries of financial problem. To
his management is largely due the
phenomenal progress of the telephone
In Texas While it has been intro
duced into almost every village, how
ever, few are aware of the magnitude
ofthe service, even in its incipiency,
in the state. A GAZETTE reporter, In
conversation with Mr.. Dunbar,
elected many interesting facts III this
connection, and also concerning the
telephone as IL Affects the entire
country, its progress and It's pros
poets.
R-porter-"Mr. Dunbar, the GA
zETTE wishes to know something
about the status the capital and the
divisions of vuur company"
MIR. Duubar-"rhe Erie Telegraph
and Telephone Co., capital stock
s., 600 900, is comprised of the follow
ing divisions:
First, the Southwestern, which COM
prises Texas and Ark iDsas.
Second, the Cleveland, which also
takes in Cuyhoga county, Ohio.
Third, the Northwestern. which in
cludes all of Dakota and the most val
uable telephone territory in Mime
sofa ~
what is the total number of tele-
phones connected by the entire sys.
tenn"
at was on the lst Of January, 1854,
$500. or this number the Southwest
ern division furnishes 100, which Is
gain ~ ], 200 IN six months"
What has been the progress of ex-
changes in this division and the con-
nectiOns between citieSn"
"On the first of June, 1888, the
Southwestern division had eighteen ex-
changes completed. On the first of
January, 1884 there were thirty-three
in Operation and six more in process
of construction. During this period
the Sou hwestern has reconstructed over
1900 miles OF what is termed extra
territorial line. The primary object Of
these lines Is to link the various ex-
changes TO each other and the system
has SO far progressed that Fort Worth is
now telephoncally tied to thirty.
eight towns and exchanges, and il is
the intention of the company under
favorable auspices to bind Fort Worth
with the various towns in
its Immediate vicinity that
are not as yet connected with
the system. Decatur, Alvarado, Gle.
burne, HilIshoro, Thorp Springs and
Granbury are now most anxious for u
direct connection. When rhese wires
are completed it will place Fort Worth
telephonically in u position quite AS
enviahle as that of Dallas with refer
eDce To tributary towns. An idea of
the entire territorial system outside of
the thirty-eight towns connected with
Fort WORTH may be formed by the fol.
lowing brief r,sume: There are lines
connecting Marshall Jefferson, Kellys-
ville Bungview, Henderson and En--
ton. Galveston and Houston have
four wires, one of which is copper.
Brownsville has some territorial con
nections San Antonio Is connect ed
with eight stations between it and
Eagie Pass. BRENNAN is surrounded
with complete net work oT territorial
wires. Gainesville has connection
with a number Of adjacent towns.
Baird aud Coleman have Il wire and
Albany and Griffin are also in nearing
distance Of each other. TeXarkana,
Hope, Fulton, Hot Springs, Little
Rock aud number of other towns in
Arkansas have telephone connection. -
rs it proposed TO continue this rapid
development of 1he system during
the present ypaip'
"lhe work laid out for 1854 includes
some twenty or twenty-five eXchsng, $,
tie building Of $50 to 200 miles of ex-
traterritorial lines per month and the
improvement and perfection of the
system in all lis details. 1t is the de-
sire of the compauy to keep pace with
the demands for telephone facilities,
and those communities granting prop
er encouragement Will certainly rsau
the benefit of the large expenditure To
be made.n
WHAT is the number of employees oil
this division2i
THE Southwestern at present gives
employment to over 500 individuals
1t has three division superintendent
located respectively at Little Rock
Ark, San Antonio, Tex, and Dallas
Tex.
(which y the largest exchange i'll
the worid?u
"Probably New York city, will
something in the neighborhood o
1000 subscribers.n
What is the total capitalization OF
telephone companies la the United
Stafes?o
I'm excess OF 500 900 900. The larr
est single organization Is the New
England Telephone Co. under its re
cent consolidation, capital stock SIP.
900 900. The American Bell Telephon,
Co. of Boston, Mass, controls all IN,
essential patents for telephone appa
ratus in the United States and Mexi
co, besides in some other foreign coun
tries
"What is the number of the phone
In Use in this country ~
Tine last telephone received from
the American Bell Telephone Co. Il
No. 4l 900. which will give AN ide;
OF the humber of sets in use in tn,
United Sates.p
How does this compare with tn,
SYSTEM In foreign countries ?'
"rhe proportion of telephones In th,
United States as compared viii
European countries Is almost ten /,
one for population"
Have experiments developed th,
capacity Of the telephone 10 overconi,