Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1885-12-24
LOCAL AND PENlNSVLAR
THE DEATH OF MYERS O. con-
WELL OoNFIRMED.
WIImington's Telephone Exchange
How Subscribers Can Benefit
Themselves.

wIInington's Telephone Exchange
Themselves.
The telephone service in Wilmington ia
| as prompt and effective aR that OF any city
| in the country. 1t is more accommodate
| ing than that of the large cities in the
| latitude it allows subscribers. This, how
! ever, is gracious condescension which
will grow less in the future instead OF
greater, on the principle that a child
needs more humoring than an adult.
| Certain rules are laid down in the large
cities as they are here, with the difference
that in the former they are strictly OBJ
served or no service is obtained, while
here they are frequently ignored, at least
in part, giving much unnecessary trouble
to the operators at the exchange, though
no service is ever denied on this account,
though it is fruitful cause of delay.
1t has been said that there is only one
way to do thing and that is the right
way. This is like the obligation to
tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth-sinply telling it so far as
you go, without making it complete, may
be telling what amounts to falsehood
SO in doing thing right so far as you go
without finishing the entire job is not Che
right away. One of the first rules of
the Telephone Exchange il that in calling
for connection the subscriber shall
give his number as well as the number
with which he wishes to communicate.
This is very generally neglected, many
simply using the phrase, "Give me 175"
This will answer very well except in cases
where the inquirer has just finished talk
ing with someone else, when the operator
cannot tell which one of the two is calling
and has to inquire, which is SO much loss
of time, q matter that seems too small to
be of any consequence, but which multi
piled ever SO seldom makes very
perceptible difference in the operating
room at the Exchange, where every second
lost is SO much delay to another sub
scriber.
Subscribers often complain that they
are interrupted by the Exchange with in
quiries as to whether they are through
while their communications are unfin-
ished. This has been to some an annoy
ance, leading them to imagine that The
Exchange is in an unwarranted hurry to
get through with them. It is also ma
tural inference that somebody is waiting
to speak to one or the other of the parties
then in communication, and when it is
found that such is not the case the sub
scriber becomes vexed at the interruption.
In explanation IL should be said that this
is the only sure way of ascertaining when
subscribers are through, particularly in
the busy part of the day when the calls
and rings for disconnection are SO fire.
quent that it is impossible to distinguish
between them by the sound. 1t is done
toprevent disconnecting before the parties
have finished talking, which would be an
annoyance giving much reason for anger,
and at the same time if they are through
and their ring-of has not been heard to
prevent leaving the wire open an unneces-
sary length of time. This being under
stood, subscribers will doubtless be able
to answer the inquiry, "Through?
Through ?" with equanimity.
Others complain because they have 10
call five or six times before they receive
an answer from the Exchange. The
reason for this lies in the delays caused
by other subscribers in asking questions
of the operators at the switchboard.
These have all they can do in answering
Signals and simply connecting and dis
connecting, and every minute taken up
by subscriber in questioning or COM
planning to them is making some other
subscriber wait or keeping him ringing.
Any questions or complaints intended for
the central Office should be preceded
with request for the extra operator or
extra operators, and directed to one of
them. The duties of the regular opera
tors are to attend to the switch board and
that is all they have any time to do with
out keeping sombody waiting and ringing.
"We have to depend in large measure
upon our subscribers for prompt sys-
tem," said Manager j. H. Mehaffy to an
EVERY EVENING representative. "If the
subscribers would recognize that fact and
go according to the instructions laid
down by the Exchange they would find a
decided improvement in the service. It
must not be forgotten that great deal of
the trouble arising from non observance
of rules, probably two-thirds of it, comes
from non-subscribers in using the phone.
These people should give the matter sufi-
cient attention to enable them to observe
the rules of the system and much annoy
ance and complaint on the part of sub
scribers would be averted The best way
always to secure prompt connection is
first to call your own number. 1t would
be we'll to think of the business being
done at the Exchange. The figures show
that there are on an average 5000 calls
day, or 1870. 900 per month and 1850, 900
year. About 40 subscribers are doing
all this talking. OF course, non-sub-
scribers use it, but it all goes through
this switoh-board.n
Manager Mehaffy is trying to introduce
in connection with the telephone system
district messenger service. Up to the
present time, however, good many sub
scribers don't seem to understand all that
this service embraces. They seem to
think that it is intended only for the
delivery of telephone messages to parties
who are not provided with telephones.
This is designed to be only part of the
service. 1t includes running errands,
delivering packages and all that kind of
service. For instance, if person stop
ping at the Clayton House or any other
hotel or boarding house, desiring to send
package to a laundry he can telephone for
messenger and have his want attended to.
Or lady can do her marketing and in
this way secure messenger to carry home
her basket. If this becomes thoroughly
understood the service will doubtless
soon be in demand. There are now two
messenger boys employed by the Ex-
change and more will be secured as fast
as they are needed. The boys will be
uniformed. The charges for these SER
vices are 10 cents for an errand that does
not consume more than half an hour and
90 cents for one that will take an hour in
going and returning