The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-07-13
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Tho Telephone as an Aid to Bust
ness.
OF Great Benefit In Cases Where Time Is
of First Importance-The Long
Distance .sPhoce" Coming
in Great Favor.
A surprising feature of lone-distance

telephony is the remarkable amount Of |
business that can be Gro ID into q |
very short conversation T.. fact that
the communication obtained san actual
conversation at first har ! between
the persons most directly i,,-erested IN
thenatter under discussion : what, &C
cording to the Electrical Engineer, rem
ders the telephone SO far superior To
the telegraph for very many purposes
Question and answer are exchanged i'm
mediately without the annoying delays
incident to telegraphic dispatches
Propositions can be made and comment
ed on, modified or rejected in manner
quite impossible by telegraph; in fact,
all the advantages OF personal inter
view are obtained without the expendi-
ture OF time and trouble involved in
Journey. Numerous insta- - could be
given of the number OF business quss
tons that can be disposed of in single
talk over the wires within the mini
mum time OF five minutes Probably
the best on record is that where two
business men, one in New York and one
in Boston, discussed and settled four en-
q half
Two of the matters dealt with Gin
volved large sums of money, but the
men were able to lay their heads to-
gether fguratively speaking, so well,
although literally they were so far apart,
I that it took them but few seconds in
each case to decide on what should be
/ done. It can readily be imagined
how many kilograms would have been
required to do the same amount OF
business, leaving entirely aside the
/ question of time, which is so often
of the first Importance. Every day
| cases occur where the long-dis-
lance telephone enables business to
/ be done that the telegraph can
/ not aid, and where the only alterna-
/ tive would be a long and expensive
! Journey. For instance, not long ago a
! New York man was notified that his
draft on a house in n town far up in the
/ interior of the state had been allowed
/ to go to protest, and in order to protect
his interests he was on the point of I'M
dertaking a journey that would have
I kept him away from his Office for three
days, when a friend advised him 10 tele-
phone to the bank which held his draft.
He did so Immediately. The bank In
formed him of the state of affairs and
recommended lawyer in the town TO
take the job in hand. He had an inter
view by telephone with the lawyer and
gave him instructions to proceed, and
the same afternoon the lawyer reported
that he had got out an attachment and
that the draft would be fully covered.
The tine spent by the New York man
over the affair might have been an hour
and the total expense was for three con-
versations, one wit h the bank and two
with the lawyer, as against an absence
from town of two or three days and
travelling expenses, amounting 20 forty
or fifty dollars. The actual saving OF
time and money is by no means the only
recommendation in favor of long-dis-
lance telephone communication.
Often it renders possible the transac-
ton of business which could be done IN
no other way, and many time five
minutes conversation pays for itself a
thousa ndfold. To manufacturers hav-
ing their head offices in New York
branches in other cities and towns and
factories somewhere IN the country, the
service has become practically indis'
pensable; the periodical daily talks be-
tween the chief of the firm and manager
of the factory or branch office place al
their affairs so thoroughly in touch
with each other that no manufacturing
concern who has once adopted the serv
ice to its needs would be without il
for single day were the cost twice
what it is. Bankers, brokers and law
yers form another large class Of pat
rons, but il was among the manufactur'
ers that the long-distance telephone
first caught on" and they have stead
tasty availed themselves of it from the
time of its establishment as a CONNER
cial means of communication