The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-12-23
A TELEPHONE GIRLS VIEWS.
A Reporter Drops in Central and Picks Up
Some Information.

a nepOECer drops teOFTai ana ffCkb Up
Some Information.
"But | tell you there are some things
that some subscribers do not know; in
fact, you may say lots Of things that
lots of them do not know, and if they
would come up and look at the ex-
change room they would understand
things that occasionally vex them now.
Now, for instance, man comes to
the phone in a hurry and gives vio-
lent ring. Well, his operator has thir-
teen out of the fourteen pairs of cords
on her desk in use and don't have
chance TO answer for few seconds,
and Mr.. Man rings violently and con-
tinuously for whole minute. Does ne
startle the whole room and call partic-
uIar attention to his demand? Not ex-
actly. The little drop on the board
falls quietly from bis number and we
don't hear any of his ringing, and what
he Quiets down
This is the way il works; watch that
operator. You see she has an upright
board in front of her full of mbered
holes, one for every telephone in the
service, and on the ledge below the
holes are fourteen pairs of cords with
metal ends like shoe laces, and each
pair OF cords serves TO make the connec-
ton between a pair of subscri bers, so
that an operator can have twenty-eight
people in conversation on her switch
board at once.
Now, below the cords on the switch
board are numbers that correspond to
the subscribers on the operators list,
an average of 125 to each girl, SO girl
Is kept busy attending TO them Each
number is covered by a blank disk on
hinges, and the slightest touch on the
bell on your phone makes the disk over
your number fall down But no matter
how hard you ring the operator does
not hear it. She just sees the number,
throws down a little lever that con-
meets your phone with pair Of Office
cords and then saws, Number please?
You give her the number and she sticks
the metal-tipped cords into the num-
bered hole you called for and rings up
the man you wanted by pressing but
ton The central IS out of the CONVEX
sation till you hang ND your receiver
and ring off" This drops red disk
over your number. and central knows
she can cut of and have the connecting
cords ready for the next call
But when the operator shoves the
cord tins into a hole and hears a click.
click, she knows an operator at one of
the other boards mas subscriber talk
ing on that line, and then she says:
Cant get them now; line is busy
This is what makes a great many PEG
pie mad. They think central means
she Is too busy to attend To them, and
they put it down to a novel or sweet
heart every time.
The greatest trouble the subscriber
has IS usually in getting at the wrong
range from his phone. Four inches IS
the right distance We had man call
IN here the other dav that his phone
was out Of order Tne chief operator
asked him how far ne was standing
from 1t, and he said:
% Oh, about yard
Come up closer. said the operator.
why said the man. I've got nv
nose right IN the thing NOW.
The girls have ali been wanting -
see that man ever since
We are KEEP; pretty btlsy The meat OF
the time. The -irls Isovi. on eiEAt-hSvr
stretches. ana average one thousand
calls = day, and there are thirty-tSo
operators employed altogether. some Of
whom are on ali night. though taat
work taxes fewer than during the day.