Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-07-11
TRANSACTED BY WIRE. ST. JOHNS In RUINS|
The Telephone as an Aid to Bust
ness.
or Great Benefit In Cases Where Time 10
of First Importance-The Long
Distance stPhone" Coming
In Great Favor.

A surprising feature of long-distance
telephony is the remarkable amount of
business that can be crowded into a.
very short conversation. The fact that
the communication obtained is an actual
conversation at first hand between
the persons most directly interested in
thematter under discussion is 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 inn
mediately without the annoying delays
incident to Geographic dispatches.
Propositions can be made and comment
ed on, modified or rejected in a 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 a
journey. Numerous instances could be
given of the number of business ques-
lions that can be disposed of in a 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-
tirely distinct affairs in one minute and
half.
Two of the matters dealt with DIN,
volved large sums of money, but the
men were able to lay their heads to<
gether, flguratively speaking, so well;
although literally they were so far apart,
that it took them but few seconds in
each case to decide on what should bd
done 1t 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 CAM
not aid, and where the only alterna.
tive would be long and expensive
journey. For instance, not long ago a
New York man was notified that his
draft on house in 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 uni
dertaking a journey that would have
kept him away from his office for three
days, when friend advised him to telet
phone to the bank which held his draft
He did so Immediately. The bank in7
formed him of the state of affairs and
recommended a 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 time spent by the New York man
over the affair might have been an hour
and the total expense was for three con-
versations, one with the bank and two
with the lawyer, as against an absence
from town Of two or three days and
travelling expenses, amounting to 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 all
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 it
| for single day We're the cost twice
what it is. Bankers, brokers and law
yers form another large class of pat
rons, but it was among the manufacture
ers that the long-distance telephone
first Caught on" and they have stead
lastly availed themselves of it from the
time of it's establishment as CONNER.
cial means of communication.