Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-02-17
"CENTRAL" HAS HER Say.

"CENTRAL" HAS HER Say
She Init ates that There arr Facts of
Nhi"'' t.V-n You - e IgaoraDt
But l tell you there are some things
that some subscribers do not know; In
fact, you might say lots of things that
los Of them do not know, and if they
would come up and take a look ut tho
exchange room they would understand
things that occasionally veX them now,''
said telephone girl to aWashington
Post reporter.
Now, for instance, man comes to
the phone in Il hurry and gives a yio-
lent ring. Wen, his operator has thiI-
teen out of the fourteen pairs Of cords
on her desk in use and don have a
chance to answer for few seconds. and
Mr.. Man rings violently and continu-
ously for Il whole minute. Does he
Startle the whole room and call partic-
ular attention to his demand: Not ex-
actE. The little drop on the board
falls quietly from his number, and we
don't hear any of his ringing, and what
is more, his call can't be answered till
he quiets down.
This Is the way it works: watch that
operator. You see she has IN upright
board in front of her full of numbered
holes, one for every telephone in tho
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 con-
nection between Il pair of subscribers
g. hat fNr,
eight people in conversation on her
switchboard ut 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 4
girl is kept pretty busy attending to all
of them. Each number Is covered by a
black 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 tho
operator does not hear it. She just secs
the number, throws down q little lever
that connects your phone with Il pair
of office cords, and then says, Number,
pleaSeY
You give her the number and she
sticks the metaltipped cords into the
numbered hole you called for and rings
up the man you want by pressing but
ton. The central is out of the CONVEX
sation till you hang up your receiver
and ring Off This drops red disk
over your number and central knows
she can cut off and have the connect
ing cords ready for the next call
But when the operator Shoves tho
cord tips into hole and hears click,
click she knows an operator ut one OF
the other boards has Il subscriber talk
ing on that line, and then she says:
Can't get them now; line is busy This
is what makes Il great many people
mad. They think central means she
Is too busy to attend o them, and they
put 1T down to a novel or sweetheart
every time.
The greatest trouble a subscriber has
Is usually in getting ut the wrong range
from his phone. -Four inches is tho
right distance. We had man call in
here the other day that his phone was
out Of order. The chief operator asked
him how far he was standing from it
ana he SAID:
"'Oh, about yard
"'Come up Closer said the operator.
Why said the man, I've got my
nose right in the thing now
THE girls have been wanting to see
that man ever since.
I'VE are kept pretty busy the most of
the time The girls work on eight-hour
and average 1000 calls n
day, and there are thirty-two operators
employed altogether, some of whom are
on all night, though that work takes
fewer than during the day.
1--WE have to keep posted on all sorts
of news, and during the baseball sea-
son half of our afternoon calls are to
tell what is the score and it is the same
with the football games. We turn in
a good many of the fire alarms, and on
election night gave the White House
the first news on the election returns.
1.-The subscribers are almost without
exception vey nice and courteous to us,
and think they would be even less apt
to be veXed or misunderstood if they
would ocme up to the exchange and see
how things work"