The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-02-26
THE TELEPHONE GIRL.
According to Her Story Sho Has a
Hard limo of 1t.
One Of the Poor Untortmnates Unbnsoms
Herself or The Disadvantages OF
Having; to OGiciatc as
Central"

but tell YOU there are some things
that some Subscribers don't know; in
fact you might say lots of things that
lots of them do not know, and if they
would come up and take Il look ut the
exchange room they would under stand
things that occasionally vcX them now"
said telephone girl to Il Washington
Post reporter.
Now, for instance. Il man comes to
the phone in Il hurry and gives Il 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 Il
chance 10 answer for few seconds. and
Mr.. Man rings violently and continu-
ously for a whole minute. Does he
startlc the whole room and call particu-
lar attention to his demand? Not ex-
actly. 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 quicts DOM.
This is the way it works; watch that
operator. You sec she has an upright
board i'll front of her full of numbered
holes, one for every telephone in the
service, and on the ledge below the
holes arc fourteen pairs of cords with
metal ends like shoe laccs, and each
pair of cords serves to make the conncc-
ton between pair of subscribers, so
that an operator can have twcnty-cight
people in conversation on the 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 ono hundred and twenty
five to each girl, SO Il girl is kept pretty
busy attending to all of them Each
number is covered by 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 the operator does
not hear it. She just sees the number,
throws down little lever that connects
your phone with Il pair of Office cords,
and then says: Number, please?'
You give her the number and she
sticks the mctal-tipped cords into the
numbered hole you called for and rings
up the man You want by pressing a
button. The central is out of the con-
versation till YOU hang up your receiver
and ring Off This drops Il rcd disk
over your number, and central knows
She can cut off and have the connecting
cords ready for the next call.
But when the operator shovcs the
cord tips into hole and hears a click.
click, she knows an operator at one of
the other boards has a subscriber talk
ing on that line, and then she SAYS:
Cant get them now; line is busy.
This is what makes q great many pco-
pie mad. They think central means
She is too busy to attend TO them and
they put it down to novel or Il sweet
heart every time
"'Thc greatest trouble n 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 day that his phone
was ont Of order. The chief operator
asked him how far he was standing
from it, and he said:
oh! about yard
Come mp closer said the operator.
"'Why,' said the man, I've got nv
lose right in the thing now
The girls have all been wanting to
sec that man ever since.
eve are kept pretty busy the most of
the time. The girls work on eight
hour stretches and average one thou
sand calls q 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.
I'VE have to keep posted on all sorts
of news. and during the baseball season
hall of our afternoon calls are to tell
what is the score, and it is the same
with the football games. We turn in Il
good many of the fire alarms, and on
election night gave the white house the
lirst news on the election returns.
The subscribers are almost without
exception very nice and courteous to MS.
and think they would be even less apt
to be vcHcd or misunderstood if they
would come up 70 the exchange and see
low things work"