The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-01-26
A TELEPHONE GIRLS VIEWS.
A Reporter Drops In Central and Picks Up
Some information.

"A Reporter Drops In Central and Picks Up
Some information.
''But l 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; fCf instance; d 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 a
chance to answer for a few seconds,
and Mr., Man rings violently and con.
tinuouslY fot whole minute. Does he
staftle tile whole room and call psrtic.
Hlaf 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 quists down. -.-.-, r.- -..a
This Is the way it worksj watch that
operator You see she has an upright
board in front of her full of numbered
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 pair of subscribers, 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 blank disk on
hinges. aud 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 coz
meets your phone with pair of Office
cords, and then says, Number please?
You give her the number and she sticks
the metal-tipped cords into the num-
bered hole you called for AMI rings up
the man you wanted by pressing but
ton. The central is out of the conver-
sation till you hang up your receiver
and ring off" This drops d red disk
over your number, and central knows
she cal cut off and have the connecting
cords ready for the next call.
But when the operator shoves the
cord tips into hole and hears a click,
click, she knows an operator at one of
the other boards has subscriber tallr'
Ing on that line, and then she says:
Cant get them now; line is busy
This is what makes great many peO-
pie mad, They think central means
she is too busy to attend to them, and
they put it down to a novel or a 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 day that his phone
was out of order The chief operator
asked him how far he was standing
from it, and 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 all been wanting to
see that man ever since.
1--WE are kept pretty busy the most OF
the time. The girls work on eight-hour
stretches, and average one thousand
calls a 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.
"We have to keep posted on all sorts
of news, and during the baseball sea-
son half of our afternoon calls are 10
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 gave
the White house the first news on tile
election returns.
''The subs ,ribers are almost without
exception very nice and courteous 70
us, and / think they would be even less
apt to be vexed or misunderstood il
they would come up to the exchange
and see how things work. Washing
ten Post