The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1893-03-02
H TELEPHONE r
ACCORDING to Her Story She Has g
Hard Time Of It.
One or the Poor Unfortunates Unbosoms
Herself ON the Disadvantages OF
Having tn Oniclate as
Central"

hat 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 a look at the
exchange room they would understand
things that occasionally vex them now"
said a telephone girl to a Washington
Post reporter.
Now, for instance, a man ome to
the phone in a hurry and gives a 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 q
chance to answer for a few seconds, and
Mr.. Man rings violently and continu-
ously for a whole minute. Does he
startle 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 quiets down.
This is the wayi it works; 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 a pair of subscribers, so
that an operator can have twenty-eight
people in conversation on the switch
board at once.
Now, below the cords On the switch
board are numbers hat correspond to
TIA 1,ho0rihorS nm tho 0nArof0r'c licf
an average of one hundred and twenty
FIVE to each girl, &c a 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 the operator does
not hear it. She just sees the number,
throws down alittle lever that connects
your phone with a pair of Office cords,
and then says: Number, p~lease?'
You give her the number and she
sticks the metal-tipped cords into the
numbered hole you called for and rings
up the man you want by pressing q
button. The central is out of the cor
versation till you hang up your receiver
and ring off, This drops a red 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 shoves the
cord tips into a 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 a 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 a subscriber
has is usually in getting at the wrong
range from his phone. -Four inches is
the right distance. We had a 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 a yard
"'Come up closer said the operator.
why said the man, I've got my
nose right in the thing now
1.-THE girls have all been wanting to
see that man ever since.
"We are kept pretty busy the most of
the time. The girls work on eight
hour stretches and average one thou
sand calls a day, and there are thirty
two operators employed altogether,
some Of whom are on all night, though
hat work takes fewer than during the
day.
1--WE have to keep posted on all sorts
of news, and during the baseball season
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.
THE subscribers are almost without
exception very nice and courteous to us,
end l think they would be even less apt
to be vexed or misunderstood If they
would come up to the exchange and see
low thin gs work"