The herald., 1894-04-09
a oITY,s eUsINess PULSE.
How It's Rise and Fail Arc Recorded IN ths
Telephone Exchaxges.


How It's Rise and Rall Arc Recorded IN the
Telephone ExchaEges.
Where is the pulse of tho city's busi-
ness to DO felt and watchedS On the
streets, in tho Stock Exchange. the
board of trade, the hotels, the street cars
or on the docks? Not at all. Where
then7 Why, III the telephone exchanges.
There you will see tho pulse of city
life hcating moro or less fovorishly all
through the "a hours of the day.
II You are interested in the subject
and get the right side Of tho general
manager, lie will show you the line Of
Hfo" OF the city for single day laid
out on beautiful chart. 1t looks like
Tho profile of a mountain range cut clean
through the middle. Tho limo shows
tho number Of telephone communica-
tions for each hour of tho "a in the
same manner that the daily variations
OF thermometer and barometer are
shown in the newspapers.
During the early morning hours 1t is
gently undulating slope, almost ia,
bleland. At about q. m. IL begins to
ascend, at tho ascent grows sharper
and by the slope is steep, at 0 it is
precipitous, and between l. and 12 it
reaches the summit of lofty peak.
The general manager tells you what
the line means. In the middle of the
night and during the wee sma' hours
there is littlo telephone talking. Still
every hour there is always some. The
newspapers, belated clubmen and other
night owls provide it. Then, as the day
breaks, the market opens fire, and the
traffic creeps upward. A little later the
early birds of business begin to pipe
up, and the traffic steadily grows. Then
the rush down town begins in earnest,
in short time every business Office is
in full swing, the pulse of the city beats
at fever heat, and Il thousand telephone
bells are tinkling every minute.
The line jumps up the slope by leaps
and bounds, the operators rush in and
pull out plugs, turn down levers and
press buttons as if their very life depend
ed on doing 10 separate things in FIVE
seconds, and each one could find work for
three pairs of hands and an equal num-
Der of mouths and ears.
Then, at about nctln, the top notch of
high pressure is reached, and the line
drops down the other side of the peak.
Men 20 out to luncheon, and for cou-
pie of hours there is a valley in the
mountain range.
Everybody does not go out together,
though, and even between 10 and 2
there is not very deep valley. Calls
still rain in from all quarters, but there
is not the tremendous demand on the
telephone that there was an hour or two
ago.
BY o'clock the line begins to soar
upward again, as if trying to outdo its
performance of the forenoon. People
are back in their Offices, and the pulse
another peak beglnns }C for, sSh sd Tie
summit is reached some time between 3
and 4.
Sometimes it overtops the morning
peak, sometimes it is not quite so high,
but it always makes another rush
hour" for the operators. BY O'Clock
people begin to go home, the line is on
its downward course again, and this
time it drops down like the slope of a
chuich steeple.
Between 8 and G the telephone conf
munications have subsided from several
thousands per hour to few hundred.
and the descent is still rapid. The great
er part of the operators are relieved
from duty, and in the course of an hour
or two the great switchboard, from be-
ing nervous. palpitating thing of life,
necessarily receiving signals and max
ing signs, lazily winks one of its many
eyes every few minutes for the rest OF
the evening and night.
1t never sleeps entirely. In the dead
est hour OF the night, week day and
Sunday, high day and holiday, some-
body has occasion to use the telephone,
and the pulse of the switchboard, the
heart of the city's life, responds at all
times to tho touch of communicative
public. Boston Globe.
nau0ow~ of fI,a Toorsa Cob.