The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-03-09

there any news of the steamer pr
"Whats the matter with this tele-
phone, CencraI?U "Ring up number
- hard;" eff this telephone isn't
fixed today, Central, you can take it
out; seeI' "Where's the Likelike?"
The above questions are few of the
innumerable ones asked the poor,
long suffering operator at the central
office of one of our telephone systems.
He is kept busy nearly all the time
making connections, and when he has
to stop to answer "fool questions" it
is certainly an exasperating thing
Whether or not the company makes a
point of employing men who have no
temper is not known, bat if any of The
"Centrals'' have feelings of battle,
murder and sudden death toward the
people who ask questions, they are
certainly not to blame.
The telephone systems of Honolulu
have been written up so often that
nearly everyone understands or thinks
he does, just how it works. An AID
vERTIsER man spent some time in the
central Office of one of the local COM
panies a few days ago, and learned
more about telephones in half an hour
than he ever knew before-which
wasn't much.
1t looks like n very simple matter to
make n connection. Central, when
you pull down your lever and ask for
for n number, answers you, and then
simply pulls a plug out of one hole
and sticks it into another. That's all.
There is nothing at all complicated
when you know nothing about it.
But when it is remembered that Cen
trail has about 300 of these plugs to
watch and over 700 of the holes, and
that if he makes a wrong connection
he calls the loudly -expressed wrath
of the subscriber down on his head,
the entire simplicity or the matter
fades away.
The operators wear q receiver that
is fastened to the head by a steel band.
This brings the receiver close to his
head and holds it there. The ADvER-
TIsER man wore one of these receivers
for some time, and listened to the peo-
pie ask their questions.
1t is astonishing how many people
there are who will not take the trouble
to look on the card for the number
they want. They will only give their
own number and the name of the party
wanted. So Central has to know the
number of every subscriber on the
lines. If he should tell a subscriber
that he didn't know the number of
the name called for, that subscriber
would probably say, or at least think,
that Central didn't know his business.
The most commonly asked question
is, "What time IL it?' People in Ho-
noIulu seem to have u deep-seated
repugnance to looking at the clock. 1t
is so much easier to pull down the
lever and ask Central than it is to 60
into another room and consult the
time piece. A short time ago GER
tain family here got into the habit of
asking the time so often during the
day, that one of the operators began
to count. He counted thirty-One
times that the different members of
that one family consulted the oracle
in one day. On further investigation
it was found that the house had an
average of one clock for every room.
About $500 connections are made in
a day at the office visited. This is an
average of almost five connections for
each telephone in use. AS the great
majority of these connections are
made during few hours of the day,
Central has to be OH the jump during
those busy hours.
Each telephone has its own wire
direct to the office. Consequently,
there is considerable expense attach
ed to the work of putting in new in
strument. Ii n number OF telephones
could use the same wire, 1t would be
n bonanza for the companies, but
they cannot.
There is an idea in the minds of
most people that Central hears every
thing that passes over the wires. This
is not 80, although he can do so if he
wishes, but he has to use what he
calls the Listening plug" TO do 1T. 1t
is a very fortunate circumstance for
him that he cannot hear it all, or his
chances of going to the insane asy-
Ium would be even greater than they
are now. A number of people have
a habit of pulling down the lever and
listening to the conversation of others
until Central tells them to- let go.
In case of fire, Central has some
very important duties TO perform.
The alarms come into the telephone
offices first, and Central has the duty
of sounding the gong In the engine
houses and letting the men anu horses
know that they are wanted Ior uuty.
Tbera are n number of subscribers
who want to be notified whenever
fire occurs and u special key board mas
neen made for their benefit, when,
when a spring is touched, notlnes
them all at the same time, and saves
much needed time for the operator.
The greate~t enemy the telephones
have il the electric light wires. Ihey
NAV more havoc with the telephone
wires than all the other causes COM
bined. 1t is these that make that DIS
agreeable buzzing noise III your ears
sometimes when you are trying 10
hear some one talk. If the electric
Ii0ht and telephone wires run parallel
tn7 :, nile or so. even though they are |
sixty feet apart, the latter wire Is |
affected by induction. Storms, IKE |
the one We have had lately, are also |
hard on the telephone systems, In the
nav of breaking down wires ana
burning out instruments. One OF the
local companies has recently imported