The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-03-28
A clTY's BUSINESS PULSE.
How It's Rise ana Fall a re Recorded In the
Telephone Exchanges.

Where is tho pulse of the city's bust
hess to DO felt and watched? On tho
streets, in the Stock Exchange, tho
board Of trade. the hotels the street cars
or on tho docks? Not at all. Where
thenP Why, i'll the telephone exchanges.
There you will SEQ the pulse of city
life beating more or less feverishly all
through tho "a hours of the day.
II you are interested in the subject
and get tho right side of the general
manager, no will show you tho "line of
life" of tho city for single day laid
out OH beautiful chart. 1t looks like
the profile of a mountain range cut clean
through the middle. The limo shows
the number of telephone communica-
tions for each hour of the 24 i'll the
Same manner that the daily variations
of thermometer and barometer arc
shown i'll the newspapers.
During the early morning hours it is
a gently undulating slope almost u ia,
bleland. At about 6 IL. III. it begins to
ascend, ut the ascent grows sharper
and by the slope is steep, at 8 it is
precipitous, and between II and IL it
reaches the summit of Il lofty peak.
The general manager tells you what
the line means. In tho middle of the
night and during the wee sma' hours
there is little telephone talking. Still
every hour there is always some The
newspapers, belated clubmen and ether
night owls provide it. Then, as the day
breaks, the market opens fire, and the
traffic creeps upward. a little later the
nj In I,
up, and the traffic steadily grows. Then
the rush down town begins in earnest,
III short time every business office is
i'll full swing, the pulse of tho city beats
ut fever heat. and thousand telephone
bells arc tinkling every minute.
Tho 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
eel on doing Is 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, ut about noon, the top notch of
high pressure is reached, and the line
drops down the other side of the peak.
Men go out to luncheon, and for cou-
pie of hours there is Il valley in the
mountain range.
Everybody does not go out together.
though, and even between IL and 3
there is not very deep valley. Calls
still rain i'll from all quarters hut there
is not the tremendous demand on the
telephone that there was in hour or two
ago.
BY Q O'Clock the line begins to soar
upward again, as if trying to outdo lis
performance of tho forenoon. People
are back i'll their Offices, and the pulse
of the city again approaches fever heat,
another peak begins to form, and the
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 II
church stoeple.
Between and G the telephone COM
munications have subsidized from several
thousands per hour to few hundred,
ana tho descent Is still rapid. The great
er part of the operators are relieved
from duty, and in the course of an hour
OF two the great switchboard. from he
ing Il nervous. palpitatinS thing of Lille,
necessarily receiving signals and max
ing signs, lazily winks one OF its many
eyes every few minutes for the rest of
tho 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 citys life, responds at all
times to the touch of IL communicative
pnblic.-Boston Globe.