The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-08-02
new PHONE SYSTEM.
The Southern States Company is Rapidly
Pushing Work Night and Day.
CONDUIT SYSTEM NEARLY COMPLETED
a Description Of the Modern Matt,.
DDS Used by the Competitive sys.
te" which win shortly Begin op.
ernti"ns in this City-Pressaent
Fink lntcrviewcdb by The virgin.au

Norfolk will shortly have n cnnonot,-
SiFe telephone system in operation The
southern States Telephone Comnanv
"hlcl some ten months ago secured a
,.i. iiunchise TO establish in this city con-
uult system of telephones began onera
tlonS some three weeks aro and .o "a =,
ldlV has the work of construction hee,
pushed that the terms Of the fronchi.a
e,sninpeliing the company 20 begin opera
ions by August 18th. will he COM nliot,
with. BY that date. the companv ex-
nccts to have installed nearly half of
tne phoneS contracted for and IL will
,ake put few days longer to have the
complete system in operation.
Mr Charles r.. Fink is the president
and MIR. j. a. Kelvin the general man
aecf or the company. These gentlemen
have offices OH the third floor of the
City National Bank. The main operat-
lnG room VIII occupy the entire floor
above them.
a NirEintan representative Yesterday
called on President Fink. who talked
freely OF the plans of his company. Said
ne: we purpose TO give a thorough
service and to that end we are Installing
the most medern apparatus. We are
using twin-insulated copper wires. di-
rect return. No two phones will be
paced on the same return wire and
cross. talk will thus be avoided In
colnnaiahce ,,l win our franchise. which
REQUIRES us to furnish conduit capacity,
sufficient to hold all overhead wires
should the city AT any time order them
underground. we are laying at great ex-
pcnse more than twice the capacity we
ourselves require.
I'VE have laid 10 date 10000 feet OF
conduit. On Roanoke avenue there are
fourteen DUCTS and on Atlarulc street
there are eight. We have obvta,ted tine
necessity of tearing up Main street by
using plral5el tho.cushfares and alleys
'lealeIing TO Main s,.l'estt
Where possible our di'acIihuting boxes
VIII be placed on tire gisaI,s of houses, a
number of which hIve been conceded
us. This Will do away with many poles.
Where 1t is necessary TO use them, how
ever. they will he sixty feet high and
the box on top Of them will be water
tiSht, cortalin cable heads to which the
individual phone wires VIII be attached.
lightning arresters will be placed in
them, as well as on every telephone.
we have had great SUCCESS IN secur.
ing subscribers. We have 500 already.
and expect our first directory to contain
the names of at least loco.
I'VE have ordered 500 miles of galvan-
lied overhead wire. The ccr,tract for
placing the cables in the conducts has
been let no the Standard Underground
Telephone Company, of Plitsburg. This
work Will he very expensive. For the
100 twist cables cents per foot Is charg-
ed for drawing them through This
work will be begun Monday.
The wires in the cables we will use
are paper wound with metallic and rub
ber sheatharg. We Will establish con-
neotions with Portsmouth and Rerkley
by submarine cables and give d good
service TO these places.
Our equipments and switchboard
are first-class: each phone is supplied
with a double set of batteries. thus IN
surfing good, clear service. AS 1 have
said, the system, both in equipment and
operations, will be thoroughly modern"