The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-08-22
The Telephone Exchange Will
Have a Park Station.
Mr.. CASSIDY'S TRIP TO STATES
VIII Investigate and Bring Material
Service to be ImprOved-In the
South-Undergrou

Waikiki is to have a telephone sta
ton. 1t will be a branch of the town
exchange and will be located in the
neighborhood of the terminus of the
Tram line, near Kapiolani park. This
is one of the matters that takes Mutual
superintendent Cassidy to the United
States. Mr. Cassidy leaves next month
and will be gone eight weeks. Besides
buying for the new station he will in
vestigate extensively for the benefit of
the whole town service. Waikiki now
has for each subscriber one grounded
line. Under the new system there will
lie circuit This will be vast better
ment for the Waikiki Honolulu ser
vice and will effect a considerable saw
ing to the company, giving more num-
bers on the present town switchboard
1t is believed that ten trunk lines
will be ample for Waikiki, if not, more
will be placed. At present there are
about sixty and there have never at
one time been more than eight con-
nections, and frequently some of these
connections are Waikiki people talk
ing to each other. With the new sta
tion the service will be just as quick
and, of course, a great deal more sat
isfactory than at present. This i'm
prOvement is but a few months off.
From San Francisco Mr. Cassidy goes
by the most direct route to New Or
leans and there begins an inspection
of the lines of the southern cities, in
nearly all of which the system so long
and SO satisfactorily used here is fix
ture. The systems of Atlanta, Bir-
mingham and other places in that sec
tiOn have had to meet and overcome
the difficulties which have impaired the
service here and Mr Cassidy can see
just how this has been done. The sup
erintendent after finishing in the South
will go to New York City, Pittsburg,
Philadelphia and finally Chicago In
the States few years ago there was
but one concern selling telephone ap-
planes. Now there are twenty-one
houses in various centers, all carrying
complete stocks and many having for
eign agencies. Many of the exclusive
and royalty" patents have expired
quite recently and others are running
out. Mr. Cassidy will look into the
underground systems that are in use
to a limited extent.
Mr.. Cassidy, who was formerly with |
the telephone company for number
Of years, took charge again on the 1st |
of last February and on the 18th of the |
same month the office was gutted by |
fire. The fire was all on the inside and !
the operating room was wrecked and |
burned. Nothing escaped less than bad |
and the big switchboard was |
ruined entirely. A new switchboard |
that has been in use ever since and |
that is good for a long time yet was
designed by Mr.. Cassidy on the spot |
and was built right here, men work |
ing night and day until it was finished. |
Since that time not one dollars worth |
of material, excepting what was on |
hand or could be had here, has been |
used in repairing or maintaining the |
plant at the central office The rebuilt |
place has been the wonder of all teIe- |
phone and electrical men who have |
seen it. In three months the company |
nearly all of it was in labor. This in
cluded rebuilding most of the lines on
the Eva side of Alakea street and over
the Pail. Many outlying residence dis
tricts not heretofore touched have been
reached by the system lately. There
is a new line on LiIiha street, to the
Insane Asylum, beyond Kamehameha
school and through the rice fields be-
yOnd Liliha street. There has been
done much emergency work in various
quarters of the town
1t is the purpose of the company in
sending Mr.. Cassidy to the States to
bring the system here right up to date,
though all visitors declare the town
has one of the best services in the
whole world. The company is looking
ahead TO the possible use of electric
ity for power in street car lines and
viii make provision against interfer-
ence or damage to the telephone.
There is a probability, rather it is 'in
the air" at this time, that the Mutual
company will leave its present central
exchange at the corner of Merchant
and Alakea streets and get into the top
story of some tall building up town.