The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1899-02-23
TELEPHONES IN LONDON.
Their Official Use In That Great Capital Is Very
llmlisd-No instruments In Police Department

Several rather sensational articles
have lately appeared In England con-
demning the manner In which the city
of London IL lighted. and claiming
moreover, that II is the darkest capital
I'm Europe. Whether this Is so or not.
we leave our technical contemporaries
on the other side TO decide, says Elec-
tricity, as several of them were appar-
emily eager 10 pick up the gauntlet
thrown down. What. however, is more
surprising to us. and no doubt will be
10 our readers. is that the police de-
partment OF London does not make use
of the telephones. According To one of
our English contemporaries there Is not
"A police station In the whole OF that
great metropolis equipped with an in
strument that has become almost as
common and as necessary In the United
States as the electric light.
The absence OF the phone Is one OF
the most II not the most important
branches OF the city's cervice IL due, so
IL is alleged. not TO any fault OF the
local telephone company, but rather 70
an unsusal conservatism exhibited Dy
the authorities, who have repeatedly
declined TO avail themselves OF the
privilege. In this respect the authori-
ties OF London are apparently show
ing the same spirit which prompted
many of the banking houses To decline
10 have telephone installed on their
premises on the ground that 1T was
not quite respectable.
How the police department in city,
such as London, can get along without
sope speedy method of communication,
such as only the telephone can supply,
is incomprehensible To the ordinary
mortal on this side of the Atlantic. In
New York city In the event OF "a child
becoming lost or person disappearing
every police station I'm the department
is notified To that effect by telephone in
less than half an hour from the time
the news IL received We should Ike
To know how this sending out of "a gen
eral alarm and description IL accom-
plished i'm London. Possibly a dozen
messages are dispatched to make the
rounds of all the stations, or the tele-
graph is made use of.
AS "A contrast to the methods adopt
ed i'm London, IL may come az sur
prise to some of our English readers to
learn that during the civil and military
parades i'm New York city booths are
erected along the route the procession
will follow To enable the chief OF po-
lice at headquarters to- be constantly
kept informed as 10 the Whereabouts OF
the parade, or told OF any unusual dis
turbance. Trhe fire department OF Lon
don, i'm contrast To the police depart
ment. has telephones in all the fire
houses. but the arrangement Is such
that when n fire call is sent by tele-
phone ii is obliged 10 pass through sew
eral exchanges, entailing considerable
loss of valuable time. This objection
able feature could be overcome by an
expediture of $50 "A year for each sta
tion. but small as the cost would be
il is apparently considered by the au-
thorities willful extravaganza, and
matters are left as they are. In New
York arrangements have recently been
completed for attaching telephones TO
every lamp post having the ordinary
signal box, so that communication may
be established between the location OF
the fire and headquarters.