The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-01-19

cations for clients. He hal NOT found
q man named Lyons In Prinoston. Mr..
Hale then read q deposition signed by
Mr.. Lyons saying he did net like the
automatic service and that IL was often
out Of repair and gave lots OF trouble.
Mr.. Mahan OF New London. another
winners, who was called at this time,
said that at New London on Wednesday
a man nameiLyons had appeared at New
London to testify against the automatic
system and that he said he didn't Ike
IL and that 10 didn't work we'll. Prof.
William Libby OF Prinottoa, N. j., was
present at this hearing, and on oath
testified that Lyons telephone had been
taken out because he did not pay for It
and that the management had had
trouble with him.
| Mr.. Mshsn then went on to tell what
he had learned about independent tele-
phone companies In the west. He said
that invariably tho independent com
panies had the most Subscribers and had
forced the prices down to one half what
they had boon before.
Mr.. Mshan went on to give very CON-
plete account of the independent compa-
MES In Michigan. of which there are 65.
Mr.. Aahan spoke Of the knowledge he
had ottained in various parts Of the
country In regard to the telephones, and
he said that he considered the automatic
system the telephone of the future. Col.
Bingham Of the U. s. army had told
him that the days of the Bell telephone
Is numbered.
He said that the Bell telephone oompa-
ny was putting telephones In New Lon
don at the rate of 81 ayear. He said
that bill was reported in the Connecti-
out Legislature last year prohibiting any
company to do business In the state I'M
less IL was In actual operation. With
in IS hours the city Of New London had
9 new telephone exchange though II
didn't have many subscribers, and IL
now he's Q charter and right to do bust
ness.
Mr.. Mahan was now turned over for
cross examination hy Mr.. Hale. The wit
| ness said that some Of the deposit lions
against the automatic telephone which
were made public at New London were
made by men who's, word was not worth
two cents in the cities where they lived.
Mr.. NJ. L. Bird of the Eastern Tsle-
phone company OF Rookland, said that
at RooklAnd the Bell Telephone compa-
ny had ont Its rats good deal to meet
the rates Of the new company.
Mr.. Marian was asked by the Mayor to
| tell how 1t came ABOUT that the indepen-
dent company Of Connecticut had been
obliged to 60 to The courts TO get the
right TO do business He then went on
10 tell how n prohIbitive bill had been In
| troduced In the Connecticut legislature,
which had, after considerable agitation
passed q com promise bill which
made 1t necessary for the new companies
TO 20 to the superior court to prove that
public convenience and necessity re-
quired a new company. The New Lon
don company has a case now rending
In the Superior court In this matter.
Councilman Cobb OF Portland told
| about his visit to Geneva and In brief
his statement was that the automatic
telephones worked well and that the peo-
pie were pleased with them. He also
visited Auburn and found 1t just the
same. The prices of telephones were one
half OF the old Bell oompany's rates in
both places.
This testimony ended the petitioners
| evidence.
The remonstrants called l. Henry
| Fsrnham, an electric al engineer of 20
years. experience, who said he had ex-
amined the automatic device first at the
worlds fair and then four years ago.
The automhti, telephone was offered the
Bell company and Mr. Farnham ex-
amined 1t In the Interests of the compa-
nv. Mr.. Farnham examined 1t IN Au-
gusta, Ca, in Princston. N. j., and 9th.
er places. He said In brief that he be-
lieved it an ingenious devine which
| would cost gr,at deal to operate and
would not prove good investment as
a practicable system. In Augusta, Ca,
he made 100 tssts for his company. He
found that requir ID an average of nine
seconds to connect two lines. In the
Bell system 1t takes an average Of i've
seconds and that the average time in
New England 10 four seconds. At this
statement some OF the spectators laughed
and MIR. Farnham repeated that this was
fact and he could demonstrate IL to
any ones satisfaction.
Mr. Farnham went on TO show how
the automatic system could fail through
the uncertainty OF electrical currents.
In Augusta he bad got half Of the peo
Pile whom he called and often times he
got the wrong person. he said that an
other Gauss OF the failure Of the telephone
to act was the uncertainty OF the arma-
lures to act. In fact the machine was
delicate in the extreme. He said that he
was confident that to maintain the
automatic system would cost good
deal of money.
In relation to the seorscy claimed for
the automatic system Mr.. Farnham said
that the telephone girls were too busy
to listen while the single operator In
the automatic exchange had nothing else
to do but listen and therefore the secret