The Portland daily press., 1900-12-12

The above indicates what fohbiouu
mas lost (for the time beinz) by recent
action OF its Board of Aldermen.
Inc following communication and ex-
tracts from the report OF the General
Manager OF the Havana Telephone Co.
OF New York, to the President and Board
OF Directors may be interesting reading
to the citizens OF Portland who so much
desire the Installation OF the automatic
telephone system here. as petitionsd for
BY the Dirigo relephone Company OF
Maine:
/.
Automatic Telephone Exonange.
725.727 Rookery.
Chicago, December z. 1910.
MIR. Il. A. Goudy, President New Eng
land Automatic Telephone Co., IL Ex-
change strest, Portland, Me-:
Dsar Strive herewith hand you copy
OF report of MIR. A. L. Biundell on our
automatic telephone system, on the
strength of which we have received an
ordsr for equipment TO be Installed In
Havana, Cuba,
Respectfully you're,
(Signed) }. Harris, Secretary.
Mr.. l., A. Cloudy, General Manager Di-
IiQo Ielephone Co. of Miane, IL Ex-
change street, Portland. Me.
Dear Slr--Adcing TO my letter OF yes-
terday, exceedingly regret that you ula
not yet your franchise in Portland.
re .iizs and appreciate the good work you
DID In that direction and fully under
stand the situation as you outline IT,.
In answer TO your question as to now
soon we can send you equipment Tor an
excnange of from 200 TO % or lOOO ca
pacity, would say that from the Orders
we nov have, 1t would take about W
days from date of order. might men
ton that we have taken the contract
this week for the Fall River Exchange,
and are now building the same.
Respectfully yours,
(Signe1)
The Stronger Automatic Telephone Ex-
change,
j. Harris, Secretary.
The following are extracts from the re-
port to the President and Board of Direc-
tors OF the Havana Telephone Co., of New
York by General Manager BIundeli, form
erly or the Eel Telephone Co.;
"Gentlemen-Prelimin to closing
contacts for the new Telephone Plant in
the City OF Havana, i desire to submit
the following report In regard to the
systsm to be adopted for the equipment
and operation nf the Central Office and
Instruments at Subscribers stations.
"As per your Instructions, have made
a careful and thorough Investigation OF
all the independent systems now on the
market and rather against my own FORM
er Judgment L have given special atten.
tion to the Automatic system as now
made by the Stronger Automatic Iele-
phone Exchange.
fod fnraaktOAft0n with nrtn-
ions formed OF the system as IL existed
five years ago, at which time i was de-
tailed as an empioye and representative OF
ere OF the large BELL companies to exam
inc the operation OF the system and make
an informal report.
"My recent examination commenced
with an investigation, and enquiry from
every available source, OF the results OBJ.
tanned at Augusta, Ga, where the system,
as above referred to was installed near
LIZ four years ago. This exchange has
at present little over 600 subscribers.
Wheo rrst installed there were only
about 3O0.
1.-The service given during all the time
up to the present has been OF very high
order and there is no doubt but that
from the subscribers standpoint 1t IL
much mora popular than the Bell system,
as actual and repeated tests show that
the Automatic makes five consecutive
connections and sconneotions TO the
Manuals three. No serious increase OF
cost OF maintenance is to be found, nor
is ths proportion of trouble from any
SC URGE any greater than with the stan
daIu manual system.
lin nv experience l have found that
q party calling for a connection is much
better satisfied If he is doing something
himself to take up the waiting time.
This time seems shorter ana requires q
much less exercise OF patience than when
he stands with the telephone to his ear,
helplessly waiting for the manual opera
tor to complete the connection. The actu'
al time consumed In getting the connec-
tion is much less, ana the responsibility
as to answering promptly Is confined d.
reotly to the party called, as the opera.
tion OF the switching devices leaves
scarcely a chance that a signal Will moi
be properly given without the knowledge
OF the PARTY calling.
"In local manual (BelD exchanges,
the following up by the operator OF busy
calls on purely local service Is only In,
differently taken care OF, and, without
doubt, Operators are inclined to show
more or less partiality in this direction
even when they do make an effort to
keep track OF this class OF calls.
1.-The rapidly OF the system both as tt
connecting and disconnecting is, / shoulc
estimate. at least 80 1-3 per cent greater
!
"In the Automatic the disconnectior
is made the moment the calling subscIi
Der hangs up his telephone.
''Ihe absolute secrecy of the servic,
Is maintained, and party calling for 1
number already talking cannot get II
on the circuit, but is automatically noti
fled of the ract that the liue Is already
busy. The unpleasant suspicion that al
operator or other party may possibly bs
listening Is altogether dispeiled.
1.-THE Automatic System as whole
presents many special features which AR
valuable, new aud interesting, one OF thi
principal OF which Is the ease with which
| it adapts itself to service of a semi -pri
vats or partly limited kind, For instan ce
airy certain number OF subscribers CAT
readily maze arrangements to hold 1
meeting by telephone in their own office
or homes, being assured or perfect servict
| and absolute privacy ana security from
interruption. They would OF course maxi
their own arrangements as to time o
meeting and make either permanent O.
temporary arrangement with the Tsls