The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-25
TELEPHONE
TROUBLE
Why One Has to Hello
So Often.
THE MANAGER EXPLAINS
Lack, of Linemen Prevents Quick
Completion of Nsw System
and Confusion Results.

When will the new telephone system |
be in complete working order?"
Manager Cassidy of the Telephone
company smiled a sad, sad smile and
shrugged his shoulders expressiveIy.
1T is merely a matter of labor" he
went on. I'VE shall. finish it as soon as
possible. but how soon depends an
tirely on whether or no we get our line
men here within a reasonable time.
You see it is entirely different here
from anywhere else in the United
States. On the Coast we could get in
twenty-four hours all the men We want
to do our wiring and we should have
had the new system installed months
ago, but here it is different. We have
to send to the States for the men we
want. We sent to California some time
ago for number of linemen and all we
got was an answer a month or 50 later
I that they could not find any for us and
we had to send all the way TO Chicago,
and from there we hope to receive word
in a short time that the men are on
their way 10 Honolulu.
1T is the rewriting that is taking so
much time and is the principal cause
of delay Under the old system one
wire safficed for a large number of in
struments but under the new system
we must have two wires. AS a result
we have had to send out a number of
cables For example we have a cable
to the Capitol building and one to the
, Judd building. and one which distrib-
utes on Fort street and so on. All this
, necessitates a lot of work, and mostly
work of rewriting. 1t takes but a few
moments to put in new instrument,
: but when you recollect the great
. amount OF new wiring that must be
} done in connection with installing IL
2 you will see that there is some reason
for our delay. The old wiring from the
. poles to the houses was very defective
= For the style of telephone the insula-
, ton did not matter greatly, nor if one
wire crossed another, but now with tht
f, new system we have TO take the ut
] most care of all these little details, Sc
as a result most of the wiring has t
be done all over again.
I'VE have about completed installn:
the new telephones in the outlying dis
tricts, Waikiki, Punahou, Makiki, Nuu
anu valley and Kalihi and we are nov
working on the down town districts
There are an immense number of IN
struments in the business and ofiic
district and we are only succeeding il
replacing the old with the new Yer
gradually for we have but small fore
Of men and we are working them fror
morning until night as hard as the
can work.
Zone of the causes of the poor con
nections that we give occasionally lie
in the fact that half of the town
filled with new phones and the othe
half with the old ones. AS a result W
have to send them through the tw
boards in the central office. A ca
comes from one of the old phones, Il
example, which is connected with tt
old switch board and the subscribe
y wants to be connected with one of tt
10 new phones. The operator at the o.
w switch board has to connect the sui
scriber first with the new switch boar
and from there he gets the number
wants. That takes time and as the
are two connections to be made it
not surprising that sometimes it is d
- fective. However in a short time all
nj that will be over for we shall soon ha'
II all of the old instruments out and ne
nj ones in and then we shall give all
w. our subscribers the very best servi
possible, as good as they will get an
where in the United States.
For the present we shall not p
the new system in operation all over t
island. We have had to put in copp
wiring all over the windward side
the island, for the usual wires did n
ri, last more than two years under the
wv fluence of the salty breezes that biz
Ier, so constantly over there. SO when
ad- get the good telephones in here we sh
OF be able to give as good out-of-toN
ep- service as you could ask.
VS., But don't ask me how soon we q
iea' going to finish this work of changi
VIC, the system Mr.. Cassidy said as t
Advertiser man rose to leave. 'N
are working al it as fast as possib
and no one in the city will be happ
than 1 when it is all done and we {
working smoothly on the new syste
L realize the drawbacks of the prese
method of doing business, and 1
trying to get things in shape as f;
s possible. AS / said before it is
tirely matter of labor. If we had I
linemen here to do the work we shot
nd finish it all up in no time but as
has have only a small force we have
work slowly and I cannot tell when
shall be through