The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-30
IfROvEMENTS
6NE COMPANY IS PER- EcTrN0 ITS SERVICE.
Z !. Miller, Local Manager, Talks of Work Now Under Way by
 the Southern Bell Tele-
 phone Company.

The Southern Bell Telephone and Tele- Eraph Company is making extensive ira- nrovements in Montgomery;; onder, d hnndsome new Exchange building IS near ing completion.
 The Southern Bell Telephone Company. with its usual enterprise. desires it's ser vice and building to be commensurate with the city in which 1t operates. hence the Improvements in Montgomery are be- Ing done on an elaborate scale.
 Mr. A. !. Miller, the general manager of the Telephone Company. when seen by an Advertiser representative and asked about the general Improvements of the company, he said:
 The general public have very super ficiai Idea of the magnitude of the under taking of the Southern Bell Telephone Company in inausuratins an underground system of wires In this city. It Is stu pendous enterprise, involving an amount of skilled labor and outlay not easily computed at the outset. Yet this task, 90 far as 1t has gone, now more than with a facility and smoothness that is certainly creditable to the foremen and employees who have had charge or same What was. at first: regarded as 2 menace ce commerce, has never materialized and an immense work has been done. without any perceptible disturbance of business along. the various busy thorousnfares or
 ssThe underground work was first started last March, but encountered heavy and continuous rains. as we'll as cold and unpropitious weather. which greatly clogged and retarded progress as well as threatening to interfere. to some extent. with commerce. It was. there the city authorities that the undertaking should be postponed until the following May. Since the resumption of under ground work in May it has been prose 4~1 xvfsn r~lkI (Aru rxNfn Ia lays by the repaving, which was being done by the city authorities.
 The preliminary Nork was that or alaying the cend9its tnroSsnSnt S ths the ,ar an- iitory from the river to Adams Street and from Moulton to Lawrence Streets. Tn this compact business district has ducts. through which the cables are drawn. with their load of wires to be con nected st the Exchange. These condnits' being creosoted, are go prepared as g. to t. m citizen of Montgomery, now living will witness the complete deterioration of the present underground cOnduita.
 which may have been noticed in different parts of the city, are the covering or in- numerable copper wfres. that are to be drawn into the cenduits. connected with the Central Exchange and distributed throughout the city. It may seem sur priging to the uninitiated that some of these powerful cahtes encase Soo wires. and that each individual wire is carefully wrapped in oil paper, as a protection against moisture that might penetrate the cable. In fact. the Southern Bell Tele- phone Company will. for the first time m the South, lay these greatest cables m Montgomery. as their virtues and utiiity have been thoroughly demonstrated else where.
 which are deployed over the under ground district, with their galvan- ised caps and rim of insulators, are the distributing poles for the various To- Vanized hood covers, the terminals and lightning arresters, while the circular steel rim receives the Various wires. sent of to the various telephone stations, These wires. oh leaving thu pole. are provided with the best rubber insulation and would work ae readily under water as upon land. By terminals is meant the Junction of the underground and aerial wires, for . particular district. each pole carrying for distribution the requisite roIe n,Ess at lp' ths % corner % ef Blob and Com rnerce carries sixty pair or wires or enough to supply metallic circuits for sTty .Ss mstera necessary for this work, has required from go to s5 cars, some of which would reach SO tons in weight Within the past two days. one large car has been received, lcaded exclusively with telephone beIs, while 1t required f2 cars to transport the creosoted conduits and cross arms. Most of this material has come from the East and west. neeessitating long hauls and unusual freight charges. About 70 men have been regularly employed in prose- cutting tbe underground work, together with four teams and the city gang. en- gagged in the repavinR making weekly pay roll of over $S8 for the past R wesks When this is added to the enOr- nous freight bills and the &l&oo0 eFpend- ed for the new building on Washington Street, 1t can be readily seen that the Southern Bell people have distributed an immense sum in the community during the past four mantha
 To prevent any interruption or the cal change in the system, the company decided, at the ioutset to construct an entire new independent and complete Selcphone exchange and outfit before any feiNphones. now in use should be dis fuFbed Although this entailed an im- mense extra cost and great loss Of ma ferial they have reason to anticipate a due recompense from its patrons. in an appraciation of it's efforts to give them an undistuFhed service during radical change of the system. In this way, when the underground work is complet- ed and connected In the new exchange. there will be two complete systems, when 1he old will be abandoned and torn dowu and the new one installed within a day. FDAeeA it wsl be hard to appreciate the nAomeneous fact that such stupendous chance will be made praetieaily in a kwinkfing-transposing 1000 stations from Ahe old to the new system.