The age-herald., 1901-12-21
HALF BILLION IN TELEPHONES.
Vast Progress Made In Quarter of
 Century.

New York, December 20 20--(SpeciaD-In it's current issue the Electrical Review of New York contains a study of the present telephone situation in which it is shown that the amount invested In the telephone industry in the United States is nearly $500 000, 900. This estimate in- cludes both the lines and instruments of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company general called the Bell Com pany, and of the opposition, or independ- ent companies.
 A table Is published showing that all the States of the Union. with the excep- ton of Nevada, Rhode Island and Utah, are provided with opposition telephone exchanges. the total number of exchanges of this character being 2811 and the num- Der of telephones connected to them being 7Os,717
 The largest extension of the independ- ent telephone business is in the State of Ohio, which has 22s exchanges and 155,- 664 independent telephones In order, In- diana and Pennsylvania come next, hav-' ing, respectively. 192 and 19S exchanges and sS66s and 646o4 telephone connec- tions, respectively.
 The total capital invested in the inde- pendent telephone business including toll lines and manufacturing establishments, Is estimated at from sl25 .000. 900 to $150- 00o,ooO.
 The Bell interests are shown to have an invested capital of ss2O,Oo0, coo These interests operate 1500 exchanges. to which are connected 1.0S0000 telephones.
 The Bell companies are now handling total of nearly two billion calls year and are operating a total of 1,s542o2 miles of wire and employing sS,0Oo people.
 In addition to these figures. the tele- phones in use on intercommunicating sys- tems that is systems installed in offices. factories mills. large buildings, hotels. etc, and on farmers cooperative ex- change districts-are estimated at 490- 900. - ea4fR
 This gives grand total of 2,27S, IF tel ephones in use, in the United States with total investment of s47o.ooo,ooO in lines instruments and operative exchanges.
 The amount of money represented by the manufacturing telephone interests Is also large It is computed by the Eiec- trical Review that the independent man ufacturers to the number of over. fifty are turning out now about 20O0 complete telephone sets daily, of which more than 30 per cent are made in Chicago and its immediate vicinity. The Bell interests are manufacturing 1916 sets of instru- ments daily. and of course, both branch es of the telephone business are manu- facturing. In addition switchboards and exchange apparatus capable of taking care of this output. T. .T
 It is estimated that the value of the an- nual product of telephones and tele- phone apparatus is between $so,0OO,0oO and S35.OOO,0OO year. - '
 It is also estimated that the consump- ton of other materials. such as poles. wires, cables, conduits, etc. in connec- .tion with the telephone industry Is over $25, 100000 a year. thus making the total value of materials used In the industry between $50 oO0.OO0 and s60,O0O,O00 every twelve months. E6a8a
 The Electrical Review in it's editorial comment on the situation, says: Per haps the most interesting phase of the present telephone situation is that the in- dustry is evidently only at the beginning of an extended growth. What has been done in twenty-hve years Is sufficinetly astonishing; what will be done in the next twenty-five years staggers the inn agfnation."