The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-08-12
From New York Sun.

new Independent telephone company not
satisfied with being an alarm clock and
a watch regulator for its subscribers.
proposes to assume the duties of a gen
eral information bureau and to serve
also as a burglar and fire alarm concern.
The latest directory of the company,
dated July contained this announcement:
Parties wanting to be called during
the night or at certain times IN the morn
ing Will be accommodated if instructions
be left with the chief operator"
There is very little red tape about the
system. Brown, for instance, has a tel
ephone in his house not far from his
bedroom. He is compelled to get up at
6 o'clock to catch a train. The night
before he calls up central. Hello cen
trail" he says. give me the chief oper-
atorl Hello, is this the chief operator?
This man is Main 562 I'm Brown John
Brown, and I want a call at 6 o'clock
sharp"
"All right Mr. Brown" says the chief
operator. Then she makes out two slips,
one of which she gives to one of the tele-
phone girls. The other she keeps her
self. Each Is inscribed in this manner:
mo. 562. Name. Mr.. John Brown. Time
a. m.
These slips are arranged before the tel
ephone girls and the chief operator In
chronological order, the earliest call on
top. Before each girl and before the chief
operator is a small clock regulated by a
large clock In the general managers Of
flee which, in turn, is operated by cleo
tricity from Washington.
When o'clock comes the chief opera
tor sees the slip before her. She calls up
one of the girls at the other end of the
room. There is a call for Main 562 for
G." she says.
Calling 1t now" answers the girl.
THE party must have been out late last
night. He doesn't answer" At the other
end of the line Brown is In bed half
awake.
'Drat that telephone, says Brown.
and he turns over to try and take an
other forty winks. But it's no USE This
alarm clock doesn't run down, it won't
stop until Brown gets out of bed and an
swers 1t, and Brown can't trick himself
into believing it's half an hour fast. Re-
suit, Brown gets up and shouts a sleepy
Hello" into the telephone.
Hello" chirps the girl at the other
end. lis that Mr. John Brown? Yes?
Well. you were rather hard to get up
this morning. Call for tomorrow? No?
Well, goodbye"
Regular users of this service say that
clear, wide-awalxe feminine voice In
the early morning Is as good for the
nerves as a cold bath. And the telephone
girls say that although the first hello
of a sleepy subscriber has an ominous
growl In it. he generally remembers that
he is talking to woman who is doing
him a service and that his goodbye is
usually cheerful.
Some of the regulars make odd re-
quests. Last week one of them called up
to ask a special favor. He was very for
getful, he explained, and he had written
that night a letter which it was import
ant that he should mail the next morn
ing. He had no stamps in the house and
1t was too late to get them. Would the
operator be so kind as to remind him
when she called him the next morning
to get the stamps and mail the letter?
1t was not exactly in the line of duty.
but the operator consented. And that
night she was thanked profusely. Duties
in this line are not expected, however,
to become permanent features of the
service. The telephone company does not
intend to take the place of that old
fashioned standby, the string on the fin
ger.
AS a watch regulator the telephone
company numbers 100 patrons to one
alarm clock Gust AS has already
been said, there is a clock regulated from
Washington in front of each telephone
girl The large hands of the clocks move
every second so that at the moment of
the jump of the hand forward the time
can be told to the dot. A pilot clock be-
side the big electric clock in the general
managers office shows at a glance
whether the clocks in front of the oper-
ators are running correctly
When a subscriber calls up by tele-
phone to set his watch, the girl first
tells him that it is so many minutes
past the hour. She then tells him to
hold his watch until she give the word.
Just as the big hand of the clock in
front of her moves forward she gives
the word and the subscriber has Wash
ington time.
The information bureau will be the
next department to be started. Forty
trunk lines will be connected with a
board before which a young man will
sit. At his side will be a clerk with a
case full of time tables and books of ref
erenee.
The subscriber may want to know at
what time the next train leaves for New
York, Atlantic City or Kalamazoo, or
whether it is going to rain, or If Brook
lyn plays Philadelphia that afternoon.
The information bureau is designed to
answer these and hundred other ques-
lions to which people want replies in a
hurry
Instead of sending an office boy with
human inclination to loaf to find when
the South American mail closes at the
post office, the subscriber will use the
telephone; instead of waiting for the af-
ternoon newspaper to give him the
weather bureaus forecast. he will call up
| the information bureau of the company.
| And il he has no dictionary handy and he
what megatherium is he can find out In
| half a minute.
The only thing which is holding back
the starting of the information bureau is
| the INABILITY of the OFFICIALS 70 syet the