Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-16
FACTS ABOUT TELEPHONES
Some Things Learned by the Legislative
investigating Committee.
NOT YET N SHAPE FOR MAKING REPORT
improvements In system of Operating
and Growth of Business Render
decentralization Necessary
Every Ten Years.
tFrom a star correspondent.l

(From a stan Correspondent)
LINCOLN, March 15.-(speclal.)-While
the legislative inquest into telephone cost
and rates may not have developed anything
sensational. IL has unearthed a lot Of in
formation thai 10 Of more or less interest
70 the public and more particularly to
Omaha people. The testimony fills up 26S
typewritten pages and some day 1t is pos
sible, but not probable, that 1t will be boiled
down into ineligible form and reason
able compass for ordinary readers and pre-
scented to the legislature In the form OF a
report, but to those who Hello Central'
every day and who have never stopped to
consider the wonderful mechanism Of the
telephone. its cost. its operation and its
construction, however, some parts OF the
testimony will be Of present Interest as a
fund Of information.
One fact that will be OF particular in
terest to the people Of Omaha is that be-
fore six months have passed there will have
been inaugurated in that city the COM
mon battery system. incidentally the com
mon battery system is one where no gen.
orators are used. The signals are all given
through a battery and are conveyed to the
instrument and from the instrument to the
switchboard from a battery located in the
central once.
The present system in vogue in Omaha
and Lincoln is the local battery system.
This requires a generator to signal. Tho
generator is, the arrangement in the bell
at the subscribers station that furnishes
the current to signal central. The com
mon battery system operation is much
more rapid than the present one. To put
In the common battery system the Ne
braska Telephone company will be COM
PEELED to discard the present switch board
bought less than ten years ago at a cost
Of $e5, 900 This board, a representative nf
the company testified, was as good as the
day it was bought, but that the company
would not be able to realize on 1t more
than $1,000.
Number of Subscribers.
In Omaha the company has now in the
neighborhood of $500 stations and about
5000 lines. These subscribers stations
cost between $175 and 5000 each. Many
OF the subscribers in Omaha and Lincoln
use the full metallic circuit. This circuit
is where two wires run from the central
station to the subscribers station used ex-
clusively by the individual. Sometimes.
however. two or more parties may be on
the same line.
The grounded circuit which has been dis
SNooNN 81 muNh huA III lhNSSllbdltOu
by the special committee is a single wire
running from the central station to the
subscribers station, but instead Of return
ing the circuit is completed by attaching
one end Of the wire to the water pipe, gas
pipe or ground rod. A common return is
a common wire or a number OF them that
lead out from the central station and In
stead of completing a circuit by attaching
one end Of the wire to a water pipe or
gas pipe, the wire is brought out and at
tached to this return wire and this return
wire is used by a number of subscribers.
The ground wire gives satisfaction In
small towns, but where there are electric
lights and street cars II cannot be used
with any success. The longest wires In
Omaha are FIVE miles, and these are out In
the Walnut Hill neighborhood. The inner
radius for business phones is two miles
While there are about 1000 lines In use
In Omaha there are about IL, 900 lines tina,
have been constructed. but are not in use
The large number of lines not in use /;
occasloned by the construction Of cables
These are built In 100, 200, 300 and 400
pair cables and II in. the judgment OF the
company business is liable to increase ma.
terially In some parts Of the city, large
cables are put in, though'few Of the wires
are in use at present.
Some day It is hoped by the officers Of
the Nebraska Telephone company to havV
all the downtown wires underground. Al
present the company has $4,000 feet o.
conduit and 249, Ss1 duct feet. As a matter
Of information a duct foot is that portion
Of a conduit through which a cable is, drawn
Life of an Exchange.
The testimony given by representative
nf tha NahEaaEa Talnnbo-~ -
by representatives Of the independent com.
panies was to the effect that a telephon,
exchange had to be reconstructed ever,
ten years on an average. This is due Il
modern improvements and partly to In,
creased business.
In Omaha the Nebraska company has hat
a steady growth and hundreds of thousand
OF collars have been spent in Improvement
ana enlargement of the plant. FifteeI
years ago the company had 1000 subscrib
ers. At present It numbers on Its roll
nearly 300. And representatives Of tn,
company testified that no increase had beer
made In the cost to subscribers. When tn
company was organized It Issued to IN,
Bell Telephone company $780,, $50 worth o
stock for the right to use the company
patents in Nebraska and Pottawattami
county, Iowa. The stock was issued 10 tn
Bell company because the new company haI
not the cash. The Bell people waive,
their right to dividends for the first Av
years and since that time the stock ha
been paid for out Of the proceeds OF tn
Nebraska company. The Bell people still
own 81 per cent of the stock Of the com
pany.
Toll Lines and stations.
In Nebraska the company has $40 toll
stations in 4SO cities and towns. Thes
toll lines are built of six-inch top twenty
foot poles, and the wire is hard copper
Weighing $50 pounds a circuit per mil
and cost between 5000 and s22s. Fror
Omaha to Lincoln there are eight circuit