The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-18
THE YEARS BUSIEST HOUR
 ASREVEALED BY TELEPHONE
TT cdEs BEFoRE EVERYBODY SEEMS TO BE ON THE wIRE-BUsNEss CUSTOMS REFLECTED IN TELEPHONE UsE-HOw DIFFERS IN CITIES EAST
 

Boston, December 17,-(Special. )-- With the coming of the holiday season. there comes the time when the great army of the telephone operators pre- pare for the greatest work of the year. for during December it seems as If everybody were "on the wire" Prob ably the busiest hour of the s.7s0 hours of the year occur between ten and eleven o'clock on the Saturday before Christmas, and that is tantamount to saying that this Is the busiest hour of the year in the business world.
 There is, to be sure, Likelihood In some sections of the country that a similar hour on the day before Thanks giving may have shown as many calls rushing into the busy exchanges. It's toss up. In many cities, so say those who have 1t in hand to compile statis- tical charts covering the subject, whether the people use the telephone most extensively for ordering Thanks giving turkeys or for calling the dR mas presents. Undoubtedly, however, taking the country at large Christmas has the call over the Puritan harvest festival.
 Everybody during the holiday sea- son seems to be calling up everybody else with the result that the weary operators look forward eagerly to thA Hull whic occurs in every exchange after the first of January. For the rush of business does not cease with the night before Christmas. There h. of course, a big drop in the number calls on the festal day itself. only to be followed by a jump during the week while everybody Is busy ac- knowledging the receipt of presents
 The fluctuation of telephone calls is, in fact. an interesting barometer of the ups and downs of commercial life In American cities not only in the holiday seasons but throughout the year, and the sheets on which the va- riations of traffio are plotted in curves of red and black, after the manner of modern statisticians. are facina Sng documents. Whose can read the Nr- rectly may certainly trace in tn n something of current history fri b week to week, from month to mont. As he follows the general curvature of almost any exchange. he notes how the line rises through the autumn months in a great swelling curve to a high peak just before Thanksgiving. then drops a little only to mount again as high or even higher just before Christmas. Through the holiday sea- son the load stays well up, then sags a little through January and February when people are going about their oc- equations sobered after the excitement of New Years time. Towards the close of Lent, iil the days before Eas- ter. the curve ascends and is high through April continuing upward until just before people begin to go away for the summer.
 T the average number of calls through July and August, may be equal to scarcely more than one-third or one- fourth of those in the height of the winter season. The lowest point is or dinarily reached in the first week in August when the vacation season is at its height.
 These remarkable fluctuations in the volume of telephone traffic mean that for many hours in a day and for many months in year, every telephone cen tral office has to maintain a larger equipment than Is necessary to handle the average of business. In planning their exchanges, the engineers of the Bell system ascertain the number of calls to be answered during the busiest hours of the year and that knowledge determine how large the switchboard must be and how many persons must be employed, for 1t Is a hard and fast policy of the telephone management that calls shall be answered with the same dispatch whether they are com ing thick and fast during the busy hours or whether they are flowing more slowly through the exchange. If the telephone companies could let their patrons wait and take their turn in talking over the wire during these rush hours 1t would mean a saving of many millions of dollars now invested in the plant. But that of course, Is not the American practice, and millions are spent to make the service as efficient in the busiest hours of the year as 1t Is when the calls are few and far be- tween.
 Many apparently accidental circum- stances cause great peaks and depres- sicns to appear in the contours of the traffic curves. Look over the sheets from university city, for example. and you will note how oh a single day load will leap to a point exceeding even thta of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
 Inexplicable? No, indeed! That means that 1t is the day of football game and that the excited management Is busy all the morning answering tel ephone calls from graduates who have neglected up to the last moment to get their tickets; and that, in the after noon, newspaper correspondents are farxx yzraI Cba bad ran0rfad f0 the