New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1904-02-17
BETTER SYSTEM PROMISED
Minnesota Central to Make Elk.
tensive Improvements.
Will Spend $4,000 on New Ulm
Telephone Exchange.
Central Energy System to Do Away
With Ringing.

improvements to cost between S1O.-
900 and $4,000, and which the tele-
phone officials have had in mind for
more than year, are to be made
upon the New Ulm exchange this
spring by the Minnesota Central Tele-
phone company. They are of very
extensive nature, practically necessi-
tating the rebuilding of the local sys-
TEN, and it is confidently asserted that
nothing will interfere with carrying
them out. Alex Williams of Willmar,
superintendent of construction, has
been in New Ulm since last week pre-
pairing an estimate of the amount of
material that will be needed and it is
intended to commence upon the NO k
sometime during the month of April.
Since the municipal lighting plant
has been in operation the close prox-
unity of it's wires to those of the phone
lines has seriously interfered with the
working Of the latter, this fault being
particularly noticeable after darkness
has set in and the big dynamo at the
station is started. To overcome the
Induction from the alternating cur
rent the telephone people propose to
install themetallic system, which differs
from the one now in use.
At present a common return wire is
used to connect telephones with the
central office but this will be eliminated
and two wires strung to every in
strument; thus placing each on
electrical circuit.
Gables will be brought into more
general use than has been the custom.
AS many as six or eight will enter the
central and the new plan provides for
the installation of small cables for all
of the business blocks. With connec-
tons for thirty or thirty-fve phones
these cables will be lead over the elec-
trio light wires to a tall supply pole,
located in the center of the block, and
then run in all directions to the instru-
ments. Only in the outlying sections
will the wires be exposed.
Under the new order of things the
nuisance of ringing phones will be
done away with. The new system is to
be so equipped that upon taking down
the receiver the bell at the switchboard
will ring and the operator respond to
calls. New switchboards will be put
in and they are to be compactly ar
ranged, allowing them to be handled
more conveniently and quickly by the
operators and thus insuring improve
ment in the service. The boards will
have capacity Of 500 phones and, by
extending the pole line, it is thought
that next year the number of subscrib-
ers can be increased to fully 500.
Moving the central office will also be
necessary. The present building will
not answer for the enlarged system
and it is desired to locate on a side
street. The only structure at present
adapted to the purpose is the one &C.
cupied by the Brown County Bank,
and if quarters are secured there the
exchange will either be placed on the
second floor or an addition built in
the rear. 4
superintendent Williams has mapped
out the routes for the cables and says
that the expenditure to be made by the
company will give New Ulm one of the
finest exchanges in the state. He in
forms the Review that the work will be
begun in April and that it will take
two months for crew of twenty men
to finish the contract.
1t will cost you nothing if it does
you no good. The Frisco Cough Cure
7 n A n