The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-30

Rritian ard Ireland. The total tele- phone investment in these countries. about $40, ,0O0, 900, does not exceed the amount spent annually by the Bell companies in improving and extending their service. When 1t comes to comparison or methods of manufacture and construc- ] ton the difference Is as marked. For many years, common battery switch boards have been in use in American towns and cities. In London, the tele- phone systems of the Post Office De- nartment and the National Telephone Company are now being rebuilt to per init the use of this kind of apparatus A common battery switchboard, by tho
 way, is one in which the electrical en = ergy Is supplied at the central office' instead of by uusightly battery jars on the subscribers premises. With the common battery board the lifting of the telephone receiver from the nook calls the operator's attention. our En- glish cousins still grind cranRs or press | buttons when they want to talk with | Central"
 In another important particular En- glish construction methods are about | twenty years behind the standards
 adopted in this country. When an | American telephone company buries Hs
 wires under city streets the cables are | enclosed in conduits made Of Vltrltieo
 tile. The British telephone builders on the other hand. have, in many ln- stances, been content to bury the cables
 in the earth without any protection except that afforded by a box-lke l shield of boards. This haphazard meth | od of construction is the more remark able because English railroads. solidly built with heavy bridges and no grade crossings, excite the admiration oi | Americans.
 | The numerous ways in which the tel
 ephone is made of daily use in Ameri- can fife are almost unknown in Eng l land and on the continent or Europe
 In this country, modern hotels, even In
 small cities. have a telephone In each
 room. Yet in London the system Is sc | new that it's adoption in a hotel there
 within the past year was the occasion
 of much newspaper comment Ihe
 private branch exchange introduced by | the Bell companies in American cities
 about ten years ago Is another conVen-
 fence which is unknown to the English
 business man. When he visits this
 country and sees in mercantile estao- Isbments and professional offices tele-
 phones on all the desks. and finds thai | they may be used with equal tacilltS for talking to persons in the next room or chatting with somebody In city l. 900 miles away, the Englisnman' as ulC the merchant already mentioned i' very likely to write to the papers when he gets home telling of the wonderful discovery he has made concerning the use of the telephone fin America.
 The EngIishman's house Is still hi; castle. and when he shuts the door h' bars out all intruders. for it Is seldom that a telephone Is to be seen in pri' vate dwelling in Great Britian. To the farm telephones, now regarded as al most indispensable in America, there Is nothing to correspond in the English system. The British farmer who has an errand to perform must go or send To be sure, he has better roads on which to travel than are found In thi' country. but travel he must. There IS no handy telephone in the farmhose tc do the errand for him.
 Of late years our British cousins nave annarentlv been waking up to the de- ficiAncies of their telephone service In an endeavor to improve conditions
 a number of towns and cities have es- tablished telephone systems or then own. But they have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. for these mu' Inicipal plants hae not succeeded as wei as those under corporate management
 Glasglow began the experiment. IT