Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1906-04-04
STORY OF THE TELEPHONE.
Wonderful Development of the In


strumant and 10 Use
President Freaer;cl D F;sb In the an
mai r,nort ~ the American Te,enbone a.
Te,eor.nh ~ inst ;ssuad shows that
there ware 52s 715 Rall taJenbone stations
in oneration at the close Of 1905. an in
crease of over bsif a million. or about
25 ner cent s;nce the close ~ the nrevious
wear
The tota, ,;laaoe of wire in nae for ex-
change and toll service was a o4a 51s miles.
Of which over a million and ouarter
miles were adaed dur,po he wear Dur-
ing the wear the Bell companies spent for
new construction in exchanges and toll
lines SIC. 6D3. SIG and for land and buildings
"a. IN. 800. a total of over $4,000. 600 as
against S31 61e 100 in 1904 During the
wear the He'll comnan;es handled a total
daily average of 1891 900 connections. or
at the rate of about A. 479. 800. 600 wear.
being fifty-four telephone calls for each
man. woman and child in the United
States.
The report states that this ia the thir-
tieth wear since the invention of the tele-
phone. and the growth of the business
has been greater than ever before. the
rate of growth being accelerated bv the
larger number of telephones in use and
the improvement of the service. The
Bell companies are not only standardizing
apparatus but adopting uniform methods
of engineering. operation and accounting
which enable them to deal more eff
GENTLY with an infinite number of small
units of service,
| The combined experience of nearly
| forty operating companies il being util-
lied in meeting the needs of various
| communities and in the solution of the
greatest of all problems. that of rates.
The average investment per station has
been reduced by means Of sound engi-
neering and construction methods, and
the introduction of new classes of service
| of less than average cost. There has also
been reduction in the average cost of
operation per station. and because of
these reductions the Bell companies have
been ena bled to make marked reduction
| in their average rates, All the new
| money which comes into the business is
invested dollar for dollar in the plant,
At the present time there is in use
| in the system not less than 32O. 1000. 600
pounds of copper wire, 5000. 900 poles and
95, 100000 feet OF underground conduit.
About so per cent of the exchange wire is
in cables and "a per cent of the exchange
wire is underground. The number of
officers and employees has increased to
S7.212.
The American Bell system of the United
States now exceeds in number of SUBJ
scribers, mileage of wire and the extent
of traffic the telephone systems of Great
Britain and continental Europe COM
bined. All the money received by the
American Telenbone a. telegram Co.
through the sale of its securities. with the
exception of that expended upon it's own
telephones and lonp-distance lines. masses
into the treasures Of the associated COM
panies in exchange for their securities.
In view of this the entire Capitalization
including funded and floating debt of all
the companies. including the American
Telephone & Telegraph Co.. is S334. ST.
5s3 and the average Capitalization per
station, including the total cost of toll
lines. ia s149. and excluding toll lines s1o5
Against this it is stated that the indie
pendent companies are capitalized from
500 to upwards of $3.50 per station. In
order to make a showing under their verv
high Capitalization. these independent
comnanies purrort to operate at not over
go per cent. of gross revenue. while the
average cost of operation of the Bell COM
NAMES is about "a per cent. when from
their gross revenue of 500. 44O 264 and
their total EXPENSE of s74 ITO. 7e5 there
have been eliminated all items Of revenue
| and exnense excent those relating f1irectlv
to the telepbone business. The renort
savs that the competition Of two tele-
nbone comnanies oneratinp in the same
field is becoming more fully recognized as
an economic mistake from the standpoint