The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-30
CENTRAL IS BUSY
ON A BATTLESH|P
Switchboard in Depths of Big
Fighting Machine
A BLUE JACKET PRESIDES
He Takes the Place of the Girls Who
Operate the Ordinary Exchanges.
The Marines Also Act
= Operators.
A BLUE JACKET PRESIDES

DOStoh'-lt mas peen possible TOR officers
OF the warships at present under repair
| at the navy yard here to send holiday
greetings home without even so much as
/ bothering to secure shore leave to go to
telegraph office for the arrangements
made by the navy department to provide
! the squadron now at Charlestown with
long distance telephone facilities have
| been completed. and each of the big men
of-war has its own public pay station for
the use of the captain and the members
of his staff.
The pay station is located aft near the
officers quarters, and all the lieutenant
or the ensign need do is drop into the
booth and call up central-which in this
case is the New England Telephone and
Telegraph company's exchange in
Charlestown-and ask for New York, Chi
cago or st. Louis, or any other of the
thousands of points in the Bell system
east of the Mississippi
| This arrangement is purely for the con-
venience of the visiting officers, as they
may be called-the officers attached tc
the ships stationed temporarily at the
yard-and it goes to show how indispen-
sable the telephone has become even to
men accustomed to spend very great
share of their time atioat
In way this arrangement is the result
of the increasing business of the yard
The scene at the mouth of the Charles Is
particularly picturesque at the present
time. In addition to the impressive dis
play Of towering white battlements and
buff-colored crows nests built to carry
| rapid-fire guns, there Is the element of
constant activity. Truly there Is some
| thing doing" at the old yard-a good deal
| more than has been 1oing there for many
years past Every pier and dry dock has
its imposing cruiser or battleshlp, and
every shop is working under high press
| ure.
Five of the battleships now in commits
sion are at the yard. the Georgia. Mis-
souri, Indiana, Rhode Island and Illinois
a powerful fleet by themselves and typi-
cal of the new navy" Besides these
there are the cruisers New York, Nash
vile and Detroit and the torpedo training
ship Vesuvius. These last four are out
of commission for the present
Improvement Noted.
Things are done faster, and probably
better, than they were in the old days
Here is an example of this Until the
foodtide of business struck the Charles
town yard the telephone was looked upon
as limited convenience. while now II
has taken its place among the indispen-
sable things and become an almost un-
limited convenience There were plenty
of telephones for yard use formerly about
$50 altogether, but when the commandant
or the head of a department wanted to
call up Washington or New ork he had
to go to one of the yard pay stations or
else to some station outside the yard al
together.
Finally these busy men realized that
such an arrangement would never meet
the requirements of the press of business
following the completion of the mammoth
dry dock. 1t would be more like the TWEEN
tieth century to have direct outside CON
nection, they felt; and with the approval
of the navy department, the New Eng
land Telephone and Telegraph company
took out the SO telephones used by the
chief officers and department heads and
put in new tele. ,hones and an extra
switchboard. with trunk lines running to
the Charlestown exchange Since then a
call to Boston, across the Charles, or to
any other point outside the yard has
gone through in half the time it formerly
took.
The operators at the navy yard central
are enlisted men chosen from the marine
corps Two of them attend the switch
boards during the day. and another is on
notwithstanding they have not the adj
vantage of training in one of the Bell
schools for operators. Number" COM
ing from them lacks that sweet and en-
couraging quality which has made the
regular operator noted throughout the
land. but 1t Is efficient wthal 1t has all
the brevity. for one thing of the response
of other centrals-the time-savng, bust
ness-like brevity that appeals to every
critical telephone user. "Number?" IS
naval-lilSe in its shortness and expressive
ness. The naval officer. when on duty,
at least. wastes no words NOR does CEN
trail. On this common ground these two
extremes. the bluff man of war and the
sweet-voiced girl at the telephone ex-
change. meet.
The New England company finished the
improvements at the navy yard a short
time ago, and since then the men in
charge of the work of preparing the ships
for sea have been able to make better
Roadway than ever, owing. In part. to
the time saved by having at hand so
many telephones with outside connections
through the new switchboard. 1t is
shorter work, and on the whole much
more satisfactory to telephone than to
telegra phi, and as for letter writing. that
is reserved for formal communications.
When an officer wants a thing done in a
sea, he telephones.
Useful Device.
This is one of the things impressed upon
the visitor when he goes aboard one Of
the new battleships in the yard, for a
point of interest not to be missed under
any circumstances is the ships telephone
exchange a medium of communication
that serves not only ordinary uses, but
the exigencies of mimic warfare, and
would serve as well in actual battle.
The telephone exchange on the battle
ship Rhode Island, one of the first-class
vessels put in commission within the past
year. is situated like other vital spots
well inside the most thiclxly armored part
of the craft, below the water, line. on
what is called the upper platform deck,
and directly under the forward turret.
The exchange occupies quarters some six