Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1906-01-18

The Delaware & Atlantic Telegraph
and Telephone Co., according TO District
Manager j. II. Alehaily expects to do a
great deal this year toward completing
the work of placing all of the city wires
under ground, and as the line between
Wilmington and Philadelphia will be un-
der ground before the end OF the year,
the company will be in excellent shape to
cope with sleet storms in the future. This
arrangement win be beneficial not only
to the company, but to its patrons as
well, and will obviate a great deal Of
trouble which has resulted from nearly
every sleet storm in the past As mat
ter of fact, the company is now in pretty
good shape i'm this respect, but there are
yet many overhead wires which are to be
taken care Of
The company now has wires under
ground reaching about so city blocks.
This work was started several years ago,
but the greater part of 1t has been done
in the past few years The company has
a force of men at work now placing lat
terals under ground, that is, connecting
houses which are along under ground
lines. Because it is winter. the COM
pany will confne itself to this work at
present, not desiring to open up the
streets now, except where necessary,
but as soon as the weather will permit,
additional main conduit lines win be put
down, leading to sections of the city
which are now served by the overhead
system. The work now in progress will
be continued all winter, except where
interfered with by the weather, and by
the time spring opens a great deal will
have been accomplished.
The company makes it a rule to run
the wires TO buildings under ground
where 10 is possible to do so, and is now
sending its men along the conduit lines
making connections in this manner.
About 800 telephones Of this com
pany are now in use in Wilmington
/ which is a larger number than were in
use in Philadelphia eight years ago, when
/ the company's new building here was
erected. Philadelphia now has about co.
600 Bell telephones, which are connected
with this system.
Manager Alehaffey expects to receive
plans for the proposed new building very
soon, and when they come they will b,
open for inspection Of prospective bid
ders They are being made by Windrim
! & Co., Philadelphia architects, according
to the ideas of the Bell Telephone Co.
and will provide for a building specially
adapted for the work of the company
Provision will be made therein, as has
been stated, for $4,000 telephones. and II
will be adequate, in Mr. Mehaify's opin
| ion, for the business here for many years
The equipment will be similar to that
now in use, but will be much more ex-
| tensive.
The company is now endeavoring tc
| place a telephone in every building in the
city, where it is possible 10 do SO, and
during the past few weeks many dwell
ings have been connected with the sys
tenn
Many dwellings are now equipped Will
special pay telephones, which are sub
stantially the same as any other, Will
the exception that, while the telephon,
costs the resident nothing, each call from
the instrument costs five cents. The ques
tion has been asked whether these tele
phones can be used for long distance calls
| When the matter was brought to Mr.
Mehaffey's attention he said they coulC
be used for calls of any description. II
case of long distance call the only re
quirement is that the cost of such a cal
be deposited in the box at the instru
ment, in five cent pieces. A call TO Phila
delphia, for instance, costs 25 cents, an,
in that case it would be necessary to de
posit five nickels in the box These boxel
are made only for iive-cent pieces. Al
calls TO these telephones are not charge,
for, being free 10 the subscribers of othe,
/ telephones.