Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1907-07-05
TELEPHONE EXCHAN GE
New Office, New Switchboard,
New and MOdernized Service

o,sraton Of the New Common Battery
Improvements in All Direc.
.ors-Growth Of Business of the Brat
tebo~o Exchange-lnteresting Para.
graphs Of Local Telephone History
TIL. Sew England telephone exchange
,.-,.,f .vtu new offices on the second floor
t ,r american building last Saturday
,rr, and the old Office apparatus in
C,..nt block went cut of service for good.
res removal gave the New England com
.4rv . opportunity not only to change
.ts method of operation to what is known
sst0r common battery system, which the
larger cities have, but to rearrange its
s.fefIs plant also. putting much of the
vrir4 in town into underground con-
du,-
The most obvious indication of the
sharla .u the type of central office APP
r3rltu- used appears in the fact that it
+. D.. longer necessary to turn crank
.- order % ring up central or to ring
off, The act of lifting the receiver of
Subscribers telephone from the hook
or which Sc rests when not in use works
an automatic signal in the switchboard,
IN front of the operator, and a similar
signal On disconnect the circuits is au-
,1mluollly given when the receiver is
hung uu again at the end of a. conVersa-
ton Rapid as is the operation of a mag
reto switchboard. such as was used in
the old office the common battery equip
ment Is somewhat faster and is much
more convenient. 1t is one of the steps
taken In recent years in the direction of
relieving the telephone user so far as
possible from the necessity of manipu-
ntlng mechanism of any sort in using the
service the company feeling that it
should do such work for the subscriber
and finding by experience naturally, that
It can be done more quickley satisfactorily
and conveniently by trained operators in
the central Office.
The work of replacing the magnetic with
the common battery system is not quite
complete, though nothing now remains
10 be- done which will affect the service.
Directly after the removal inspectors and
instrument men of the company went
from house to house and business office
90 business office. removing from the bell
boxes the cranks which are no longer
useful and taking away the batteries.
There now remains only to install new
Instruments throughout the exchange dis
,riCy which includes Guilford, Vernon,
Marlboro and Dummerston as well as
Brattleboro.
The new switchboard in the American
building has an equipment sufficient to
give service 10 ABOUT ltuV SuDSCTlDeTS AT
the present time, while it has an ulti-
mate capacity of nearly 1000 subscribers.
such ample provisions have been judged
necessary because of the rema rka bic
growth of the service in Brattleboro in
the last six years. 1t will be remembered
that the New England company bought
the exchange from the Childs brothers in
1872 when l35 subscribers were connected
with the office. At the beginning of 1901
r,r,, 1.,y. 1,ol 3,or 20 .
If rather more than 100 per cent in less
than nine years. That was considered
very satisfactory in the COS, but not in
the first years of the new century. Ir
three years ending January l, 1904, there
were added to the list of subscribers 10,
new names, making a total of 1856 The
list increased to 1872 at the beginning OF
1875. On the first of June, 1907 the sub
scrbers in the exchange numbered $40
more than six times as many as the com
pany had when it took over the local eX
change fifteen years ago. In an era o.
such expansion it has been only natura
10 l1o' ahead in the expectancy of still
further rapid development.
Not only are local subscribers circuits
well provided for, but there are forty tol
circuits In the board with spaces for a!
many more as these are needed Thi
means that the rapidly increasing lonl
-leh5r9 subscribers will be adequatel!
taken care of. This exchange alread!
handles about 3i0O local calls and $50 tol
calls q day. At the new switchboard pc
sltions have been provided for five loca
operators and three toll operators. Brat
tl-hor) subscribers are likely to be par
ficuarly pleased with one of the feature
of the exchange This is the so-calle
divided ringing, on two-party lines
scheme by means of which each subscri
her's bell sounds only when that particula
station is wanted. party lines nov
have another innovation in that you rim
~ or M" instead of ringing ''one' o
two 1t has been found that letter
are less liable to cause confusion tina
ring numbers"
The transference of the service fror
one Office to the other giving an oppor
unity to change portions of the outsid
Ines, an extensive underground conduit
system was planned for in connectio
with the new installation and the frs
underground circuits were laid thi
spring. The number of these has bee
increased steadily. Many of the line
were transferred from poles to ducts q
the time the new Office was cut over.
In these and similar prepare tior
months were consumed. All the intricat
parts of the mechanism in the eXchane
had to be carefully tested after it ha
been installed. 1t was necessary to /
sure that every connection was good. TT
pperatOrs accustomed to the magnet
board had to be trained by a special il
strlctOr to their duties at the cOmmc
battery board Finally, when everythir
was in readiness, the actual transferred
NJ the service from one switchboard
another was made in such a way that
subscriber listening at the time wou
hardly have been aware that anythir
was happening; his conversation ce
tainly would not have been interfere
with.
The new switchboard, together with Il
chief operators desk, which has equi
me0t for giving information as to su
Seribers' numbers and for quickening Il
service, is situated in the operating roo
Of the company's quarters. There is al
q special office for Manager Carl Henk'
ana this contains public pay static
booths, A terminal room contains Il