Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-08-15
IN new QUARTERS
Telephone Company's Operating
Room Moved Saturday Night.
New Mechanical Equipment in COM
mission, Making the Exchange the
Equal Of Any in the Country
More Than 1000 Users.

The center of operation of Burlington's |
telephone service was transferred, Satur- |
day night, from the quarters the New
England company has occupied for sew !
oral years in the Y. NJ G. A. building to
the companys own new building at $50
College street. The Offices of the manSgcr
and the various business departments
} were moved SC me time before. Division
} Superintendent Butler has already been
established in the new building for sew
eral months.
When the operating plant was moved
the old apparatus was abandoned for all
time and an entirely new mechanical
equipment was put into commission. Bur-
lington now has fine and up-to date a
telephone exchange as any city in the
country-which means in the world. of
course, for telephony, brought into beinS
IN the United States, has developed here
\ far beyond the point reached over seas.
The "maEncto" system of operation in
( which central is signalled by the fall
ing Of "A drop when the I .lephone user
turns the crank at the side of his instru-
mcnt, has given way to the common bat
, terry" system. wherein the lifting Of the
telephone receiver from its hook and re-
\ placing it automatically opens and closes
\ the circuits of incandescent signal lamps
4 In the switchboard. This is the method
Of operation used in the metropolitan ex-
changes nowadays and its greater
venience accuracy and speed are OBJ
v!ous.
The actual "cutting over" as is called
the performance Of transferring the con-
} nections of tho telephone lines from one
) switchboard to another occupied less
than two minutes Saturday night. In fact
\ so methodically was 1t planned and so
K skilfully WAS It carried out that the inter-
ruption OF an individual subscribers serv-
Ice would have been only fraction of
second If he were talking at the instant
the change was made. But the work lead
ing up to the cut over-the building OF the
y new central office plant, for practically all
the exchange appa RI tus has to be literally
y constructed on the spot it is to occupy,
3 and the rearransement and reconstruction
\ of the outside lines-required months of
incessant abor
K Even now some details of the improve
ments are not complete, though what is
still to he done will cause no interference
with a subscribers service Yesterday
morning the New England company's in
. strument mon began the rounds Of the
q subscribers telephones, which were mod
D flied" some time ago so they could he used
, with either the old or new system Of
4 operation. preparatory to taking way the
\ batteries on subscribers' premises, which
< are no longer necessary. all the current
< for talking and signalling being supplied
< from common battery in the exchange
Office. AS soon as possible new telephones
specially Dc signed for common battery use
' will replace the old ones.
The new telephone building is Of rcd
= brick two stories high with a deep base
D ment. In the basement the store
rooms. quarters e the maintenance and
X instrument forces and the terminal room.
where is the apparatus auxiliary to the
switchboard. This room get It's name
from the fact that within it
outside subscribers circuits are
' separated from each other as they en-
ter the building in cables and are con-
y nected with the proper circuits to the
Il switchboard by means of big iron
y racks called distributing frames. The
ingenious arrangement of wires here
makes it possible to bring any outside
a line to any terminal point in the
k board, while it makes every wire in
= the exchange easy to get at in case of
d "trouble." The test board" for To-
.t ~, ..., . .....,,, g,
49, e., s,raro ,o.tor, ,r .,a,
49,, - ~ +.
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: r,on &, o,. o,,,r,. tou o,,ox,,,,.
~ ..,o a., -. h, .,
rd,,oru.. ,ro,, ,ho ,oooI .,.,,rto
' ,i,. Common. 49,, coe or,;ra hoi,,,
: ro,.,5od for or,o,conc,. uso
- IT.. n,,h,,o hrs;rass o@oor ., ,,o
%or. E.rrIor1 rol.n,oro ANA ,ro,oaron,
oo,,.,,, ,ro m. tbo s,-oo, ,oo ,rro
,,i,isior curcr;rtordort put1,r ,,d
,,-or ~. a,a 10 ,o .o,n, .i,h
, thair c1orioo, oss,st,,t. Tbo,o gro
nav st,tiop facilities ~ tho most an
rro,eo TYNE I'm cbareo of an ,ttord-
q ant assignod 70 tbo sneci,I duty =.
h ro,Lipe, local tou or LONG distaroo
l. caIIs for tho nuhlic
e ,rb. onerot,ng room and thn on
l. erathrs' rest room have the second
it noor to themselves There ara two
# bio- sw,tchhoards one for tho local
d service and the other for toll and Ions,
distance service The local hoard has
{: positions for eleven operators and IS
I, already eouipped to give service 10
r four or five thousand subscribers
: while IL is designed in such a wav