The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-19

local and toll rooms of the Rocky Noun
tain Bell company in Salt Lake, exclu-
SiVe of operating room officers, is about
140. Some of them have been in the en-
ploy of the company seventeen years or
more.
The operators have one meal at the tele-
phone building. A lunch room, kitchen,
rest rooms, bath rooms, parlor, magazines
and daily newspapers are provided by the
company for their use The girls wear
white shirt waists and black skirts from
May ! to Sept. / when on duty. From
Sept. l until May l they wear black.
Many of them work in uniforms which
they wear over their street costumes
Lockers are provided for the belongings
of the operators. The company does not
allow any operator to dress deliberately
when on duty. The purpose of this is
to prevent any feeling that might be
caused through some operator who could
afford it appearing in more expensive
attire than a less fortunate fellow
worker.
Tell You What's What,
There are six information operators.
nine supervisors, a chief, an assistant
chief and a night chief. In addition 10
these there are two service observing
operators, whose duty is to watch the
operation of the lines. and two hospital
girls''-the trained nurses of the operating
room. They do not wear blue uniforms
and white caps, but they attend to the
SICK, or the nneS IndL are out OF OTCeT,
and conduct the necessary tests while the
lines are being repaired. The toll room,
where the long distance business is hand
led, has twenty-siX operators, chief.
an assistant chief. night chief and su-
peryisor.
The work of the operator when on duty
is to establish telephone connection be
tween subscribers of the company This,
as is well known, is done through the
medium of the switchboard, on which the
operator works. The signals are given
by means of small incandescent lamps,
which are flashing over the board con-
tinuously. There are thirty-eight posi-
lions now in use at the Bell eompany's
local exchange. Daily reports to Su
perintendent P. II. Irwin of the Salt
Lake City division show that the local
exchange makes about 1000 connections
daily. An experienced operator is able
to handle 300 calls an hour. There are
1900 Jacks or points for the Insertion
of plugs on the board. The average time
to answer a call is SO seconds. The aver
age time to discOnnect when the con-
versation has been completed is 4 sec
-onds The average time to answer on
recall of the operator is 3.3 seconds. These
figures apply to the entire board. The
Salt Lake toll room completes about 1900
long distance connections daily. This
number includes only messages to and
from Salt Lake City and does not in
clude messages passing through Salt
Lake City from other points
Where Marriages Are Made.
The day shift goes on duty at o'clock
a. m The busiest periods Of the day are
from 10 TO II o'clock in the forenoon and
from to o'clock in the afternoon. The
late afternoon lull is succeeded by an
other busy period beginning about 8
o'clock and lasting until about s. The
early morning business is largely do
nestle when housewives and servants
call up the butcher and grocer to ar
range for the commissary supplies. The
regular business load comes on in the
afternoon, after the morning S mail has
been handled by the average business
man, and continues until mid-afternoon.
The evening "load''-''load' having ref
erence to telephone businesS-is largely
of a social nature. Mr.. Man calls up to
say that he will not be home to dinner,
or to announce that he is bringing a
friend home with him. These messages
may not tend TO the Improvement Of So
cial conditions in the home for the time
being but the usefulness of the tele-
phone in such cases is amply demon
strated. to Mr.. Man at least. From s
to O'Clock is also the SWANS date time.
Reginald calls up Doris to say that he
allows to be up that night, and would
she be good enough to wear the pink
dress he always liked so well-the one she
wore at the Jones party last week-aDd
of course Doris agrees. Theatre appoint
ments and reminders also come about
these hours. Emergency calls, such as
calls for doctors. medicines, hospitals