The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1907-07-05
FEW SYSTEM
|IN OPERATION
LIeOhOne Service "Cut
o,oro Saturday Night.
MORE RINGING UP

.,,irc About the Common Battery
,....m and a History of the Local
-..,,roe- complete New Plant in
op,raaon in American Building
y,u England Telephone com
Rmnl.aoro exchange, which
adlfsrI Vernon, Marlboro and
.,.,,p ii. we'll as this town, was
Lotto saturday night from the
gu "o.supicd for long while IN
ar ~ bo,k 10 larger quarters in the
s ,.rsap huildiug on Main street
~ .gma time. an entirely new
,ll ar.e equipment of the most
. -, type for giving efficient ser
y, wra ii telephone community
AZ. uo. brought into use and the
'm..bapita plant was permanently
wv ,sD', ,r,ytl of Brattleboro rs a tele'
~ rtra has been remarkable. In
.D' .,,, paccs oven larger in popuia,
b.yo shown the enterprise and
,,s..iycocs, in adopting the mod
meors of quick communication
Pr,t,rboro has displayed in the
tolf dozen years. The New Eng
comgny purchased the exchange
fr,m Cbilds Brothers in 1892. At
,imo There were 1875 subscribers
.ss,t1l with the Office. The first OF
,r1ary. 1901, there were 2so SUB,
.bar. stations, an increase of
~ than hundred per cent. in less
!, nine Years; and from that time on
\ growth was even more extraordl'
!. rbe three years ending January
Ioal l06 subscribers were added to
i eompanv's list, bringing the total
3s6, and. curiously, this record has
y,stly repeated in the succeeding IL
,pths alone. 1872 "stations " beng
5,pectcd at the beginning of 1905. On
h srst of June of this year the ex'
lance was giving service to $40 sub.
l,rbers-iust about six and halt
mes as many telephones as were III
,rmi..ion here when the local eX
moe was taken over by the New
|rrylgrd system Is years ago.
n meet the needs of such growth as
IL and provide facilities for the eX-
rarsiop of the future the company
taopted plans for new central plant
|rTe than a year ago. The telephone
|,,stqm i, more scientifically laid out
|souajays than it used to be, and the
company took the opportunity offered
|Jy the enlargement of the exchange to
|rearange and reconstruct its outside
wiring. An underground conduit sys-
| tenn was determined upon among other
|thngs and this spring the first under
ground circuits were put in. since
|len their number has been increased
steadily. and still more of the lines
we're transferred from poles to ducts
when the central Office was "cut
lover, "
These preparations occupied many
months, but the actual cutting
over" from the central office to the
other Saturday night took but a few
moments. So scientifically is the
work Of transferring the service from
one switchboard to another that even
ii a person happened to be using his
Telephone when the change was made
be would probably be unaware oil
what was going on. The performance
i instantaneous, the new connection
being made at the very moment that
The old one is broken.
The central office is now equipped
With what is known as the common bat
terry system. This gets its name IRON
The fact that all the current for talk
Ing, ringing and signalling is supplleo
from one big storage battery in the eX
change instead of smaller batteries be
ing used On the subscribers , premises.
It is no longer necessary to ring up
On ring off," Lifting the receiver
of the telephone instrument from III
hook and replacing it give the operator
her signals. If Central 's' assistance
Is wanted during a conversation, he'
attention can be attracted simply by
moving the receiver hook up ant
down Slowly several times, This meth
% Of operating is considerably quick
a and much more satisfactory in 9th
er ways than the so-called "magneto
system formerly employed here.
The new switchboard is, to star
with, equipped with facilities for CIV
ing service to something like l4OO sub
saibcrs Its ultimate capacity i
nearly five times the present equip
ment. Thus, while provision is mad
% take care Of the growth of the nea
lntme without the necessity OF max
ing further extensions to the appara
lus, there is room for additions tina
will meet the needs of a long while t.
come, Besides the subscribers circuit
there are 10 toll circuits in the boar'
with room for as many more. For TN
present there are "positions" for nv
local operators and for three toll opera
loN 1t will doubtless surprise man.
telephone users to know that the Brat
ue0oro exchange is already handlln
an average Of nearly 3400 local and 20
i0l calls each day.
A feature Of the new exchange tina
VI. VIII meet with general approval IS tn
introduction Of what the engineers ca
divided ringing" on two-party llneS
Dy an ingenious arrangement OF tn
circuits and the central office mechaI
Snl' the ringing on two-party lines J
now done in such a way that each SUI
Scfl6er S bell sounds only when tina
particular subscriber is wanted. Al
other innovation in connection wit
t"Oparty Ines-an arrangement tina
u las proved very satisfactory whereVe
II mas been applied-is the use OF ie
,ts instead of ring numbers" to on
anguish subscribers. Hereafter ~
sIu M will be used instead 9
'fUQ gr,f; 1,ro J; on tW(