The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-04

The "ring back" or ringing in
your car' on telephone will soon be
a thing of the past. BY the latest in
vention in telephony to be put to prac-
tical use on commercial systems, it is
TO he rclegated to the junk heap, along
used to call "Central' by turning a
crank, or the passenger car without the
air brakes.
| Salt Lake City is said to be among
7 the first half-doZen cities in the country
| to have the supervisory relay estab
| lished in public telephone service.
| This is the name for simple enough
device at the central station which
makes it impossible for the operator to
turn the "ringing current the cur
rent which rings the telephone bell
over telephone circuit when the tele-
phones on that circuit arc in use.
The "ringing in the ear" presented
hard problem to telephone engineers.
The girl at the switchboard is human.
and sometimes Will make mistakes, At
times she is not to blame, as, for ex-
ample. when patron picks up his tele
phone at the same moment that the
operator starts 10 ring.
The supervisory relay however, gets
rid OF the trouble. With it installed,
Just as soon as the subscriber takes
the telephone receiver off the hook, the
action operates an apparatus on the
connecting cord circuit at the switch
board in the central Office. This APP
paratus, or relay. as it is known, opens
or breaks, the ringing circuit. Central
cannot ring on that line now. because,
SO far as the ringing is concerned. the
power is 'ofT. - 1t does not "come
on" again until the subscriber places
the receiver back on the hook
The supervisory relay is being in
stalled at the Utah Independent Tele- |
phone company's g office. as one item in
4 long list Of improvements. the most |
important of which in the ewes of the |
company officials, is the harmonic
party line system. The harmonic sys- |
tenn is said to be better than that for.
merlv In use by reason of the fact that |
it provides an all.metal circuit for both
ringing and speaking. This gets rid of
all the noise and the variations that
become a part of telephone system
when the ground is used as part Of the
system. 1t places the subscriber on
party line, il is claimed. on IN equal
basis with the man on the one-partv
line. so far as talking is concerned The
only difference is that the line serves
four subscribers. instead of one. Fur
her, by reason of the fact that the cir
'uit is all of metal. it is claimed that
The length of the line makes no differ
,nce IN the ringing system, and it is
Just as easy to ring the right person
IN party line seven or more miles long
IS 1t is to do so on line one mile long.
The Independent company's party
inc system has the further advantage
IT having separate party line "multi-
,le' or switchboard. On this are in
llcators by which an operator may tell
It a glance whether there is such a
lumber on circuit as a patron is call
n" for, or whether the subscriber has
moved or had his telephone taken out
# service for any reason. In this case
he person calling for such number is
It once referred to the information op-
rator. Still another improvement on
his system is that the button on which
he operator has pressed to call sub 7
criber on a party line remains in a
lightly different position to its neigh {
'ors, so that, should the party called ]
lot answer promptly the operator may
ing again without troubling the person =
alling to repeat the number.
The information desk space is being l
oubled in size. to accommodate the
increased business of the company,