The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-10-13

the central distributing points in
buildings and offices that have numer-
GUS branch telephones running from
one room or apartment, or desk, to
another. After he has proved to the
head of the school his ability to do
such work practically, he becomes an
installer of private switchboards, or
exchanges, as they are popularity
called, at about $25 week.
So he goes on through the various
carefully graded courses of the school,
until he knows all the basic phases
of the technical work of telephony,
including the details of the nickel-tn-
the-slot instruments, the party lines,
the intercommunicating telephones
Oocal telephones used for connecting
various rooms in the same building
without getting outside connection).
speaking tubes, etc. One of the feat
ures of advanced instruction is the
hunting for trouble. The teacher fixes
| up all sorts of devices and cross wires,
which might happen in any conceiv.
able mistreatment of or accident to an
| instrument, and the pupil Is required
| to discover the cause of the trouble
and apply the proper remedy.
| Still another advanced course
teaches how telephone installation
must be done in what is known as
particular work. BY this is meant in
stallations in costly private resi-
dences, where every wire must be
concealed and the work done around
rare furniture and bric-a-brac. The
company expects every installer to
be able to do such work as expertly
as he does installing of the ordinary
kind.
After five or six years of instruction
and practical work, first as an install.
lers helper and then as an installer,
your boy, having shown in the mean
time that he can handle men, may be
made foreman of an installation dis
trict, with anywhere from so to 100
men under him, and be paid salary
Of s35 to $40 week. The next pro-
motion would logically be to chief
foreman, over all the other foremen
in large district, with salary of
$4,000 to $4,000 year.
|
the average But the young man with
ambition-with sufficient ambition to
cause him to rivet his eyes on the
headship of the plant department.
will have realized eaarly in the game
that there are various lines of adj
vancement in technical telephony,
and that the best way to become plant
"head" is to train himself in all the
lines. Including the line just de-
scrlbed, he will also strive to master
the cable department which has to do
with the laying of cables in subways
under the streets, the wiring of build
ings, making underground connec-
!, tons, understanding the wiring neces-
sary for particular classes of installa-
ton, etc.
Still another division of plant work
is that of inspection. Inspectors are
. the men who make regular rounds In
assigned districts to see that the tele-
phones are working properly. They
begin in the school, just as installers
do, getting salary of Sc week as
students. When they are put on reg
. ular work they are paid from SIS to
SIS a week and work up to what are
known as special inspectors, at sal
, airy of from 1923 to $27, attending tc
such important worok as the inspec
, ton of hotel switchboards. Finally
an inspector, If he shows ability, may
be made a wire chief, in charge OF
the switchboard plant of central
office, at salary of from $4,000 to
$4,000 a year. Then he may become
district inspector, or supervising
wire chief, for larger territory, al
from $4,000 to $4,000 year.
From any one of the heads of the
departments of inspection, installa
ton, or cable, your boy might be Sc
lected to go out and establish new
plants in large communities, starting
with those comparatively small, and
working up through those of increas
ing Importance, till he had proved his
ability sufficiently to be the plant
head of such district as Manhattan
and the Bronx in Greater New York
The last direct promotion would be
to the position of general plant super
intendent, who is the head of all physi
cal departments of the business, ant
is one of the most important officials
, of the company. OF course, the maj
: able to administer such post as this
is not far from the general manager
ship and the presidency, to which
your boy may-at least theoretically
: aspire. AS plant superintendent, hi:
salary would be not just two or three
or four thousand dollars year; an(
as president-well, it is needless tt
! say he would be well paid.
Copyright, 1910, by the Associated Lit
i. erary Press.)