The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1910-10-14

HoAoAoAeAeAoko
IT Asst week I told how a boy,
starting In as a messenger
R1 at a few dollars a week,
IN " with application and ambi-
80 ton could make himself a
power on the commercial
side Of the telephone industry, now
rapidly spreading to every nook and
Granny of this country. Today, I pur-
pose telling how a boy, who doesn't
know the first thing about a tele-
phone principle to begin with, can
equip himself for high Office and in
f1uence on the purely physical. or tech
meal, side of the industry.
Technical telephony-sounds for
m1dable, doesn't it, especially when
you recall that your boy has never
displayed, to your certain knowledge,
any pronounced leanings to study any
thing from the mechanical or tech
nical side. But don't worry, notwith-
standing, If your boy makes up his
mind that he would like to take up
technical telephony. Provided he is
about 18, has a rudimentary educa-
ton, and is chock full of ambition and
determination to get ahead, the tele-
phone company will see to it that he
gets the necessary technical knowl-
edge, that he may be of value to them
and to himself. And If, in good time,
he reaches a position of great power
in the company he will not have been
the first youngster to mount the same
ladder to success
Your boy, then-its having been de-
cided that he Is going to make a de-
termined effort to learn everything
possible to be learned about the ply
steal side of the telephone business
applies to what Is known as the plant
department, the particular and dis
tinctive branch Of the industry that
installs the telephones and keeps
them in good working order 365 days
in a year. At once, he doubtless will
be surprised to learn that he has to
begin by going to school; and his Sec
cnd surprise will come when he is
told that, nevertheless, and notwith-
standing, he will be an employee of
the company and will actually be paid
a weekly wage while he is being in
structed in the abc's of technical
telephony.
The pay Of the pupil varies from Sc
to SO a week at the start, according
to the city in which he begins his
life's work studies. In almost every
one of the big cities throughout the
country the telephone company oper-
ating therein maintains a regular
school Of instruction in connection
with its plant. The school in New
York city, where there are $4,000
telephones in use, is typical Of all the
others, and so it's methods and the
lines of advancement therefrom, are
here described.
The school is in charge of an in
structor, who, of course, teaches
everything there is to be learned
about putting the instruments to-
gether assembling, it is called); how
the wires are connected properly, and
how to install them and the instru-
ments in a building and fix them
ready for use. After two or three
weeks of instruction, demonstration.
and listening to lectures, the boy will
know enough to be sent out as a help
er to one Of the regular installers.
An installer makes connection with
the outside wires or cables at the en-
trance Of building, continuing them
beneath mouldings and through walls
to the particular room in which the
phone is to be installed. Then, when
everything is ready, he connects the
phone itself with the rest Of the sys-
tenn and turns it over, ready for use,
to the traffic department. He is
very important factor in the telephone
industry.
AS a helper to an installer your boy
will receive probably s. or $40 week.
His work as helper will continue for
several months, and all the time he
will be getting more advanced in
struction in the school, learning down
to the uttermost detail the internal
construction Of the instrument him.
self. Perhaps, by the time he has
mastered this bit of technical knowl-
edge he is receiving $12 a week, as
reward for work we'll done and les
sons we'll learned: and then, one fine
morning, he walks into the office to
find himself promoted to be an in
staller, with helper under him, at
SIS or SIS week.
After a month or so of actual in
stalling, for which he alone is respon-
sible, he is given still more technical
training in the school. This time he
learns the principles of telephone
construction and operation, and also
how to wire up and connect what are
known as private branch switchboards,
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 SIS 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 tho details Of the nicke&in.