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

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
ler's 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 a salary
of $95 to $40 week. The next pro.
motion would logically be to chief
foreman, over all the other foremen
in a large district, with salary of
$4,000 to $4,000 year.
Not bad salary-in fact, far above
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 ad-
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-
scribed, 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
CT To hot h0 %o11
phones are working properly. They
begin in the school, just as installers
do, getting a salary of IS a week as
students. When they are put on reg
ular work they are paid from SIS to
$1S a week and work up to what are
known as special inspectors, at sal
airy Of from $23 to s27, attending to
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 a central
office, at a salary Of from $4,000 to
$4,000 a year. Then he may become
district inspector, or supervising
wire chief, for larger territory, at
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
1ected 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, and
is one Of the most important officials
Of the company. Of course, the man
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, his
salary would be not just two or three
or four thousand dollars a year; and
as president-well, it is needless to
say he would be we'll paid
Copyright, 1910, by the Associated Lit
erary PresS)