Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1911-12-12
E H. Martin Explains the Work
ings Of His New Device for
Measuring Telephone
Service.
SOME OF IT'S ADVANTAGES
Telephone Company Invites the Crit
icism Of Users is a New
Thing.

Eds. Freeman Tribune: The JUS
tice and consistency Of selling wat
er, gas and electricity by meter
measurement has been recognized
for years and is proved by the fact
that each consumer must pay for
what he actually uses as measured
and there is no reason why the poor
man should pay for the extrava-
gance Of his neighbor. If this is
true OF water, gas and electricity,
why not the telephone? Telephone
companies have been casting about
for years, in fact ever since its. In
PRODUCTION into public service to de-
wise a meter that WOULD equitably
measure the service and up to the
invention of the Martin telephone
meter there has been nothing any
where nearly approaching simple
and accurate device for this purpose.
A hundred things could be said
about the value of the meter as 1t
will absolutely stop the abuse Of the
telephone, which has been patient
horse for these many years. To cite
an instance: A careful count OF
calls in this Office for two weeks
shows the remarkable result of %
per cent Of all calls passing over the
board in "a hours from spongers. so
per cent unnecessary calls, the other
rs per cent being legitimate busi-
ness. II this Is per cent of unprof-
table business can be cut down it
stands to reason that the service
will be much more prompt and 70
per cent Of the cline busy will be
cut out, rs per cent OF consumption
Of battery saved, rs per cent less
wear and tear on the apparatus, 70
per cent of a saving in the valuable
time OF the busy man, and last but
not least, the small user will not be
compelled to pay for the large user
as at present.
have had great many people
ask about the new meter and here
with explain it and its working full
". The meter itself Is a 16 size z
jeweled %. watch movement that
counts minutes up to 1899 and is
mounted IN the telephone receiver.
In order. to attach 1t to telephone
(any make or system) 1t is only
necessary to take off the present re-
ceiver and connect the new one in
it's place. When you place the re-
ceiyer to your ear you cant hear
anything (being cut OF the line)
until you push a button handily
mounted on the receiver. When you
push this button you do three
things, first, wind 1t, second start
It, and third cut your self on the
line. There Is a set screw In the
meter which will set it anywhere
from three minutes up to ten min
utes when 1t will cut you OF the
line and If You wish to talk longer
you have to let go of the button and
push 1t again. For instance II the
meter Is set to 3 minutes you have
automatic notice that you have talk
ed your limit on toll lines.
II you only talk a quarter OF a
minute that Is all that Is charged
to you, or IL you talk five times in a
day q quarter of minute each time
you will have only been charged
with one minute and quarter, In
fact the meter registers as low as
one-tenth of minute. Now you
ask, how will you charge for the
service. That can't be told until
practically tried out but In order to
give you an idea of how 1t will
work out we will suppose some fig-
CURES. (Now don't mistake It
these figures are not correct but only
used as an illustration). We will
say our minimum would be for 1000
minutes per year to cover outgoing
business. and we allow you 500 min
utee per year to cover incoming
business and 500 minutes per year
to cover all cases Of bad service,
slow operation, and other unsatis-
factory connections, this makes q
total OF 1000 minutes and when we