The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-04-15
PHONE IMMENSE
CONVENIENCE FOR
AUTOMOBILES

A new telephone service enables
one TO get into communication with
garage or residence at any honr. from
anywhere about the city.
Hundreds Of visitors who come to
Detroit from cities all over the state
and all over the country. will be In
terested In the practical workings OF
one innovation in which Detroit
leads the world, that of the wayside
telephone service.
Most Detroiters who are inter
ested in any way in the automobile
business or who own a car, know In
general way what the service Is
and the immense convenience IL has
proved itself TO be, especially 10 au-
tomobilists. but TO hundreds Of others
as well. who from time TO time find
themselves in places remote from
any ordinary telephone connection
and in urgent need of getting into
communication with some other sec
tion or the community.
But the people outside OF Detroit
know of the service only by reputa-
ton, and because that reputation has
travelled far and wide to all the cities
and countries where telephones and
automobiles are used, many OF the
visitors to the show this week VIII
he almost as much interested In the
workings OF the system as in the new
models and novelties that will be on
exhibition at the show itself.
The wayside service consists OF a
pocket combination of receiver and
transmitter with short insulated
wire and plug attached. The user
ton with any point reached by the
Telephone service simply looks for
the Co.'S telephone, telegraph or troll
ley pole or the outside wall OF a
building that has one of the tele-
phone company's boxes, inserts the
plug of his pocket device into a hole
in the box. and in two seconds he Is
in communication with the company's
exchange and can be connected with
any telephone he calls for. II he
doesn't happen to know the number
of the telephone he wants the In
formation operator will give him the
number in about two jiffs, and then
he can 60 ahead with his business
just as well and just as speedily as
though he were phoning from his
own private Office.
The company has installed over
700 of thes boxes on posts and the
walls Of buildings on all the main
thoroughfares inside the city limits,
and in some cases far beyond the
limits The boxes have been dis
tributed on well planned and Hien-
tific system. so that there is prac-
tically no street in the city used as
main thoroughfare by automobiles
or other vehicles where the holder OF
one Of these pocket devices need go
more than two blocks TO find box
where he can get into communica-
ton, direct or indirect, with any part
of the civilized world The boxes
are red and blue in color and made
after design that naturally attracts
attention so that any user of the
pocket device will have the least pos
sible difficulty in finding one when
he needs IL. Besides that, every user
OF the device is supplied with a
pocket directory that tells him In an
instant where to locate the nearest
box, no matter what part of the city
he may be in.
No less than $500 of these little
pocket instruments, called micro
phones, are in use and their use is
increasing very rapidly.
All through the we'll built up sec
lions of the city the boxes are dis
tributed so thickly that the map
showing their location by red dots
looks like a bad case Of measles
The telephone companies in sew
eral of the large cities of the coun-
Try have been watching It's develop
ment here. to see whether II would
prove a success in actual operation.
and that they are convinced after
less than ~ months OF trial that it
is one Of the great innovations that
they must all come TO is evidenced
by the fact that the companies in
several cities are now negotiating for
the right to use the device.
The mtcrophone is made of alumni
mum, and is SO light and small that.
encloseu In leather case, Ii can
easily be carried in the pocket OF an
ordinary coat.
The conveniences and advantages
Of the service are so obvious that IL
is scarcely necessary to refer to them.
and the best evidence OF this is that
the number OF regular users of the
device has increased more than g.
500. The automobilist who runs
out of gasoline or meets with an ac-
cident is perhaps the one who ap-
preciates the service most, but there
are hundred other uses for Il.
After midnight, for instance, Il is
not an easy thing TO find telephone
In any part of the city that is avail
able for the use of the public. but
the man with one of these devices in
bic nnQkat pa m nall 80 ny,