Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-01-19
LONG DISTANCE TOLL LINE
An Announcement of Far
Reaching Import Made by
G. w. Hinchcliffe- Serv-
ice Includes Every Office
Phone in Phoenix


Phoenix to Kansas City on the east.
and as far up the Pacific coast as Sac
ramento will be established by April /.
This service will be over the first tele-
phone line in operation from Mississip-
pi valley points to the Pacific ocean.
Definite information concerning this
new line, which is virtually a trans
continental toll line, was given out yes
terday by General Manager c. w.
Hinchcliffe of the Consolidated Tele-
phone & Telegraph company. Mr..
Hinchcliffe came up from Tucson
Tuesday night
While several western newspapers
have published portions of the story.
the true magnitude of the work now
under way has never been made pub
lie Up to this time the public has
been ignorant of the fact that the
longest continuous telephone line in the
country is rapidly nearing completion.
Ultimately Kansas City will be able
to talk to Los Angeles, San Francisco
and Sacramento without the messag es
being repeated at relay stations. This
will be brought about by various
changes and improvements. Phoenix.
however will have direct telephone
communication. without repeating,
both to the Mississippi valley and to
the Pacific coast as soon as the line
now under way is complete.
Specifications for the line as well
as for equipment at the various sta
tions and exchanges along the way.
were drawn up by J. ]. Carthy, chief
engineer of the American Telephone &
Telegraph company. Mr.. Carthy is the
man who, in 1884. predicted that it
would ultimately be possible to talk
from New York to Boston.
The reason / have no hesitation in
announcing that Phoenix will be able to
talk to Kansas City, Sacramento and
other cities near them, is that Mr.
Carthy knows exactly what certain
Kinds of telephone equipment will do
He was entrusted to draw up specifi-
cations which would give that kind of
service and he has done so. We know
that by April /. provided we do not
have bad luck in construction, any
business man i'm Phoenix will be able
to sit i'm his office and converse with
anyone in Kansas City, Los Angeles.
FL Paso. San Francisco. Sacramento OF
hundred other places. All that is
necessary to obtain this result is to
install the proper kind of equipment,
and that is just what we are doing
now
Here in Phoenix we will not have to
install any additional equipment to con-
meet the business phones with our
long distance line. They are all on
a full metallic circuit and have the
proper instruments. properly installed.
Not all the residence phones can be
served at first, but If there is any great
demand for service from any residence
its phones will be changed so that the
subscriber can be accommodated. In
the central exchange we will have to
have some special apparatus, but most
of the phones in the city are already
prepared for communication with
points more than a thousand miles
away as soon as the line is complete.
There are ISL 900 stations in Cab
fornia and 100000 are already
equipped, or soon will be equipped, to
take advantage of the new long dis
lance communication"
For some months the Consolidated
company has had an agreement with
the Bell company of Colorado. and with
the new line in operation. cooperation
between the two companies means the
extension OF each system to include
the other
In regard to construction, Mr.. Hinch-
cliffe said that a crew of eighteen men
is now working east from Banning.
California. Another crew of sixteen
men is now working east from Yuma
and the Consolidated company has
nineteen men working west from Tue
son. On the first of March six line
men will be put to work stringing a
new wire to connect with the long
distance line from Phoenix to Mari
copa This wire will be strung on the
company's present poles. AS the COM
pany already has line to Tucson.
there will be two complete lines be-
tween the capital city and the old
pueblo.
East of Tucson the poles Of the
Western Union Telegraph company will
be used A crew of telephone linemen
is now working west from Ell Paso.
Prescott will enjoy the same tele-
phone advantages as Phoenix. II is
not necessary TO string new wire from
this city to Prescott, the one now in
use being sufficient for the purpose.
Two or three weeks ago the line be-
tween FL Paso and Kansas City, which