The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-09-27
TELEPHONE WIRES
 KEPT BUSY
North Haven Wreck Made Record Business at
 Exchanges
(Telephone BuIletin.)

Tuesday morning, September 2, the White Mountain Express crashed into the second section of the Bar Harbor at Mi1ler's crossing, just above North Haven, and by night the New Haven, Wa11ingford, Meriden and Midd1etown forces had handled the heaviest traf- f1c in the history of any of those four offices. Tn the hours of horror the burden of reaching physicians, hos pita1s, relatives and sending the aw- full news all over the country fell upon the telephone.
 In New Haven the business ex- ceeded the traffic of football day, which has heretofore held the record. Thirty-two hundred outward toll line and long distance tickets were com p1eted and the local traffic climbed up to over 10000 calls, the normal days toll business being 2,5O0 serials, and the normal local business being 9O,OO0 calls.
 To meet this all of the force, i'm c1uding those who were to have had a day off and all substitutes that could be reached, were ordered to report and during the peak of the business 200 members of the force were on duty. Every operator was held at noon, the company providing lunch. A temporary recording table with room for six operators was rig ged up and thirty operators devoted all their time to the toll line and long distance switchboard.
 The great bulk of the traffic was met between in the morning and in the afternoon. In spite of the strain under which they worked, there was not a case of breakdown among the operators.
 Wa1lingford. small office and just finished with heavy Labor days traffic, had been a harder task to face than New Haven with it's greater facilities. Their business on toll line and long distance almost tripled, six hundred and twelve serials being completed as against a normal days business of two hundred and forty. On local the traffic more than trtp1ed. In this office the big jump came at 7:3o and held, almost without a let up, until 9:30 in the evening. All of the operators were called in and three from Hartford and two from Meriden rushed to wa11ingford and put to. work. Miss Dorothy Barnes, chief operator, was at work from 7:30 in the morning until 9:30 o'clock in the evening, and there was not an oper- ator but was called upon for overtime and to work under a tremendous men tai and physical strain.
 To assist in handling the frightful congestion of out of town service an additional circuit was cut through di- rect to New York and one to Hart ford. Tn New Haven temporary faci1- ities were installed at the State and James streets car barn. A force of plant men with extra sets reached the scene of the wreck soon after the news became known in New Haven.
 Meriden also came in for the heaviest days traffic in it's history This record was also established in MiddIetown. In Meriden a call was received at 7:2O, asking that all the doctors that could be reached be called by telephone and hurried to the scene of the wreck. Nineteen doctors were called and at once start ed for the scene of disaster.
 During the day 751 outward toll line connections were handled, as against 425 serials, which is a normal days business. The local business, ordi- nari1y about 1900 calls, went over 2,50O as a conservative estimate. This rush of business, which required the presence of every operator, except the two sent to Wa11ingford, held up until S:3O o'clock at night.
 Tn NIiddIetown, the greatest strain came on the toll and long distance force. Four hundred and sixty-seven toll line tickets were completed as against 295 under normal conditions, 1 this calling for doubling of the ordi- | nary toll force. While there was a large increase in local business, very little difficulty was experienced in car 1 ing for it.