The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-17
PHONE COMPANY
 PREDICTS RAPID GROWTH DE CITY
Population To Be Nearly 2OO,-
 900 in Year 1890.
Interesting History Of the Past Given-No More Toll Calls For Westport and NorWalk.


 Bridgeport will have approzzilna tely 1sa.ns5 populatiou in 1950 This in- crease of 7z,145, or a grand total or sassz families in e period ef 16 years Eenra is made by the Southern New Esngsand Telephone sxpeITs after . coreful study of past statistics and Is Fl esented in a most interesting article or the Park City publishedF in the cur rer.1 rumber Of the Telephone BuIle- tln to wkich credit 1s given for the foi-i
 Bridgeport IS summed ID as having a most loyal population. proud oE it's instftution and always ready to boost for it's welfare. It is character izsd as being noted for thres things: the fact that. 1t IS one of the most dfvers-aed Industrial eenters in the 7zcrlds Tor it's beautiful parks from which 1t takes the name Park City and the successful activity Of it's Board Of Trade A fourth is forgotten-tl1at fl was the home of P. r. Barnuna;
 According to 5quotatlon from the rer rant publication sof the State Board oz Trade Brfd dseport is credited with having more capftal invested in man rfactrre than any other city in the state. the latest flgures placing the to. tad at SS2. .7Ts. 900.
 Being a manusac turing city the tele- phone Service is heavy There ele III private branch exchanges, the largest ii the Hotel Stratheld being two EoSlLLcu board WILD tz1o fSeCll B.. A 1l5 singer Sewing BIachine company ranks second with IA stations To this company also goes the blue ribbon for the largest internal traffic of any rravate exchange The Epconobile eompnny is the largest nsel of the 1onr distance wires The New E-a- ven railroad has the distinction of op- erattng the largest number of trunk line wires through the local exchange. Fl is satisfactorily shown tnat both
 
 Approximately 62.0o0 calls a day. m lsddftion about 144O toll, or out of town jca1ls. are handled. Circuits number ing 55s2 terminate in the Fsaifsield ave- me exchange
 It is esffn1afed that from the nucleus or "a subscribers with wk1ch T B. Doo- llittla experimented upon the nrst tele- ph0na switch board ever put ! h opera- 1fnn sn 1s78 fife total nurns CT Of teIe- phonea in use here in 1880 win be 2s,- sss or approximately 1s0 per cent more than at present
 Tn fhis connection a bit of past his-' tory Of telephony may be interesting The nrst telephone service h 1878 was known as the Telephon Dis1a tch com pauy. ID 1879 1t was sold to the Western Union and one year. later was purchased by the American Bell Tele-l phone company. Tn 1881. the year be- fore lt pasged into the Southern New England Telephone compauEs control xhere were but 23Q subscribers- This had increased to 6s4 in 1890. Tn 19na there were 2S42 and at tho end of 1913. total of 1o.295. on July ' the total: number of stations in use were 10,-s 691 and # is expected by 1he end of the year there will be a grand total of 110A The frst office or exchange was located in the Barnu1n building and the present office was not opened unfil 1901.
 The trafac division of the local ex- change IS In charge of T. A Dowa chief operator, with I. C. Chase and F. atng force of six supervisorss 25 toll line and 64 local operators with several ticket and directory clerks makes a fotaI of ss emp1oyes in the depart
 The plant department is in charge oE c Dodge sFife chief with forte=5f46- J= F Arorrissey. head 1zseailer. takes care Of installation york with a confinement of 12 men Tl1o alone have handled 1s,e00 cases Of trouble during six months of this year and found time to make 14gs instaila- 1ions of apparatus.
 Before W. w. Knight was placed in charge cf the commercial q department. Inc l8te F. E Betta who was assoA eHted with T. B. Eoolittle ii the early telephone days Of Bridgeport enjoyed tls distipction of being the oldest ex- change manager in years of continuous. ss-zice in the United statee.'s Under a15F. Knights direction is clerical 1sEce of 17, with three contract agents and two collectors.
 Besides the main ofTlce a district rlant chief is located in quarters in the afeigs building and a traffic m2n-, sazer is located in the Exchange build
 on and after Sunday. July 1B. ton calls between the Bridgeport and RSestport, Fairfield and Norvza1lx ana if.asrreid and yyestport Telephons Ez- changes. where number call is de- sired. will be scoupleted without re- tquiring the subscriber to ask for toll. line or to hang up his telephone and wait for the return call
 As far as the Subscriber is concern ed. the procedure will be exactly the >eane as on a local call, except that fr VII be necessary to prefix the desired number with the name of the Esxchange fn which it is located and to give. the number of the feIephoue f~n+l1 vw1,3r11i the call is being made.
 For illustration. if a subscriber in 1he Bridgeport Exchange whose teIe- phone humber is 452 wishes to call number 52 ring 2 fn westport or Nor walk as the case may be. he will say fo the local operator. eyveztport 52 rlng for z6z. z and remain at the teIe- pnoue until the telephone in Che West port Exchange has been answered, or the report has been given that they do not answer at the desired tele- phone
 Under this new method, tue South ern New England Telephone company expects to provide a speedy and most satisfactory toll service between the Exchanges mentioned This method has already been introduced between large number of other Ex ch anges in the state and. in every Instance. is working out in a highly satisfactory manner