The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-03-07
20,24S,326 MILES
OF TELEPHONES
In the United States, According to Sta
tisties Just Prepared by CHIEF
Statistician of the Nation.

Washington, d. c., March 7.-Prelimi
nary figures of the forthcoming quin
auennial report on telephones OF tn
United States have been given out by
Director w. j. Harris of the bureau o
the census, department OF commerce
They were prepared under the supervl
sion ofsAN. NJ. Steuart, chief statistieiai
| for manufactures.
The statistics relate to the years end
| ing December 81, 1902, 1907, and 1912
They include the total wire mileage ant
the total number of telephones reported
for all systems in the United States
that were in operation all or any part
of those years. They do not include pri-
waite telephone lines used exclusively for
communication between different depart
ments of the same establishment unless
connected with lines elsewhere through
a private or branch exchange. The num-
Der OF telephones includes all installed
including those furnishing service
through private branch exchanges, local
pay, and outlying toll stations.
during the year 1912 the length OF
wire used on the telephone lines of the
United States amounted to 20,24S,326
miles. This represents a gain OF 1884,
ST5 miles during the decade, or an in
crease of 1892 per cent; there were
S,720, 592 telephones in use, or 6,35S, 54S
more than the number reported for 1902,
an increase of 1852 per cent.
The number of telephones reported by
the Bell telephone system increased by
1878 per cent during the period from
1902 to 1907, and by ga per cnt. from
1907 to 1912. During the same periods
the number of telephones reported by
all other companies and systems in
creased by 1884 per cent. and % per
cent, respectively. In 1902 the Bell
system controlled 69.l per cent. of the
wire and $50 per cent. of the telephones
in us. In 1912 this system controlled
TAT per cent. of the wire and 58.3 per
cent. of the telephones. The proportion
of the total wire mileage and total num-
her of telephones owned by the Bell
telephone system has increased during
the decade, while that owned by the
independent companies has decreased,
II is estimated that there were 1875.
05S, 2I5 messages or talks sent over the
telephone lines of companies which had
an income of at least $4,000 during 1912.
A message may represent either a few
words or a long conversation, and there
fore does not indicate the extent to
which the equipment is used 1t was
impossible TO obtain even an estimate
of the number of conversations over the
private brancn wires and the party lines
which do not require interconnection at
the public or central exchanges. No es-
Inmates were required concerning the
number of messages for the ,402, s44 tel
ephones on the lines of small companies
which had an income of less than $1,000
during 1912. Messages for these smaller
systems were included to some extent
at the census of 1902; therefore the sta
tisties OF messages reported for the three
years are not strictly comparable, and
they should not be considered as repre-
senting the total amount of business
transacted by telephone systems of the
United States during the year 1912.