Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-07-15
MORE PRIVACY TO
Be SECURED ON
COUNTRY PHONES
CONTINUED from Page ono

A1OullHutu from rage OntJ
Thus, if Bill Jones' ring is a short
and two longs, and you are talking
business and suddenly hear a high and
two low notes over the wire you will
know that Bill Jones Is "rubbering in
on your business.
Bill Jones you get off that line"
you can shout to him. Ii is then OPP
tional with Bill whether he will get off
the line or fight you French duel the
next time you meet him. But you
have the dope on him.
But the Indicator does even more
wonderful things than this.
In the first place, when you call
Sam Smith with Smiths two short and
two long rings Smith takes down his
receiver and Immediately you hear
two high and two low musical notes in
your receiver. You know at once il
is Smith and not the butinsky Jones,
who is at the other end. You go
ahead and talk business.
Then the Indicator gauges the
length of the conversation, so that
one may comply with the rules of the
company When the receiver comes
off the hook it sets the indicator into
operation. At the end of four min
ues il runs down. Then il automati-
cally disconnects you. That's a hint
that you have talked long enough for
mere visit. If it is business how
ever, and you want to prolong the con-
versation all you have to do is to press
down the lever and the spring is
wound up for another four minutes.
Again, by this means one can tell
just how long he is using the long
distance phone and does not need to
watch the clock or ask central to call
him down when he talks too long.
The Indicator will also register the
number of hours. i'm the day the
month, or year, the phone is used in a
given home. The time when the re-
ceiver is removed and replaced is reg
istered so that it is possible to tell
approximately how long the average
conversation on a given phone has
been. This is of immense advantage
TO the trouble man when patrons deny
they ever did anything but obey all the
rules scrupulously He looks at the
indicator and reads the entire history
of the use of the use and abuse of the
phone. Then he talks from know
ledge to the persons complaining Of
trouble.
Eleven years ago Mr.. Howard built
the first rural telephone in Phelps
County, Neb. There were forty-four
miles of it and twenty-seven phones on
the line. The instruments were taxed
to their full capacity. He shot
trouble for a while, and then became
manager. But everybody was listen
ing on the lines SO that the batteries
became exhausted rapidly, and the
service was always poor because there
were always a dozen or more receivers
down when a party tried TO talk
Howard was always on the go fixing
things and shooting trouble" During
this time he found some strange tao
tics resorted to by persons on rural
lines who were anxious TO listen in or
commit nuisances on the line.
He found a bachelor holding pet
pig to the transmitter when persons
on the line were talking business. The
bachelor pulled the pigs ear to make
il suueaI into the phone. Howard al
so found toothless grandmother
er TO her ear to get the neighborhood
gossip. He found two boys stealing
down the receiver when the folks
were out doing chores. lie found
Mrs. Mulligan with the receiver tied
to her head so that she might hear
while she worked on her sewing ma
chine. He found 3year-old baby
standing on chair listening in" as he
had seen his parents do.
So Howard swore he would invent
an Indicator and do away with all this.
He has tried the instrument out
thoroughly on the lines in Burt
County. 1t works perfectly. He says
the rubbernecks have been annihilat-
ed. the long-winded gossip is out OF
business, the saving in battery con-
sumption will be so per cent, and
the talking service will be so per cent
better for having stronger batteries
not exhausted by endless listening in.