Norwich bulletin., 1914-02-14
TELEPHONE OFF THE HOOK
 THE GREAT CAUSE OF TROUBLE.
Some of the Trials and Fluctuations
 of the Trouble Hunter"


 Have you stopped to stare up at a man Squatting on a seat fifteen feet up a pole, a receiver clapped to one ear, apparently talking to an open box that from where you stand, looks like the keys and hammers inside of you anr
 of your piano stool on end? We'll that man Is a trouble hunter" and it is his particular Obligation to see that the trouble or as the layman might term 1t the disorder, on telephone lines is cleared as promptly as possi- ble. He is the watchdog and the re- lief corps of the telephone company rolled into one.
 His is not the easiest work in the world, you may rest assured of that. He knows but one thin, that someone's line has been reported out of order and that his job is to find what is wrong, remedy it and get the line back into service as quickly as possi- ble. The heat, the cold, the storm, none of these prevent his part in his game, though they, of course, delay him. He has contain things to do and he does them.
 Arduous as his talks Is. however. it is the freak troubles he has to face that make it double trying. For in stance a light in the central office shows line out of order. The test indicates that this is at the sub scribers' telephone. that someone has left a receiver off the hook or some thing of the sort.
 The line is tested to be certain no one is trying to use it. Then a sig nal is sent over it. If this fails to produce the subscribed a man has to be dispatched to the house for that trouble must be cleared. What does he discover Someone went away and forgot to hang up the receiver; a book has been pushed under the re- ceiver just far enough to raise the hook and signal the operator. There
 was an actual case recently in New
 Haven where a dog got playing with
 the cord from the bell box to the
 telephone and pulled the instrument
 off the desk. The test man heard the
 dog barking when he went in on the
 line to find the trouble. The people
 were not in when the trouble man reached the house with the result
 that the line was out of order for
 hours.
 Remember the day you came home
 and learned your dripping. rain
 soaked umbrella up against the win
 dow sill. incidently just wher the wa
 ter soaked into your telephone cord order. Telephone men chuckle over a story that is told of one telephone test man in this state. He was given trouble ticket on a certain busi- ness line. He nad tested that same line but two days before. He also knew that there was a second wire in to the same office. He called up the subscriber, explained who he was and said: twill you please pull the cord on your other telephone out of the cuspidor
 The subscriber did so and his line was in service again.
 The boy often fixes things for the trouble man out where there is open wire. He gets a bit of wire and fastens stones or pieces of lead on either end. Then. after he has obtained the desired momentum, he lets his sling go. His target has been the telephone line above him. The wire with it's weight ed ends shoots true and winds loving l ly about two telephone wires. Short | circuit Somebody's line is out of commission and a. trouble hunter has to go out and clear the trouble. But first, last and always it is the
 receiver off the hook that is the bane | of the telepha)ne man. During the year 1913 fifty per cent. of the total listed | troubles of The Southern New Eng | land Telephone Company were due tC | receivers being left off the hook! That may sound like a fairy story but the Telephone Company vouches for its | accuracy.