Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-08-10
PHONE CO. GROWING FAST
About 1000 More Calls Daily in
July, 1916, Over July, 1915.
During First SIX Months Of Ycnr POS
stations Were Added, Biggest In
crease since 1D1O-Concern Is
Prosperity Index.

This is another one of those statistics
stories. It's story which is quite as i'm
portant for the differences which may be
drawn from the facts as it is for the
facts themselves.
If you've never been in the operating
room of the telephone Company's build
ing here, YOU don't know what human
bee hive" means. And there are rea-
sons. For the New York and New Eng
land Telephone company added more new
telephones or stations" as they call them
in the first six months OF 1916 than during
! the same period of any year since 1910.
The increase in the number of toll calls
in 1916 over 1915 has been 10 per cent as
| compared with 1-2 per cent. increase in
1915 over 1911. During July there were APP
proximatey 1000 more calls a day in the
city than during July 1915 AS for toll
calls, there were about t6S more n day on
the average this July than In July last
year. The approximate number of mes
sages handled through the Burlington
switchboard including both local and toll
was 2G,5O0 day or more than 100000 an
nuallv.
on July the company had "7O3 bust
/
scribors and 1.2iO extension telephones"
or a total of 4,OS5 stations. compared with
800 stations on July !, 1912 an average
gain of 40 a year BY the 18th of August
the company expects to complete ar
ranCements whereby the Offices at Fort
Ethan Allen will have connection with
| subscribers of Burlington through the
government switchboard at the fort.
causes of trouble with your telephone
connection, Mr.. and Mrs. Subscriber, end
the growth of the local service which mas
been. YES tropical" has at times almost
gotten beyond the control of the Office
here. For to keep up with It more than
putting in new positions for new opera
tors is necessary; there Is all the outside
work. which must be adapted not only to
present requisites but to what appear to
he the futures demands.
! The company has done a good deal Of
this extension work besides making addi-
| tions to the plant. During June two adj
! ditional operators positions were "cut in
on the switchboard" as Manager J. A.
/ Russell put 1t. Four new toll circuits and
! two additional toll lines are now In process
! of construction 10 St. Adams and Platts-
| hurgh, There are five more traffic en-
| ploYes now than in July, l9l5,-there were
in July, that is, or As in all. The number
of plant and commercial employees is 10.
| making n total of g. employees in the con-
! Germ.
| Those heavy showers. and that drizZle
drizzle, drizzle day after day during June
and the spring months made n lot of
trouble for the company And high hui
midity. which made you feel wiltery
during July was Just as big a trouble
maker, During July I'VE cleared over 900
line troubles due to electrical storms and
high humidity" is Manager Russell's
| statement "the latter condition causing
a ground on the line due to moisture
collecting on the telephone wires in cell
lars. We had more trouble with lines out
of order in July than in any month on
| record"
Yes, it costs something to build, equip.
maintain and extend the lines of n tele-
| phone company. I'VE are continually
| building extensions to our farmer lines
and making requirements and additions
to plant" saws Mr.. Russell, "having spent
over $4,000 in burlington city limits for
new construction in 1916" And the serv-
ice has been improved, too. For example.
subscribers in Essex Junction now have
the service Of a local operator instead Of a
toll operator, which makes for quicker
| connections
Read this on the size Of the system in
the city: THE company has in
the city Of Burlington approx
| mately six miles of underground ca
BILE and IS miles Of aerial cable. contain
| ing with the open wire con-
struction, upwards of lo,oN miles of tele-
phone wire in the outside plant and sew
eral thousand miles of wire In the switcn-
| board. In addition to cables for local
W'rcS, there is 60 pair cable entering the
building and carrying toll wires exclu-
svely.
The switchboard at the Burlington Of
fee ANA the method Of furnishing service,
! is identical Cor nearly 500 with that of a
large city, except that the number of
! calls handled by the operator is less in
volume agr"cgating approximately 800
connections per day against 10000 in a
! city like Springfield Mass"
| You've been waiting for those infer
cnccs Wen, they're obvious enough and
| you've probably made them yourself. The
! growth of a telephone system in a city
or town means that more business S be-
ing done than hefore-other factors the
| same; 1t means prosperity in the com
munity or territory; and it may mean a
growth of population
INFANTILE PARALYSIS