New Britain herald., 1917-09-14

] le'oSioIeIAANC lul IlSIlcu by lSlSDnOIO dllO
 telegraph engineers to the Signal
 Corps and the other branches of the
 army and navy which have to do 1 with communication in active admin 1 istration, in the development of ma- 1 terial, and in the promotion of mili- tary communication science. This l includes the furnishing of more than
 14 battallons of officers and men for l of assistance of all kinds given the the Stgnal Corps besides a great deal | army and navy authorities by ex- 1 perts who have not gone directly into the service. In the second class of indirect assistance may be placed the | work of the telephone companies in
 increasing plant equipment and per-
 sonel in all parts of the country for the use of government departm ents
 and industries employed in making ] munitions and supplies for the gov I ernment.
 1 The formation of more than 14 reserve battalions for the Signal 1 Corps from the telephone and tele-
 graph companies is rapidly nearing l completion. The majority of the
 units have been recruited practically 1 up to full strength and nearly all of 1 the officers have received their com 1 missions. Several battalions are al- , ready in camp receiving intensive l training under officers of the regular army Wherever possible the mem. bers of the battalions which have not l been called into active service have been drilling and attending lectures l conducted by army officers. Where drilling is practicable. literature re- latlng to signal corps work and mill itary tactics has been distributed and courses of study outlined
 Men from telegraph companies at marine obserVatories, cable terminals and on the Mexican border have been l enrolled as army and navy censors and have ably assisted in this work. At least one of the telegraph com- panies h2N sent out registration blanks returnable by all employees who registered for the draft so that
 the company may aid the government
 in determining the particular service
 for which these drafted men are best
 suited, New men are constantly be-
 ing taken for service in the Signal
 Reserve Corps and plans are being
 worked out to utilize various 'educa- tional institutions in this work.
 'Wherever government construc- tion projects are going forward, the telephone and telegraph systems have been called in to place them in quick contact with the department cen- ters, and in the case of cantonments and training camps to establish per manent telephone systems both in | ternal and external for the conven- | fence of the department authorities. ! For additional circuits already com ! pleted it has been necessary to pro- , vide about 440 miles of copper wire, ; and to build 112 miles of new pole , line
 Work is being pushed forward ac- : lively on the installation of the third ; addition which has been made since . February to the toll switchboard at : Washington The addition will in ! crease the capacity of the board to 22O per cent. of what it was last February By means of these fre- 1uent additions it has been possible to keep ahead of the rapid increase of the war toll service in Washington. out the end is not yet in sight and further additions to the board have been ensineered and the material or 1ered.
 Especial additions to toll switch- board equipments are also being in stalled at many other important important points throughout the where war dCllNltleS tTC eA- peCted to increase the traffic.
 "Besides these additional toll fa- cilities much work has been neces- sary, particularly in Washington, to extend local switchboard equipment in anticipation of other increases of war traffic. A large amount of under ground cable work has been done. In many instances, for example, the in crease in business has called for ca bles between scattered buildings housing the various government de- partments. Practically every gov ernment post in the country has had to have additions to it's telephone sys- tenn.
 Connecting Up Camps.
 "As soon as the location of all the Army cantonments had been definitely decided upon, the work of providing adequate telephone facili- ties, with suitable stock of switch boards. loading coils. cable and other material. progressed swiftly and shipment of this material has been made as rapidly as required. The housing of the cantonment central of fees is well under way ar the per equipment will .e installed by the time the camps are ready for
  in most cases several miles from the nearest city, it has been necessary to plan for a large increase in the trunks of the nearby city. often necessitating long lengths of cable containing from 30 to 100 pairs of wire. The same process has been carried on in the National Guard cantoments. and al- though their location was determined much later the installation will be in ample time.
 ''In addition to all this permanent york; temporary telephone facilities nave been furnished for the con-