The Evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1917-1920, 1918-06-07

to. / know that telephone isn't busy
This positive assertion has beer
made hundreds of times in Columbia
about the patient telephone operator
who answers the calls as mechanically
and as disinterestedly as any machine
could do. Most people do not realize
that when one four-party line is call
ing another four-party line, six other
telephones cannot be used at that
time. There are S75 four-party lines
in Columbia, or $500 telephones which
have a color with their number and
are likely therefore, to be busy.
If subscribers would step into the
quiet room of the telephone exchange
in which ten or twelve girls are busy
with both hands during the day, CEN
trail would be subjected to less critic
ism. The girls are not allowed to
talk to one another nor to turn their
heads when some one enters the room.
They answer from $4,000 to $4,000 calls
in day, including $500 rural calls.
Four of the operators work at the toll
switchboard. They answer from 400
to 900 calls day. Each girl works an
average of eight hours a day and is
on duty three or four hours at a time
Each answers from 100 to 400 calls
an hour. The exact number is re-
corded in a meter-like box and the
number answered by each girl is taken
every hour There are twenty-five
girls on the pay roll.
During a football game fifty Oper-
ators would not be able to handle the
calls" said Miss Ida A Potter, chief
operator. 1--WE have our rush seasons
the same as the stores and the res
taurants. Yet a man would think
nothing Of waiting two minutes in
store to be waited on becomes dis
gusted with such service if he has to
wait in line fifteen seconds to get an
operator to connect him with his resi-
dence that he may tell his wife that
he will be little late to dinner"
A System Of Flashes.
The switchboard works entirely by
lights. Whenever little light flashes
on, it indicates that some one has
taken down a receiver. Then central
takes the corresponding plug, makes
the connection with the exchange, and
into the little black horn-like mouth
piece which is fastened to her, asks
Number, please?" She always asks
thot
called for a number only to find it
busy; no matter how much discourtesy
the operator has had to undergo, she
invariably asks Number, please?"
While she is verifying the number you
have given her she takes the other
plug (they are always arranged in
pairs) and connects you with the num-
Der you have called. Immediately its
lights comes on. Then she touches the
proper button and sets the automatic
ringer until the telephone is answered.
AS soon as the receiver is taken down
at the other end, both lights go Off
They come on again when the re-
ceivers are hung up so that central
will know when to disconnect without
going on the line" to find out if the
conversation has ended
If you call number which is busy,
central clicks the plug against the
switchboard to warn you that the busy
signal is coming Then she plugs the
hole marked Busy" And the busy
buzzer is always busy buzzing. 1t is
located in a little black box in the
room where all the telephone lines
of the city enter the building and it
whirrs back and forth increasingly.
No "Listening.In."
The automatic system of ringing and
listening was installed two years ago
at a cost of $1,000. The operator is
no longer allowed to listen to CONVEX
sations. They had to listen under the'
old system in order to tell when to
break the connection. Miss Potter has
what she calls her secret service" by
which she can discover any girl who
is disobeying the rule against it. By
this same system she can tell whether
the subscriber or the operator is at
fault when a complaint is made.
Usually it is the subscriber who is |
and discourteous. COur. |
tesy is the first lesson an operator has |
to learn, and if she does not learn it |
thoroughly she is discharged. Once !
in great while, a subscriber becomes
unmanageable. Then the |
chief operator puts that line ION the |
hospital list" disconnects it altogether,
until the subscriber is ready to behave i
again. She says the girls have to |
put up with considerable discourtesy !
on the part of the best" people of the
town but that others generally treat |
the operators with respect.
Columbia has one of the best switch
boards in the state With the cable !
which goes with it, it cost $65,000 |
when it was installed nine years ago.
Miss Potter's desk, which is equipped |
like a switchboard, cost $500 and
has more equipment in it than all the
old magnet switchboard had.
Travelling men often hold their