The sun., 1919-02-02
By HARRY ESTY BOUNCE,


Their names, which you associate with
peoples telephone numbers, are Broad
bowling Green. Whitehall, Rector,
Hanover, Beekman. John. Barclay,
Cortlandt, Worth, Franklin, Canal
Spring. Orchard, Forsyth, Chelsea.
Farragut, Gramercy. ,Stuyvesant and
Madison Square.
Daily you use or call for phone on
the switchboards OF one of these twenty
centrals. Sooner or later in the course
e human and te:ephonic nature you
run into Trouble--real trouble. not a
mistake. but apparatus out of order.
And then? Having cussed little
mot into the phone, 1t is to be hoped,
although one Of the kinds Of people
which it takes to make a world is the
Kind, happily rare, who pelt girl opera
tors with curses). you hurry to some
body elses phone and tell Central
yours won't work; or. as the case may
he. you jiggle the receiver hook of
yours and report that the phone you
want won't.
What happens next? How is the
trouble diagnosed and located?
In order to show you how 1t is neces-
tssary To take you behind the scenes
in q Central. Of Centrals, a telephone
Holy of Holes. on the eighth and other
floors at "a Walker street, which ad-
dress YOU perhaps know by sight as a
tall, sheer sided. severely plain red
building that dominates a nondescript
business neighborhood west of the
wholesale dry goods belt OF Broadway
Nerve Centre of Wire Service.
Look on that building with awe when
next you happen near II. The physi-
cal nerve centre. the medulla, II you
Ike, OF telephone service and telegraph
as we'll is under its lofty roof; and the
centre of local service for New York
not only but Of good deal OF the ma
tons service too.
Naturally precautions are taken at
- Walker street. How anxiously, how
deliberately they were taken through
the war, only T. & r. officers and Fed
eral agents could tell, and neither care
10 do It even yet.
As for fire. the telephone people
have Chief Kenlon's own assurance
that the building is the most warrant
ably fireproof OF all the fireproof struc-
lures in the city, and New York's
modern hreproof structures come
nearest to making the adjective good
OF any in the world. II ever anything
resembling a fire should get started
there the chief feels sure 1t can be
stopped before much harm Is done.
But this Is about New York's tele-
phones and how they are doctored for
trouble.
Floor eight is multifariously and
intensely busy. Most of 1t is open all
together. like factory loft or young
book publishers foundry. Blank walls.
The narrowest OF base boards. general
absence OF woodwork, heavy. seamless
linoleum under foot and a strictly en-
forced no smoking rule 'oetray the
prejudice against having fires. You
pass through a maze of desks under
pigeonhole racks-this being the de-
Boi tiicilt, hc"
subscribers orders are attended to
and arrive at an end Of the room ar
ranged as follows:
Within four steel frame columns OF
the building six desks. studded with
keys and fash lamps in platoons, and
seven open card file cabinets form q
hollow square, in the middle of which
two information clerks sit facing each
other. The hollow square is the re-
pair clerks desk. The card files hold
4 card for each subscribers line OF all
twenty central Offices. If your phone
is on one OF those twenty exchanges
your card Is there at hand.
For the sake OF quick classification
the tops Of the cards are colored ac-
cording to central Office districts and
the nature OF the service. At glance
the color and the position OF tab on
the margin OF the card tell the repair
clerk the story.
Moving around the department you
find yourself In the aisle between the
hollow square and a long, continuous
battery OF test desks looking Ito the
layman) not unlike Centrals everyday
switchboard as we all know 1t from
the pictures OF the young women at
Neir work.
But the workers here are men, and
these men are the most ext crt ana
highest paid OF all who earn living
hy sitting up TO telephone apparatus
with receivers harnessed TO thesf ears
and horn shaped mouthpieces rising
nom their breastbones,
In front OF each. at his left, Is n
white dial with nervously sensitive.
osoillating needle. II Is the face OF tho
miliameter. whose facial expressions
are marvellously eloquent, inas:nuch
as the test man reads by them the
facts he wants for spotting cause OF
trouble.
spoilers Rival ArtilIerymen.
And unless that cause happens 20 lie
buried In one OF the great main under
ground cables he can spot II almost
invariably with such precision that the
repair man can be sent straight TO the
spot. Artillery range finding wizards
have nothing much on him!
Leaving the test desk. az II on the
order left wheel you find before you
twelve studious individuals. also be-
recovered and bemouthpieced. who face
each other in pairs across long desk
with KEYS and lamps and with part Of
the hollow squares card Ale cOnvs-
nient 10 half Of them. They are trouble
clerks.
Back of the other half il a spaclous