New Britain herald., 1923-01-27
Public Bound Together by Net of
 Wires Strung up by Telephone Co.

the chief operator and as court Of last appeal to the district manager, Or if it is mechanical trouble, to the wire chief. who is on the job or sub jeet to call 2t hours a day and who goes out in all sorts of weather and under all sorts of conditions Of per- sanal inconvenience to help keep eus' toners satisfied.
 There are In the exchange or switchboard operating department, besides the chief and supervisors, two assistant chief operators. who share some Of the burdens, two clerks. one instructor for new operators, who has charge of regular school for operators conducted at the local es' change; one central office observer: two information operators and 10 toll line operators.
 The central office observer keeps double check on all lines where there is any trouble reported. If a sub seriber reports inability to get a re- ply within q reasonable time or other unsatisfactory service. this op- orator. who sits in private room alone and has her own branch switchboard connected with every line in tho city. places that line under observation for a week or two and keeps a written record of every call made on the line. the time consumed in getting the necessary service. and all information desired. which is filed at the central ocicc in New Haven.
 Rowling the Howler.
 One of the most important branch es of the service is tho wire chiefs or repair department. When Mrs. Grundy cannot get good service she makes a complaint to a repair clerk. who promptly connects her line with a switchboard in the repair depart ment. and 1t is watched. If necessary. a man is sent out to make what re- pairs are necessary.
 Sometimes the trouble can be cleared up from the office. One source of trouble is that. of people on a party line leaving their receivers off the hook, thus throwing the whole line out of service. But it seldom happens twice to the same person. The wire chief after trying all other means to attract the attention of the subscriber, puts on the "howler.' This so-called howler is a mechanical contrivance which emits through the receiver in the subscribers home a most unearthly screech. Anyone alive within 100 yards, able to walk, would feel a natural impulse to shut off the darned thing" when the howl CT gets working.
 The wire chief has an average of 1,200 cases of trouble each month he and his men must clear up. Some of these arc extremely hazardous. In the first snow storm this winter two telephone company automobiles were stranded all night in snow drifts at Shuttle Meadow lake and were tied up all night, and one man had his ears frozen. In times of storm men there is an interruption to the serv- ice, and, often at the risk of their lives, make necessary repairs so that subscribers in their comfortable homes can speak with ease. This same loyalty is typical of the average op- orator. Whenever there is big fire, or some calamity, such as blizzard, when demands on the service almost double, every operator who can do so, goes to the exchange. In a report sumbitted to the American Telephone and Telegraph company, the Wash ington, D. C., manager tells of a busi- ness man in that city, who after struggling through a snow drift in January, 1922, overlook girl who was having difficulty getting through the banks of snow. He helped her for a few blocks and then said This is too much for me, I'm going to turn back and do my business by tele- phone, you better go home too" The young woman replied, No, I must go on. you see I'm telephone operator"
 The repair department consists of the wire chief, three nepairmen, two dropmen, two installers. two testmen, to central office men and two clerks. These men handle more than 1000 contract orders, including installings, removals, etc., per year. They have 6S57 pairs of wires to look after, in- cluding 120 cables with over 50 wires. to a cable.
 In strong contrast to the magnitude of the present system is the report of the first commercial telephone sys- tenn in New Britain.
 The first Commercial Telephone Ex- change was opened in New Britain, in Central Block, PIT Main street, in the latter part of 1879, permission being granted by the common council on 26 of that year to allow the company to set poles in the streets. This resolution was presented by l.. w. Curtis and signed by Mayor Ambrose Beatty It went under the name of the New Britain District Telephone company, and it's incorporators were Giles l.. Reynolds, s. H. Taylor and Willis Rockwell.
 MT. Reynolds was a native of Good speed Landing, Conn.,, and was a bookkeeper in the Stanley Works. He also was telegrapher and sent tele- grams direct from Western Union key at the Stanley Works.
 Willis Rockwell was a son of George Rockwell. at that time head of the New Britain Knitting com pany.
 Mir. Taylor was a telegrapher in tho Western Union Telegraph company.
 In order to interest the people in buying stock in this company, the promoters had installed, previous to