New Britain herald., 1923-01-27
Four Calls Every Minute Answered by Girls in Gen. trsl Exchange. Peek Be- hind Curtain Reveals.

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 No, all jsbs are beds of roses. wal the opinion Of Herald reporter whe accidentally strsyed into the New Britain exchange Of the Southern New England Telephone company,
 "Where's the manager" demand ed journalistic interioper. T want to know why I didn't set Bill Jinkins, al 4-ii.44 this afternoon? It's over an hour since l called. Are you sure. the operators aren't spending their time gossipping with their sweethearts''
 "I am serry. Mir. PeHcilpuAher.' sweetiy answered the chief operator, but since you called an hour sgo our operators have handled nearly 5000 calls. and am afraid they might not remember your case.
 And that's just exactly what the story is. The New Britain exchange handles on an average of <i.t02 teie- phone calls every day. There are So operators constantly on duty during the busy part Of the day and these operators arc kept answering calls ai the rate of about ono every 10 sec onds.
 Possibly in the olden days when. in order to get the operator. there usually being but one on the job, q subscriber had to grab little handle and turn 1t like a coffe grinder for q few minutes. when the operator would sing out. Hello" conversations were carried on between operators and friends. But today. If Bill calls up Mary and wants to "chin." Mary must ask Bill to call after working hours, or get a relief girl to work in her place while she talks. Needless to say there is very little talking done that is not strictly business.
 Operators Cannot Listen In.
 "I don't want to tell you over the phope," said a man. You never know who is listening" If he refers to the operator. he need have no fears. In New Britain each of the 30 operators sits facing something like 1000 holes within reaching dis tance of less than three feet. Each of these holes is about five-sixteenths of an inch. or the thickness of af, or dinary lead pencil, in diameter. Into these holes she is showing little round plugs as fast as her arms can work, presenting much the same appear ance as the flying shuttle on sew ing machine.
 When a subscriber lifts his receiv- CT off the hook there is flash of light, in front of the operator. and she responds, Number, please" ho ya- sponse, -four seven six, please" in a polite and cheerful tone. Often she gets a gruff demand, Gimme six gru-u-mph "steen" and she either must get the person calling to repeat the number more distinctly or take a chance of understanding the number wanted. Sometimes she gets it right and sometimes she doesn't. If she doesn't the subscriber never accepts the blame, he or she simply calls down the wrath of the gods on the head of an operator, who by this time has handled a dozen or more other calls and forgotten all about 1t.
 "Tcmplc Of Voice Transmission"
 The telephone exchange was called, in a recent editorial in New Haven paper, "The temple of voice trans mission" No more appropriate title could be bestowed upon it. Sixty-one operators work around a semi-circular switchboard in shifts ranging from 30 down to half dozen or less in the wee small hours of the morning.
 These 30, who work during the bus jest part of the day, sit side by side in the semi-eircle. looking at large black panel in front of them which resembles a gigantic punch board. Calls come into this board so rapidly that for an operator even to dream of holding conversation during the business hours of the day would be entirely out of the question. Thirty girls at a time handle during the av- craze day 39,429 local calls, 127s calls to Hartford, Bristol, Plainville and Southington, 500 calls to other points in Connecticut and at least 200 out of the state. This is an average days work. When it is realized that most of these calls come in during that portion of the day between a. m. and 10 p. m.. or within a period of 14 hours, it almost staggers the imag- ination to conceive how they are handled, or how John Doe ever man. ages to get Richard Roe without ex- periencing all kinds of difficulties.
 Human Beehive.
 Four to six times a minute the op- orator answers call and she keeps this up all the time she is on duty. It is extremely hard work. Arms fly back and forth, showing in a plug here, pulling out a plug there, while to the visitors ears comes a babel like confusion of never ceasing n1ur- murs of Hines busy" humber please" I'm hinging your party" etc., making the place veritable beehive.
 So rapidly must the girls work that there is no chance to explain misun- ierstandings to subscribers. This is one of the countless jobs which falls on the supervisors shoulders. If a subscriber becomes balky or abusive or unreasonable, the operator wastes no further time on him, she may have a waiting list" of calls. so she simply calls the nearest supervisor and the case is passed higher up. There are