The Washington times., 1924-08-16
BASEBALL NEWS
|. MAKES PHONE
CALLS
Central Officials Watch Days
+. Events to Provide for Rush
Of Traffic

Washington may or may not be
baseball mad, but the fact thai
the team is up and fighting for the
old pennant is causing the telephone
company's operators to handle
about $4,000 extra calls every eve
ming, according to officials Of the
Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone
Company.
Nowadays when Washington IL
just a game or two out Of first
place, the telephone company has
to keep extra operators In the ex.
changes to care for the food Of
calls about the time the game gets
over. This ID especially noticeable
when the team is away from home,
according to company officials.
Popular Lunch Time.
Another queer angle Of Washing.
ton life, as discovered by q study
OF the figures showing the riumbe,
or calls each hour, Is the fact that
most Washingtonians eat between
the hours of /. and 2 rather than
between u and !. It seems, that
% be fashionable, one must delay
ms lunch an hour, because all the
pest people are doing 1t, accordinR
20 the company. Figures show that
between ~ and o'clock, the calls
average about S1,439, between /
and o'clock about 2O,226, ana be.
tween , and o'clock, 80, SI0, chow.
ing very clearly when most Of the
city IL eating.
Every day in washington abou,
azS, 000 calls are made, with
$4,000 people talking over the
telephones. At this rate each ner.
son IN Washington talks over the
telephone twice q day. The aver.
age calls per minute, during the
twenty:four hours Of the day are
No actual statistics are kent "a
show the percentage of Foolish
questions, sentimental futilitiAs ar
meaningless conversations carried
on In percentage 20 the total calls,
put II IL estimated that about
half OF the phone calls. are mad
for purely social purposes.
The busiest hour of the day, In be.
tween . and 10 a. M, with the
actual peak reached about 10
O'Clock, showing that while the
majority Of business men NAV eeI
to work by O'Clock, they don !,
really get into action for about
an hour. Every. day, the telephone
operators handle about 5000 calls
between Q and 10 o'clock.
Afternoons Slump.
Most Washington foikS seem tc
lose much energy after lunch.
AFTER the sudden slump during the
lunch hours, slight revival is
seen, but never does the total even
approximate that Of the mornina
hours when ambition and energy
rule the wires.
One Of the most interesting side
lights OF telephone MANAGEMENT Al
revealed by the figures, q the way
telephone calls follow closely upoT
the news Of the day The tNlA
phone company keeps In close con
tact with Newspaper offices II
order to anticipate. q sudden floot
OF calls.
One Of the most recent Of tAss.
peaks was reached &C the time o,
the illness OF the late Calvin
His death occurred at a tim.
when the phone wires are NOT llsu
ally busy. When he died, the phone
calls suddenly increased 20 nbou,
ten times the normal traffic fol
that hour Of day. But the telephone
company was ready. When It wa.
seen that the boy was likely 70 die
the telephone company prsparet
for It Just - newspapers prepared
All the time that Calvin, 1r.. wa
on the verge Of death, the chic,
operator had hundreds OF extrs
operators waiting for. Z call q
duty.
Greatest Peak.
The greatest peak ever reached
by Washington telephone traffi,
was at the time OF the Knicker
booker disaster, when the calls sud
denly jumped from the low averag,
of about 10000 an hour to the lin
precedented rate Of 1000 an hour
Since that time there have beef
three other high peakes, at tn,
time OF the deaths Of the late Preei
dent Harding, former President WI
son and Calvin Coolidge, ir,