The Winslow mail., 1925-05-01

is used, these drops being made to
fall when you ring in by the cleo
trio current generated when you
turn the crank on your telephone
box. A little turn oftentimes does
not generate enough Juice" to do
the work. Especially is it impor-
tant that you ring a long ring if
you have just completed call and
wish to call some one else.
Another point that you can OBJ
serve which will enable Central to
give you better service is concerned
with asking her to ring again.
Every call has to be supervised on
the local board; that is, Central has
to listen in to see if your party
has answered, and the board does
not ring automatically. After Cen
trail connects you with your num-
Der, to give complete service, she
has to keep ringing until the party
answers. Naturally, at rush times,
when one drop after another falls
in rapid succession, she has to
ring your number and the next sec
ond go to another call and another
and another. AS rule one ring
will call the party, but if you wait
a reasonable length of time with no
report, instead of banging the fur
niture around and saying most un-
complimentary things about the
telephone operator and the whole
telephone company in general, ring
in again, turning the crank hard,
and ask Central to repeat the trial.
When the board is exceptionally
busy, it is humanity impossible to
supervise every call. Central has
to connect your number, ring once
and trust to luck that you will get
an answer. If you do not, and you
ring back, you are doing her
favor and helping her to give you
better service.
What is called peg count" was
taken at the board one day last
week, and you can easily imagine
how busy central must be at some
intervals when you consider that
a total of 1900 calls were made
during eight hours, and there are
many periods during the day when
few calls are made, making lot OF
calls to come during other periods.
On toll calls, the Winslow board
made a record last month of which
any board could be envious, when
900 outgoing calls were put in to
the board and the operators COM
pleted 99.3 per cent of them, which
really is a noteworthy record for
any long-distance board.
Not long ago the American Maga-
zine published an. article on how
to get better service over the tele-
phone. Following are some point
ers clipped from that article which
I think should be passed along:
If you have difficulty in making
people understand you over the tel
ephone, find out whether or not
you are following these three rules:
1. Speak naturally. Many people
unconsciously raise their voices
when they telephone. Then, when
they are asked to repeat, they get
excited or impatient, and shout. AS
a result, the person at the other
end of the wire hears only con-
fused roar.
2. Speak directly into the mouth
piece, with the lips about half an
inch from it. This means that you
can not sit back in your chair and
talk at the telephone, an arms
length away on your desk. Nor can
you carry on conversation with
somebody in the room, or keep up
with what is going on outside your
window.
Pronounce each syllable dis
tinctly. Don't talk down your
throat; throw the voice forward
into the front of the mouth, where
it belongs. In giving number to
the operator, make special effort
to speak clearly. Don't attempt to
carry on a telephone conversation
with a cigar or pencil or pin
in your mouth.