The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1927-08-29
Round-W World Flyers Now in Germany
PHONE SYSTEM
|CUT0VER MADE
WITHOUT HITCH
New Switchboard, Best in
Northwest, Tends to Bet.
ter Service Locally

After practically 10. months of pre-
liminary work in preparation for the
transfer of the local Telephone sys-
tenn from the old exchange building
on Third street ~tos the new North
westerns Bell Telephone company at
the corner Of Fifth street and Thayer
avenue, the switchover was made Mt
midnight Saturday night and so care
fully had the work of installing the
new equipment been done that the
more than 5000 telephones in the
city were changed over from the old
switchboard to the new one instan-
taneously and without the least
hitch.
In fact Northwestern Bell COM
pany officials who were here in
large numbers from Fargo. Omaha.
and other points state that the
change was made SO quickly that per-
sons carrying on a telephone cOnver-
satiOn at the moment were not aware
that anything out Of the ordinary had
taken place.
CutOver Made Without q Hitch
Shortly before the midnight ho1r.
the company officials gathered at the
switchboard on the second floor of
the new office and Mt the telephone
plant on the first floor. while en-
plOyes prepared to remove the tenn
pOrary framework which acted as 4
huge switch, connecting the city's
telephone system with the switch
board in the old exchange. Promptly
at midnight the frame work was
jerked away and immediately thu >ys-
TEN was connected to the new switch
board and calls began coming in
= Of kn ali ii
eral blocks away.
No trouble was experienced in the
cutover whatever. Every connec-
tion worked perfectly and the tele-
phone officials were mo-" than
pleased at thascxcellent way in which
all advance preparations nad bnen
made.
At the new switchboard as the cut
over was made were seven of the
company's operators, with Miss Nell
Byrne. division instructor for the
Bismarck area. Miss Hazel Duncan of
Fargo, division instructor for the
Fargo area, and Miss Anastacia
Skelly, chief operator here, in charge.
RI, First Calls
Persons at the Patterson hotel have
the distinction Of putting in both the
first local call to gothrough the new
switchboard as we'll as the first long
distance call At one second after
midnight, as soon as the cntover had
been made, someone at the Patterson
hotel placed local call for 344-W /,
the jeff May residence, while at al
most the same moment another party
at the same hotel called for party
in Denver, Colo.
In addition to the Northwestern
Bell company's vast amount of mod
ern equipment in the new building,
the structure also houses the equip
ment of the American Telephone and
Telegraph company, Bismarck now
being repeater station for the
northern transcontinental line. The
local A. T. and T. office is in charge
Of Lloyd F. Wentworth, test board
man.
The telephone switchboard in the
new building is the most modern on
the market today and is the only one
of its kind in the entire northwest.
according to company officials. 1t
has many new improvements which
boards in other exchanges do not con-
tain.
Officials Here
Among the comnany officials who
were at the DuiIQlHg OatU1uAy "ik"S
to watch the work of cutting over
the system were K. H. FAIR, general
superintendent of plant, Omaha; f:
l. Hannah. division superintendent Of
plant, Fargo; Geo. Knauer, general
plant supervisor, Omaha; c. NJ.
Crouch, general maintenance engi-
neer, Omaha; w. S. Woodward, gen.
eral maintenance supervisor, Omaha;
J. D. Taylor, division engineer, Far
60; A. F. McAdams. assistant division
manager, Fargo; L. f. Keith, division
IContinuod on page thros)