Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-28
AUTOMATIC PHONES
TO UNITE OFFICES
Standards Bureau Plan to
Link All Federal Services
in District.
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

Under a plan being developed by the
Bureau Of Standards the whole Govern
ment service in Washington will be tied
together in an automatic telephone
system, with five switching centers, to
enable the user Of any one phone in
the whole system to complete call
automatically to any other Government
phone Ia any department or establish
ment.
Efficiency Is Sought.
At the present time dial branch ex-
changes are in use in the Capitol,
Treasury, Veterans Bureau and Post
once Department, with new one to
be installed in the Department of Com
merce, but their use will be greatly ex-
tended when the whole system is put
into use. In calling other departments
from these three private branch ex-
changes now it is still necessary to get
connections through a switchboard
operated by girls, but when the new
system goes into effect, it will be pos
etble to dial all the way through to the
destination phone, automatically.
The new plan aims at both efficiency
and economy and will take advantage
Of the Federal building program to in
stall the co-ordinated system. 1t will
be put into effect gradually as new
buildings are constructed and tele-
phones installed.
Cooperation to Be Effected.
The plan does not mean that the
Government is going into the telephone
business for its own plant, because the
equipment Is leased from the Chesa-
peake g. Potomac Telephone Co., but
the Government has grown to be such
o large business establishment in the
Capital City, with its telephone service
amounting to one-tenth of the entire
load for the telephone company, that
It has been found extremely desirable
TO look after its own requirements and
figure out the best way of meeting them.
The telephone company is cooperating.
This big job of engineering tele-
phone system for Uncle Sans entire
workshop has been intruSted to the
Bureau of Standards and the progress
thus far made and the completed sys-
TEN as projected are described exclu-
sively to The Star by DR.. F. A. Wolff,
chief Of the telephone section, Bureau
of Standards, who has been in direct
charge Of the project.
Large Saving Is Expected.
Already a saving of $4,000 a year
has been effected but this is only
fraction of the eventual saving. Since
the formation of the Budget Bureau,
the Bureau of Standards has been de-
voting much time to surveys of the
Governments telephone requirements,
not only in Washington but in other
cities in which there are Federal build
ings. BY carefully studying the situa-
ton, which Is different in each par
ticular case, 1t has been possible TO
make certain changes which in the ag-
gregate have resulted In the saving of
large sums without any detriment to
the service, but rather increased EN-
cheney.
The Federal Government with 10 de-
partmeintS and many independent es-
adjustments has previously been allow
ing each unit TO run on its own, each
setting up its own switchboard. The
World War conditions in Washington
changed that somewhat, and an effort
was made to carry forward the CO.
ordination work, but the engineers Of
the Bureau of Standards ran into a
barricade because there was no con-
solidated housing program.
Federal System Being Planned.
That barricade is now being bat
tered down in the Federal and munich
pal group building program. The en-
gineers under DR.. VOLTS direction are
now engaged in creating closely CO.
ordinated telephone system for all Fed
units of the consolidated system al
ready have been installed. The Treas
ury Departments activities are very
large and scattered in three principal
1ocations-O the Treasury Depart
ment and the Treasury Annex, directly
north across Pennsylvania avenue; ca
the Internal Revenue Building, several
blocks away, between Tenth and
Twelfth, B and G streets, and 80 the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing and
the Liberty Loan Building, to the south,
which are on Fourteenth street south
Of the Mall and Washington Monument
grounds. One exchange for the whole
department has now been set up in
the Treasury Department Building, with
dial switching equipment to all other
stations and so that they can dial for
outside calls. So now within the
Treasury Department they can dial all
within department calls. all outside
calls, to all other departments and in
dependent establishments within the
Government. The only calls that the