The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-06-22
HAROLD (. DAVIS
 ON DIAL SERVICE
Manager of Waterbury Ex- change Before Civitan
 Club at Hotel Elton
AT NOON TO-DAY

enWOrth street building and the need of modern equipment that will bet. |ter serve the telephone requirements |of Waterbury and prepare for growth were given as reason for the Impending change to dial service next month by Harold G. Davis, manager of the Waterbury exchange, in speaking about the telephone com pany's dial plans to the Civitan club in the Hotel Elton this noon.
 Manager Davis said that with ad- dition to switchboards made in De- ,cember, 1923, the limit of floor space in the old building was reached and made necessary major building
 change to provide for future growth.
 The present building was not de- signed for additional stories nor does the location make possible any fur ther extension.
 Tn anticipation of this major building program, our engineers, d number of years ago, made an exten- lsive survey of the business center ot Waterbury to determine the most ad- |vantageous location for a new build ling. As result of studies extending over many months the location ai Grand and State streets was selected "At the same time this major
 building program was planned, ' economIc study wa'
 made to determine 1he type of equip.
 ment which would best meet Water
 bury's telephone requirements. Oul
 engineers recommended that suffl cient dial equipment be installed li
 the new building 10 completely re
 place existing manual equipment and
 provide for future growth
 Vol f+p yyi h. resent an expenditure of approAi-
 mately $2,150,000, Manager Davis
 said. Of this amount, Sl25,0OO is
 for the land and new building. $1,-
 I35,OOO for the ne v dial equipment, and $290,000 for outside plant addi- tions, and changes made necessary by the change to dial operation. Review\.y the dial situation in this country, Manager Davis said 1t Was no experiment.. ''lt was introduced over thirty years ago. As early as 1905 dial telephones were in use in
 the city of W eaterly, Rhode Island, although the equipment then in use was not the same as the present equipment Many advancements have been made during the last quarter century to elevate dial equip
 ment to a very high degree of me- chanical efficiency.
 "rha dial system was first intro duced in Connecticut in 1922 when in that year a unit of dial equipment
 was installed in our Hartford eX- change, providing service for about 5, 900 telephones. Since then the dial sy stem has been adopted for sev- leral other cities in the state until
 we have working to-day 132,8O0 dial telephones.
 "rhroughout the world there are I35, 300, 900 telephones. About 20 millions of these are in the Bell Sys- tenn and of this number, about mill lion, or 25 per cent of the total, arc dial operated, During 1880 more than SOO,O0O telephones in the Bell System were changed from manual to dial operation; about 5S,OOO Tn
 our territory were so converted
 Three new anal offices, 10 be known as the Three, Four, and Five" offices, will be placed in opera ton with dial service to entirely re- place the present manual offices, ac- cording to Manager Davis. These
 new dial offices will also furnish
 Middlebury, Prescott, and Wolcott with an improved party line service which is an innovation in this state.
 Discussing the advantages of dial service, Manager Davis had the foi- lowing to say; 'rhe first advantage is that dial service furnishes us
 means of guaranteeing during all hours of the day and n,ght, mondays and Sundays, the highest standard of service at the least cost to tele- phone users. Dial service because of the mechanical features of the system, Is faster than manual serv- ice. Dial service offers distinct ad- vantage to business men who ire quently place a series of local calls, in that the disconnect after each call is instantaneous-the next call can be dialed immediately.
 Continuing, Manager Davis said most people have formed the idea that with the introduction of dial service there will be no operators. This will never be n fact. We use many operators for out-of-town calls, information, assistance, and emergency. At the present time we have about 193 operators in Water- bury. Included in this number are about S5 temporary operators girls who, during the last two years of preparation for conversion to dial' were offered and accepted work with the ucnnite unuefStanuiHS tntt thciT term om employment would expire on the day of the cut-over. Quite frequently our traffic employe turn over Is greater than our estimate and we can give some Of these tenn porary operators permanent employ ment. This summer we are holding up all vacations until after the cut over. This will permit us to retail IS of these temporary girls for thre' months longer than was originally contracted for Not one of our reg ular operators. of course. VIII lose her position because of the dial'
 h closing Manager Davis stressed the importance of using tho now dinl directory after the eutover, beenusr of tho many number changes, and Aald thnt nt the proper lime every subscriber will he fully informed how 10 make dini calls by pamphlets, newspaper advertising, and by dems nnslpn tiOnA of Inc actual use Of the dial Rt convenient locations in Wa lerhurS,
 Following hls ialk, ilaymond q
 nuah Rnh Larry stone, headquarters repfeseniniiVeh of the company, dems