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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



board or special section of the large board. A 1,500-line multiple 

 switchboard was installed in New York in November, 1883. 

 In 1883 Mr. W. D. Sargent said : 



The ideal (switchboard) system would be one in which the operator would 

 receive the orders to connect and disconnect from the subscriber orally, by 

 means of a head telephone; to have in front of her a switchboard by which 

 she could connect any two wires of the whole system, however large, without 

 interfering with the other operators. The nearest approach to this perfect 

 system at the present time is the multiple-board; but this has never been 

 worked on the true or multiple principle, and it can never show all its merits 

 until it is. The multiple-board is noAV being introduced into many of the 

 largest cities, and we may expect much information during the coining year 

 on its merits. 



Now-a-days a new switchboard is often placed in service so quietly 



that the subscribers are rarely aware of any change taking place until 



after the work is completed. But in the pioneer clays it was somewhat 



different, as is shown in the following interview clipped from an 



eastern paper in 1882 : 



In removing from the old to the new central exchange unforeseen difficulties 

 were encountered, chiefly in the removal of such a mess of wires and the 

 abrupt change from the old system to the new system (of calling), and the 



Fig. 21. 



