156 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



This General Committee asked Mr. Bancroft Gherardi, Vice Presi- 

 dent of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and myself 

 to select a Subcommittee of Engineers representing both interests, 

 whose duty it should be to classify the types of physical situations in 

 which engineering or technical conflicts were arising between the two 

 interests and to indicate how on the basis of the existing state of the art 

 the electric light and power engineers considered such situations should 

 be met from a physical standpoint and how the telephone engineers con- 

 sidered such situations should be met without regard to the question 

 of division of costs. 



We requested this Subcommittee of Engineers to approach the vari- 

 ous problems outlined in the broadest possible spirit of cooperation 

 bearing in mind that the object to be attained was the removal of 

 friction and the early development of mutually satisfactory standards. 



Nearly a year later, in March 1922, Mr. Gherardi and I made our 

 first report to the Joint General Committee based on the conclusions of 

 the Subcommittee of Engineers. 



Certain general statements were agreed to as for instance that the 

 National Electrical Safety Code provided an acceptable guide to prac- 

 tise and that there were substantial advantages to both utilities in the 

 employment of jointly occupied poles where conditions and character 

 of the circuits permitted. It was also recognized that the public's in- 

 terest was paramount and that both the power and communication 

 utilities must be able to render their respective services to the public 

 in an economical and efficient manner. A few general principles for 

 the solution of inductive interference situations were suggested such as 

 cooperative planning of all new construction and the further recom- 

 mendation that standards of construction and operation in accord with 

 the general principles outlined should be prepared and agreed to by 

 further cooperative work of the Subcommittee of Engineers, and finally 

 that a cooperative study of the art should be made in order to determine 

 what practicable measures, if any, might be developed and adopted to 

 lessen the contributing characteristics of both systems in this matter of 

 inductive interference. 



Mr. Gherardi and I in reporting to the Joint General Committee 

 stated we believed great progress had been made and we urged that the 

 General Committee advise the power companies and the associated 

 companies of the Bell System to use every efYort to arrive at a settle- 

 ment of their differences through negotiations rather than resort to 

 court or commission proceedings. It will be noted here that after one 

 year we had made apparently but little progress in the actual solution 

 of the problems involved. As a matter of fact, we know now that the 



