Evolution of Telephones 75 



one. She must, therefore, acquire the tele- 

 phone ear. What that acquisition amounts 

 to may perhaps be best shown by thinking 

 of wireless and the crystal set. A practised 

 telephonist would have no real difficulty 

 in listening to what was being broadcast, 

 even if there was considerable noise in 

 the room, but the average person makes 

 frantic appeals to all to be quiet so that he 

 or she may catch an important item of 

 news. 



The telephone ear is cultivated in the 

 training school by the novice wearing a 

 head-piece which allows one ear freedom, 

 whilst the other is placed at the receiver. 

 At the beginning of her training the new- 

 comer rarely hears a sound via the receiver, 

 though someone is speaking to her from a 

 very short distance, but, within a week, she 

 becomes oblivious to outside noises, and 

 hears only through the receiver. 



The career of a telephonist has several 

 very definite advantages, but hard work is 

 the keynote of her calling. She may rise 

 to be a supervisor; she has a pension at the 



