Book of Engineering 



end of her service, or a gratuity if she 

 should leave to get married. There are other 

 advantages which are common to Govern- 

 ment servants, and the fact that the position 

 is a permanent one weighs with candidates 

 for what has been called " The Hello Ser- 

 vice." By the way, a telephonist must 

 never say " Hullo ". 



In one corner of the exchange is a set of 

 numbers, and if one watches them closely 

 for a moment a click is heard and then 

 something like the working of a cyclometer, 

 another mile is added to the total, the mile 

 being a call in this case. Before these meters 

 were introduced the telephonist had to 

 record each call upon a little ticket, and 

 there was an enormous amount of work 

 involved in sorting out the slips of paper, 

 and then making out the quarterly bill for 

 calls. A touch by the telephonist works 

 the register meter. The meters are for 

 local calls; tickets must be made for what 

 are called " trunk " services. 



Girls staff the exchanges by day, usually 

 from 8 a.m. till 8 p.m., then men come on 



