The Bell System Technical Journal 



October. 1925 



General Engineering Problems of the Bell System 



By H. p. CHARLESWORTH 



Note: This paprr, rr.ul U-lori' tlii' BiOl S\stcm Kdtiratiiinal C'oiifiTiMnc, 

 C'hicaKo, Jiini- 22-27, l'J25, disiiissi-s the iharailer and scope of the im- 

 portant problems involved in earing for the growth and operation of the 

 Hell System. The plant extensions necessary to meet service re(|iiire- 

 nients and the neiessity of advanced planning are first taken up. The uses 

 of the "Commercial ,Surve\-." the " Kiindanienlal i'lan" and engineering 

 cost studies arc analyzed to illustrate how an engineer attacks the problem 

 of furnishing Siitisfactory telephone ser\ ice to the public. .A discussion of 

 the New N'ork-Chicago loll cable and the telephone problem in .New N'ork 

 ("ity, as illustrative of specific engineering problems, concludes the paper. 



THK problem of giving telephone senice is quite different from 

 ttiat of most business enterprises. The merchant, for example, 

 may take more Imsiness in his store without necessarily always in- 

 creasing his facilities. The minute we take another subscriber, how- 

 ever, we afld to our plant and plant investment. Similarly, in con- 

 nection with the manufacturing industry, the manufacturer, for 

 instance, is in a position to e.xercise very direct control o\-er his activ- 

 ities. In the telephone industry, howe\"er, our obligation is to take 

 the service as requested and be prepared to deliver it when and as it is 

 re(]uired. Furthermore, the activities of the telephone business are 

 of such a nature as to make it essential, regardless of the remoteness 

 of the territory- or of the physical and climatic conditions involved, 

 that a way be found, as far as practicable, to construct and maintain 

 the pl.int and safeguard the service to the public. 



To meet these e.xacting requirements calls for the greatest ingenuity 

 and foresight in the design of the tele[)hone plant and involves careful 

 study of various plans for plant extension and rearrangement with a 

 view to the selection of the most economical and desirable plan. 

 Having determined the fundamentals of tiesign, there must, of course 

 be devi.sed ways ami means of safely constructing and efficiently 

 maintaining the plant. Furthermore, as the plant is necessarih 

 scatterefl over a ver\' large territory ami as the different parts must 

 work together satisfactorily and with the most economical results, a 

 high degree of standardization is rec|uired, still leaving, however, 

 freedom to adapt the plant to different local conditions. W'c find 

 evidence on every hand of the value of this standardization, not only 



515 



