36 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



bility for interruptions, and no subscriptions will be refunded on 

 account of failure of service. No hard and fast radius within 

 which local subscriptions apply has been fixed, and in practice 

 the privileged area comprises a town, and the suburbs and sur- 

 rounding districts which naturally group with it. This is a wise 

 and liberal measure, which frees the people from the restrictions 

 imposed on suburban intercourse in France, Germany, and Wiir- 

 temberg. The use of instruments is restricted to the subscribers, 

 their servants, and to friends staying with them. 



2. Internal trunk line communication. The trunk system 

 is already very extensive. At the end of 1893 forty metallic cir- 

 cuits, with a length of 3,302 kilometers, were in operation, and 

 considerable extension has taken place since. The longest lines are 

 those between Vienna and Prague (354 kilometers) ; Vienna and 

 Trieste (505 kilometers) ; and Prague and Asch (230 kilometers). 

 The Vienna-Prague route comprises three metallic circuits. 



3. International trunk line communication. With the excep- 

 tion of the line to Hungary, which gives Vienna communication 

 with Buda-Pesth, Szegedin, Temesvar, Arad, Raab, Pressburg, 

 and other towns in the sister kingdom, the most impor- 

 tant line by far is the Vienna-Berlin (660 kilometers), opened 

 in January 1895. The others are with Switzerland, Bavaria, 

 Wiirtemberg, and Saxony (two circuits), but their use is restricted 

 to the towns adjacent to the frontiers. The Italian Government 

 has proposed a connection between the two countries, but nothing 

 has yet been settled on the subject. 



4. Telephoning of telegrams. Every facility is given for 

 the exercise of this privilege, the State recognising the utility of 

 creating a branch telegraph station in every subscriber's office or 

 house, thereby encouraging the use of the telegraph and tending 

 to compensate for any evil influence exercised by the telephonic 

 trunk lines on the telegraphic revenue. The telephone exchanges 

 are usually located at a telegraph office ; when this is not the case 

 the two are joined by wire, and clerks are always in attendance to 

 write down messages from subscribers, or telephone those arriving 

 for them. Messages are accepted in any ordinary language, but 

 when the clerks are not acquainted with the tongue used, sub- 

 scribers must number the letters of their messages according to a 



