42 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



On receiving a call for a line not at her command an operator 

 switches the caller through to the proper board, where he must 

 repeat his order to a young lady who has duplicate jacks before 

 her for the whole of that board. Talking is done through two 

 ring-off drops, which both fall when the end of a connection is 

 signalled. The Schaffler boards have jacks in series. The test 

 is managed by completing a circuit through one of the ring-off 

 drops, and not by the ordinary click. If a line asked for is 

 engaged, the application of the calling plug to the jack tumbles 

 the drop. This would be by no means a bad plan, were it not 

 that indicator flaps are so many Humpty Dumptys, unable to pick 

 themselves up after a fall. Every operator has before her fifty 

 signalling drops with answering jacks for the subscribers, together 

 with transfer jacks and nine ring-off drops with their correspond- 

 ing cords, plugs, and switches. The switches have black and 

 white handles for operating the right and left cords respectively ; 

 the cord in connection with the white handle is short, and will 

 reach only to the answering jacks ; the other is three meters long, 

 and is used for testing and connecting the lines called for. The 

 jacks are in rows of twenty-five, thirty rows making a vertical 

 division, and four divisions comprising a repeat of 3,000 jacks> 

 of which there are fifteen in the latest board installed, a view 

 of which is given in fig. i. When full, the boards will contain 

 134,000 spring-jacks and seat a total of 168 operators. The wiring 

 is effected by twenty-six cables containing wires of thirteen different 

 colours, each twisted with a white one. The calls dealt with are 

 said to sometimes amount to fourteen per subscriber per day. The 

 cost of the 3,ooo-line board last installed is stated, with its cables 

 and all fittings, to have been i9,537/., and exclusive of these, 

 i5,ooo/. The workmanship is undoubtedly good and substantial, 

 and so, happily, is in thorough accord with the price. 



HOURS OF SERVICE 



\ 



These coincide, as a rule, with the hours of telegraphic service,, 

 which in Vienna, Trieste, Prague, and other chief towns is con- 

 tinuous day and night. In the smaller towns the exchanges open 

 at 7 or 8 A.M. and close at 8 or 9 P.M. 



