1 1 8 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



WAY-LEAVES 



The author is not aware whether Denmark is one of those 

 fabled regions, about which partisans wax eloquent whenever any- 

 body complains of high rates, wherein way-leave grantors are sup- 

 posed to cease from troubling and monopolists enjoy halcyonian 

 rest. If so, he is sorry to dispel the illusion once more. None 

 of the Danish companies possess any way-leave rights other than 

 they bargain and arrange for. In Copenhagen especially (and 

 this city is certainly one of the worst on the Continent in this 

 respect) overhouse way-leaves are difficult, and in some quarters 

 even impossible, to procure. For a standard of any size a free 

 telephone has generally to be given. So thorny grew the 

 company's path that, at a very early date, it obtained a concession 

 from the municipality permitting the laying of wires under the 

 streets, a privilege for which 3887. per annum is at present paid, 

 a tribute which is liable to be revised i.e. increased every five 

 years. The country authorities have, however, been easy-going 

 in respect to the roads, since permissions to erect the trunk line 

 poles have generally been accorded at reasonable rates. The 

 Government, too, although owning the railways and telegraphs, has 

 not played the dog-in-the-manger, and has lent the companies a 

 helping hand where difficulties, otherwise insurmountable, have 

 presented themselves. 



SWITCHING ARRANGEMENTS 



At the present central station the switch-board is an ordinary 

 -Western Electric single-wire double-cord series multiple ; at the 

 branches Gilliland boards are still employed. The test, lightning- 

 guard and cross-connecting boards are neatly arranged round the 

 interior walls of small rooms or cupolas. The number of con- 

 nections asked for by each subscriber daily averages eleven, is 

 frequently twelve, and sometimes as high as fourteen. The operators 

 attend to from 50 to 100 lines each. Called subscribers are rung 

 by the operators. For this purpose a magneto generator, driven 



