2O4 Telephone Systems of tJie Continent of Europe 



of the Imperial Post Office, and Messrs. Siemens & Halske, Mix & 

 Genest, C. F. Lewert, and others supply instruments of exactly 

 the same type. The workmanship in every case is superior ; let 

 the design make such impression as it may on telephone engineers. 

 Many of the instruments have been converted from the battery 

 form at a cost, the author was told, of 65 marks (37. 5*.) apiece. 



The German Govern- 

 ment could have been 

 supplied with new and 

 complete instruments, 

 comprising magneto, 

 battery-box, backboard, 

 good carbon transmitter, 

 double-pole receiver and 

 cord, of better design 

 and equal workmanship 

 from England, America, 

 Belgium, or Sweden, de- 

 livered free in Berlin, 

 for 37. 3.$-., or even less. 

 Sometimes the conver- 

 sion has been effected 

 by placing a magneto in 

 a separate box on the 

 top of the battery instru- 

 ment ; in these cases 

 the crank-handle is at 

 the right-hand side of 

 the instrument, as it 

 should be, but too high 

 up, while the appearance 

 is ungainly. The introduction of magnetos was strongly objected 

 to by the subscribers, who found that they often got unpleasant 

 shocks from them. That there was something more than imagi- 

 nation in this appears evident from the instruction in the Berlin 

 list, already quoted, to ' ring slowly and only once to avoid injur- 

 ing officers and subscribers ' ! It is not often that the comic 

 element intrudes into telephone subscribers' lists, and we are here 



FIG. 69 



