242 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



Fig. 85 shows a public telephone station of the Netherlands 

 Company at Baarn. 



Messrs. Ribbink, van Bork & Co.'s methods of construc- 

 tion are in no wise noteworthy. Although some bronze wire has 

 been erected, their subscribers? lines are run chiefly with steel 

 of r8 mm. gauge, of a breaking strain of 300 kilogrammes per 

 square millimeter. 



The Zutphen Telephone Company is remarkable in many 

 ways. Its rate, 2/. 17^. io^/. per annum, is not the lowest in 

 Holland Mynheer Jan Sot takes care of that but no attempt 

 has been made elsewhere to give metallic circuits, the best of 

 modern instruments, and a perpetual service for such a mo- 

 derate sum. But they do it at Zutphen, and, what is stranger 

 still, find it pays. The originator of the company and its 

 present manager, Mr. C. J. van Bueren, 

 a retired (Dutch) East Indian merchant, 

 resident at Zutphen, applied, in conjunc- 

 tion with Mr. Carel Henny, for the con- 

 cession (as much with the idea of passing 

 the time as anything else), and having ob- 

 tained it for the town and five kilometers 

 around, succeeded in forming a company 

 to work it. Mr. van Bueren knew nothing 



about telephone work at the time, but determined that he 

 would have the best system and best workmanship procurable 

 for his exchange, and, after due inquiry, placed a contract 

 with the Netherlands Bell Telephone Company for its construc- 

 tion. All materials were to be of the best, and, with a view to 

 ultimate connection with the Dutch trunk wire system, all lines 

 were to be double and of 1*5 mm. bronze, having a breaking 

 strain of 120 kilogrammes and a conductivity of 60 per cent, of 

 pure copper. The exchange was opened on July i, 1893, with 

 107 subscribers (the population of Zutphen is 17,004), and 

 as these all had Ericsson transmitters, double-pole receivers, and 

 metallic circuits, the speaking was as near perfection as well 

 could be. By December 31, 1894, the instruments connected 

 had increased in number to 141, with many more in prospect. 

 The company enjoys free premises at the town hall, with the use 



