280 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



fully invoked. The subscribers, too, were tired of the incessant 

 interruptions to which their wires were subjected, while the way- 

 leave granters began to think that no telephone company was surely 

 better than two which, usurping the time-honoured privileges of 

 both proprietors and Tom cats, fought out their differences on 

 the roofs. So in 1885, when the rival systems possessed 995 and 

 634 subscribers respectively, both were purchased by a new local 

 association, the Christiania Telephone Company, which has since 

 carried on the business, under Mr. Knud Bryn's able management, 

 with marked satisfaction to both its subscribers and shareholders. 

 Starting with 1,493 subscribers in its first working year, it had 

 increased to 3,150 in 1890, 4,210 in 1892, and 4,624 in October 

 1894. The capital cost has been just 5o,ooo/., or nearly u/. per 

 subscriber practically the same as that of a similar system in 

 England. The rate is 4/. 8s. \\d. per annum, everything in- 

 cluded, which has sufficed to pay dividends of 5 and 5^ per cent, 

 (the company's concession limiting dividends to 6 per cent.) per 

 annum. The company possesses no special way-leave privileges, 

 and its construction work has been superior, as a rule, to that of 

 the United Telephone Company and its subsidiaries in England. 



The International Bell Company started in only one other 

 Norwegian town Drammen which it continued to work until 

 1889, when the business, then comprehending 147 connected 

 instruments, was transferred to the Drammen Telephone Com- 

 pany. In February 1895 the number of instruments connected 

 had risen to 401. The population of Drammen being only 20,000, 

 the development here, on the, same inclusive rate (4/. 8^. n^.) as 

 in Christiania, must be considered satisfactory. It covers con- 

 nections up to two kilometers in length. The Drammen Company 

 has paid good dividends. At the end of 1894 the capital ex- 

 pended was 4,01 1/. The receipts amounted to 1,4837., and the 

 management and maintenance to 6597., leaving a profit which 

 enables a dividend of 7 per cent, to be paid after placing a 

 substantial amount to the reserve fund. The dividends have 

 always ranged from 5 to 7 per cent. At December 31, 1894, the 

 company's system comprised 507 kilometers of line, of which 479 

 kilometers were single wire. 



The Drammen Telephone Company declined to extend its 



