294 Telephone Systems of tJie Continent of Europe 



SWITCHING ARRANGEMENTS 



The existing switch-board at Christiania is an ordinary Western 

 Electric Company's single-wire, double-cord, series multiple, with 

 an ultimate capacity of 6,400. The test employed differs, however, 

 from the usual one, inasmuch as the testing-cord includes a make- 

 and-break, the effect of which is to give the operator a vibrating 

 signal instead of a single click when a line proves to be engaged. 

 The number of connections averages about nine per subscriber per 

 diem, and each operator attends to 100 lines. The arrangements 

 for trunk-line switching comprise a special section to which each 

 operator has a sufficient number of junction lines to meet the 

 requirements of her own set of subscribers, these junction lines 

 being used indiscriminately for up and down traffic. In case of 

 need, an operator can borrow additional junctions from the sections 

 to her left and right. At the trunk section four lines are allotted 

 to each girl, who, in addition to the actual switching, has to make 

 the necessary notes for the subscribers' accounts. The testing, 

 lightning-guard, and cross-connecting boards are of an ordinary 

 pattern, and call for no remark. The present switching arrange- 

 ments are to give way during 1895 to a new switch-board by the 

 Bell Manufacturing Company of Antwerp, comprising parallel 

 jacks, self-restoring drops, and accommodation for 9,000 metallic 

 circuits. The new installation is to cost some TO.OOO/., a fact 

 which does not seem to augur any lack of confidence or of ex- 

 pectation on the part of the Christiania Telephone Company in 

 the sufficiency or possibilities of a 4/. Ss. \\d. rate. 



Called subscribers are rung by the operator, and much of 

 the confusion attendant on the frequent dropping of the ring- off 

 shutters avoided. The service is smartly performed, and the 

 speaking generally very good. 



In the neighbourhood of Christiania there are a few groups of 

 subscribers working by means of automatic commutators (Ceder- 

 gren and Ericsson's patent), placed generally at or near a railway 

 station. These groups, and some others who subscribe amongst 

 themselves for the housing and operating of an ordinary switch- 

 board, communicate with the capital by a single junction wire, 

 and are admitted at very low rates of subscription. 



