330 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



The Spaniards may well be congratulated on having established 

 a record in telegraphic rates. Twenty words for rather less than 

 twopence is calculated to stir up feelings of envy in less fortu- 

 nate people, such as those, for instance, who may not send written 

 messages by telephone at all and have to pay 6d. for twelve words, 

 however short the distance covered. 



WOEK 



The author has not had an opportunity of personally inspecting 

 the Spanish exchanges, which are, to a large extent, in the hands 

 of French companies. The character of the work is, as is natural 

 under such circumstances, decidedly French. In fact, the Societe 

 Generale des Telephones, of Paris, supplied practically the whole of 

 the material used up till 1891, when the customs war between the 

 two countries interposed a barrier to the importation of French 

 apparatus, which practically killed the trade. The business is 

 now supplied, but principally on French models, from workshops 

 established in Spain itself, although Belgian instruments are not 

 unknown. The prevailing type of subscribers' apparatus comprises 

 Ader transmitters, Ader receivers, push-buttons, trembling bells, 

 and Leclanche cells. The usual class of switch-board is that 

 designed by M. Berthon and used in Paris during the reign of 

 the Societe Generale des Telephones, and which has been oftert 

 described. An exception is the case of Madrid, which has 

 recently been provided with a multiple board of the Western 

 Electric Company's ordinary type. In regard to outside work, 

 that at Madrid is remarkable as consisting chiefly of aerial cables, 

 a form of construction necessitated by a municipal decree which 

 forbids the employment of any open wire for a greater distance 

 than 500 meters. The cables usually contain twelve wires, of a 

 resistance of forty ohms per kilometer, insulated with rubber 

 and wrapped in waterproofed tape. They are suspended from 

 galvanised steel wires of 3 mm. diameter by steel hooks placed 

 one meter apart. The Spanish system is, however, a model in 

 one of the most important of all respects it is metallic circuit 

 throughout. 



