344 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



wanted, it is usual to give a free exchange connection .in return 

 for the accommodation. 



The obtaining of way-leaves in Stockholm is much facilitated 

 by the mode of roofing buildings. Slates or tiles are rarely em- 

 ployed, the buildings being covered with sheet iron, painted, 

 which is not readily damaged by workmen. Complaints, so 

 common in England, of leakage are consequently rare. Most 

 buildings have also a common stairway from the street level to 

 the roof, so that access can be had without passing through the 

 interiors. Way-leaves are consequently not so difficult to obtain 

 and retain as with us ; moreover, the mode of joining the squares 

 of sheet iron results in a series of ridges which afford a hold to 

 the linemen, and render the roof safer to work on. 



SWITCHING ARRANGEMENTS 



General Telephone Company's system. Originally working 

 with one central station, and after its fusion with the International 

 Bell Company with two, the General Company has within the last 

 two years entirely changed its plan, and simultaneously with its 

 change to metallic circuits remodelled its switching arrangements. 

 Fig. 113, which is a map of Stockholm city divided into eight 

 switching districts, gives a clear idea of the existing arrangement, 

 which, it will be seen, bears a strong resemblance to the plan 

 originally suggested by General Webber advocated in the author's 

 British Association paper of August 24, 1891, and which, had it not 

 been for the death of the late Duke of Marlborough, would have 

 come into operation in London on January i, 1893. The adoption 

 of some such plan is inevitable in the future, both on the score of 

 expense, of accommodation for wires and of switching space. A 

 central station may conceivably be arranged to take 30,000 or even 

 36,000 subscribers, if the wires could be got to it, but beyond that 

 number the complications involved would be too costly to be faced. 

 And even 36,000 is not enough, as it has already been shown that 

 London, on the example of Stockholm, may reasonably be expected 

 to require accommodation for 250,000 subscribers in the not dis- 

 tant future. The existing arrangements are ludicrously deficient as 

 it is, and no extension of them could possibly meet the tenth part 



