374 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



admission fee of iu. o^., an annual subscription of us. o\d, 

 and a charge of i -3^. for every connection had. 



Within the yo-kilometer radius the State also possesses 

 seventy-five exchanges in addition to its Stockholm system, making 

 a total for the radius of 188 exchanges, exclusive of the metropolitan, 

 and entitling the area to the distinction of being by far the best 

 telephoned piece of country in the world. The area represented 

 by seventy kilometers round London is, on the other hand, pro- 

 bably the worst in the neighbourhood of an important city. The 

 State's provincial tariff is the same as in the town. 



For the rest of Sweden there are no statistics later than the end 

 of 1892. At that time the State owned 288 exchanges and co- 

 operative societies 158, but a number of these last have since been 

 absorbed by the State. At the same date the State owned 15,416 

 kilometers of trunk lines. At the end of 1893 the General Com- 

 pany had 9,031 instruments working in connection with 95 switch- 

 rooms, 15,259 kilometers of lines (not wires). The number of 

 connections in Stockholm alone for the year was 25,060,715, or 

 9-05 per subscriber per day, dealt with by a total staff of 200 lady 

 telephonists. The value of the company's Stockholm system at 

 December3i, 1893, was 2, 006,693 kronor, an d of its country system 

 i, 01 8, 5 10 kroner, making a total of 3, 019,203 kronor, or 165,8907. 

 Adding the value of premises, workshop plant, stores, and raw 

 materials in hand, the assets were brought up to 3,742,801 kronor, 

 or 205,6487. All this had been brought into existence with a 

 share capital of only 32,9667., and the surplus of profits remaining 

 after paying 8 per cent, per annum to the shareholders and 

 creating a reserve fund, a renewal or deterioration fund, a fire in- 

 surance fund, an accident fund, an employees' benevolent fund, and 

 a general purposes fund. At December 31, 1893, these several 

 items stood as follows : 







Reserve fund ....... 9,890 



Renewal fund ....... 70,747 



Fire insurance fund . . . . . . 1,257 



Accident fund ....... 1,362 



Employees' fund ...... 21,978 



General purposes fund ..... 3,177 



,108,411 



