Switzerland 377 



grams are charged for separately according to the tariff. The 

 practicability of this plan was disputed on several grounds, and 

 not without plausibility. Its probable effect on the revenue was 

 feared, and the discontent of those busy subscribers whose pay- 

 ments would no longer be covered by 61. per annum dreaded. 

 However, by the 'Loi Federate' of June 27, 1889, the principle 

 was definitely adopted in Switzerland with the modification that 

 a foundation or first payment to cover 800 connections per annum 

 was prescribed, all subsequent communications having to be paid for 

 on Dr. Rothen's plan. The annual charge was fixed at 4/. i6s., 

 4/., and 3/. 4^., for the first, second, and third and subsequent years 

 respectively, while the connections had in excess of the 800 were 

 rated at 4^. per hundred, or five centimes (-48^.) each. This law 

 came into operation on January i, 1890, and has led to an 

 immense increase in the number of telephonic subscriptions. 



Subscribers' wires are generally single with earth return, but 

 all trunks and many of the junction lines to parochial stations are 

 metallic circuits, translators being employed for the connections 

 between the two. It is pleasant to know, however, that the Swiss 

 are alive to the inadequacy of the single-wire system as a perma- 

 nent institution, and have decided to gradually supersede it every- 

 where by metallic circuits. A very earnest and creditable begin- 

 ning has already been made at Zurich, and similar changes are to 

 follow immediately at Berne, Geneva, and Lausanne. 



The cost of keeping the voluminous and complex accounts 

 rendered necessary by recording the subscribers' calls and charging 

 each individual every month for his local calls above a certain 

 number : for his trunk calls ; for his telegrams forwarded and 

 delivered ; and for his telephonograms, is unquestionably very con- 

 siderable ; and the question whether an automatic counter in each 

 subscriber's office would not be a useful addition is being debated. 

 Many such counters have been devised and tried, but a really 

 trustworthy one has not yet been forthcoming, while the first cost 

 of installing 20,000 such instruments would not be a negligible 

 quantity. But the chief difficulty lies in the diversity of traffic 

 which is liable to emanate from the same office. A counter that 

 could not differentiate between telephonograms, telegrams for- 

 warded and received, local calls, and trunk connections, would at 



