Switzerland 403 



subscriber, A, wanting a trunk, rings and says ' long distance,' 

 whereupon he is joined through to an operator in the trunk room, 

 who makes a note of the name or number and town of the person 

 wanted and sends it to the operator controlling the trunk affected. 

 When A's turn arrives, this operator rings the intermediate section 

 of the multiple and asks for him. While A is being rung, the 

 person he wants is demanded of the operator at the distant town. 

 As soon as the two subscribers reply, the lines are joined, a 

 sand-glass reversed, and the operators turn up their keys. When 

 a request for a local subscriber comes from a trunk line, the 

 trunk operator rings the trunk section of the local multiple, asks 

 for the person wanted, and joins the trunk to the junction wire. 

 As all the local subscribers have jacks on this section, the operator 

 there has only to ring, and when a reply comes to go off the line, 

 the duration of the talk in this case being noted at the distant end. 

 The system appears to work well and smoothly, but the communi- 

 cation between the operators at the local multiple and those in the 

 long-distance room, and consequently the service, would certainly 

 be accelerated if it were conducted on the listening plan instead 

 of by the constant dropping of indicators. Much work would be 

 saved, too, if the subscribers, or, at all events, those among them 

 who habitually use the trunks, had repeat jacks on the trunk tables. 

 At present, when a connection is ready the caller has to be notified 

 through the intermediate operator, which means a certain loss of 

 time repeated hundreds of times a day. When three trunks exist 

 between two towns, A and B, it is found advantageous to use one 

 for the calls from A to B, a second for those from B to A, and 

 the third for communications between other towns whose traffic 

 passes by that route. When the third line is otherwise free, it is 

 used as a service wire between the operators at A and B, who 

 are, by its aid, able to get through more connections on the 

 other two than would be otherwise possible. 



The installation at Zurich, both as regards the switch-room 

 and the outside work to be described later on, undoubtedly reflects 

 the greatest credit on Dr. Wietlisbach, director and chief 

 technician to the Swiss Telephone Administration, and Mr. 

 Homburger, the local manager and engineer. 



In obtaining connections, the subscribers ring the exchange 



D D 2 



