The Psychology of Telephony 37 



watched. So that 3547 becomes 3457 in, as we may say, the 

 twinkling of an eye. You will agree that there are certain 

 numbers which will not stick in your memory. There are many 

 instances where subscribers are frequently unable to remember 

 their own numbers. The introduction of the " double " was a 

 help. 3, double 5, 7 is an easy number to remember, for this 

 reason. No doubt some of you have felt aggrieved when we 

 introduced " " (Oh !) instead of " " (nought), yet we had a 

 reason on our side. It is much easier to articulate Oh " than 

 " nought " ; it is especially to be appreciated in respect of 

 " double oh " ; it is a clearer demarcation from 9. A telephone 

 company in the middle West of America once proposed the 

 substitution of "cinq" for "five," in order to avoid the old 

 confusion between " 9 " and " 5." That was an heroic sugges- 

 tion. We have to get over it by teaching the stafl' the careful 

 articulation of " five " — rather long — and ' nine," crisp and sharp. 

 You will notice, though it is not so striking in Belfast as else- 

 where, because it is nearer the normal in speech, that our 

 operators roll their r's, that they say " sev — en," that they pro- 

 nounce the consonants clearly ; of course they repeat back the 

 figures, as a safeguard, rather differently from the way in which 

 the subscriber has passed them. All this, you say, has nothing 

 to do with psychology ; it is a mere matter of articulation. 



But it has a great deal to do with psychology. Do not 

 forget that the telephone is a metallic instrument. It makes its 

 speech by the vibration of a metallic diaphragm. Compare this 

 to the beautiful flexibility of the human instrument and you will 

 realise that the telephone is at a great disadvantage. Moreover 

 there are some sounds which it is said the telephone does not 

 carry at all, such as sibilants. Now here comes in psychology. 

 The telephone auditor, in listening to the sounds which reach his 

 ear has to build them up into the likeness of speech which 

 reaches his ear direct and without the interposition of a metallic 

 diaphragm. There are therefore two arts involved.' There is 

 the art of telephone speech, which has acquired by a process 



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