24 
TELEPHONE FOR DEFENSE 
INTERESTING TEST DESCRIBED IN 
ANNUAL REpoRT oF AMERICAN 
TELEPHONE Co. 
As last year was the banner year 
in the telephone service, the annual 
report of the American Telephone & 
Telegraph Co. for the year ending 
December 31, 1916, is of special in- 
terest. It shows that the Bell System 
had the heaviest gain in traffic ever 
reported in a single year, with a daily 
average of 29,420,000 connections. 
NO RASS Or BRE, 
This was approximately at the rate 
of 100 calls per year for every man, 
woman and child in the United States. 
The facilities of the company have 
been so largely improved as to virtu- 
ally place the cities in the United 
States of over 50,000 inhabitants 
within speaking communication of 
each other and within the reach of 
extra long distance service. In re- 
ferring to the Company’s experiments 
in wireless telephoning, President 
Vail gives an interesting description 
of a mobilization of communication 
This advertisement is one of a series designed to effect closer cooperation 
-between the company and its subscribers. 
phone call—the person calling, the person called, and the operator who con- 
The quality of service rendered is determined by. the spirit in 
which all three work together, rather than by the individual effort of any one 
We shall gladly send complete sets of the 
nects them. 
cr two of these three persons. 
series to those desiring them. 
There are three parties to a tele- 
“SEVNATEFISIX.” 
7-8-5-6 is asked for in that way. 
numbers. . 
held responsible. 
GIVE NUMBERS CLEARLY 
Everyone realizes the possibilities of error in telephoning when 
When numbers are given to our operators in that disconnected, 
hurried or otherwise indistinct fashion, it is more than likely that 
there will be an error and a wrong connection made. 
There is absolute necessity for the clear enunciation of all telephone 
numbers: the operation of our switchboards is directed wholly by 
A wrong number or a misunderstood number invariably 
means an error call, for which our operators should not always be 
“Sev-en eight fi-ve six” is the better way to give the above number. 
Clearly pronounced numbers uttered directly into the telephone trans- 
mitter will obviate a majority of error calls. 
When you have given a number to our operator, she repeats it. 
You should listen for that repetition, for then you may correct her 
if she has misunderstood you. 
That will save a great deal of delay 
and trouble; and, if you will also say “Yes” or “That’s right,” if she 
repeats properly, she will have your assurance that she is doing her 
work correctly. 
NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONE 
AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY 
I. W. Rolfe, Manager 
March 30, 1917, 
forces conducted by the staff of the 
Company at the request of the Sec- 
retary of the Navy and in cooper- 
ation with naval officers under the 
command of Admiral Benson, chief 
of naval operations. For three days, 
during which war conditions were 
simulated as far as_ possible, the 
Navy abandoned all other forms of 
communication between the Navy de- 
partment at Washington and the navy 
yards and navy stations in the con- 
tinental United States. 
During this period it utilized the 
Bell System for telephone and _ tele- 
graph communication by wire with 
all of the naval forces in that terri- 
tory and was able at all times 
to obtain instantaneous telephone 
or telegraph communication with any 
point involved. The Secretary of 
the Navy conversed with several 
of the principal naval stations and 
the admiral in command _ talked 
with the commanding officer at all of 
the naval stations on the Pacific coast 
from Bremerton,- Wash., to San 
Diego, California, and to the navy 
yards and naval stations on the Gulf 
and Atlantic coasts and on the Great 
Lakes. 
An interesting test of wireless tele- 
phony was also made. The trans- 
mission was by wire to the wireless 
stations where it was automatically 
transferred to wireless apparatus. 
The report gives this very interesting 
episode: 
“The Secretary of the Navy seated 
at his desk in the Department in 
Washington talked with Captain 
Chandler on board the battleship 
New Hampshire at Hampton Roads. 
“Under orders given to him by the 
Secretary of the Navy and Admiral 
Benson, the captain of the New 
Hampshire proceed out to sea as far 
as the southern drill grounds and re- 
- turned, reporting his position by tele- 
phone every hour to the Department 
at Washington. 
“The atmospheric electrical condi- 
tions being very favorable, the talk- 
ing to and from the ship was so loud 
and distinct that Captain Bennett, in 
command at the Mare Island Navy 
Yard on the Pacific, conversed with 
Captain Chandler on the New Hamp- 
shire, which was at that time in a 
storm on the Atlantic.” 
The company’s engineers have de- 
voted much study to the conditions 
created by the further adoption of 
electric traction by railroads and the 
continued extension of electric power 
lines. In this work the company’s 
experts codperated with the Cali- 
fornia Railroad commission and other 
federal and state bodies, in the effort 
to formulate proper rules governing 
the operation of such wires, 
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