30 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
CHANGES IN TELEPHONE SERVICE 
Nearly $150,000 Spent to Improve Service in Manchester and Magnolia 
This Season. Wires Now Underground. 
Telephone subscribers in Manches- 
ter will be glad to know that the 
new central office on Summer street 
will probably be used for the first 
time on Saturday night. Unless the 
plans are changed within a few 
hours the service of over 300 sub- 
seribers with nearly 450 telephones 
will be almost instantly transferred 
about midnight from the present ex- 
change on Union street to the new 
building on Summer street. 
The change from one switchboard 
to another will take but a few sec- 
onds and no subscriber will be in- 
convenienced. Service will be con- 
tinuous. As late as possible before 
the change notices will be sent 
every subscriber in the town. 
After the removal to the new 
office, which will be equipped with 
the most modern devices in tele- 
phony, there will be no further need 
to turn the crank in order to eall 
the operator. Simply removing the 
receiver from the hook is all that 
will be necessary. 
In the fall subcribers now con- 
nected with the Magnolia exchange 
will be served from the Manchester 
office and will have all the advant- 
ages of the latest type of switch- 
board without additional expense. 
Although both Manchester and 
Magnolia subscribers will be given 
service in the same building they 
will be operated as two distinct ex- 
changes. 
The changes will not all be made 
at once because all the cables neces- 
sary to connect Magnolia subscrib- 
ers with the Manchester office have 
not arrived. When this work is 
completed divided ringing will be 
given in both exchanges; that is, 
only the bell of the subscriber 
wanted rings on two-party lines, 
and on four-party lines only one 
bell other than at the station wanted 
is heard. Other bells on the line are 
silent when the call is made. 
About 3,000 local calls are made 
on the Manchester switchboard 
every day and during July and 
August this number is increased to 
over 4,000. The toll calls to and 
from Manchester aggregate about 
200 daily at the present time and 
will increase very much during the 
next two months. The Manchester 
operating force consists of eight 
young women. 
The removal to the new office will 
eost the New England Telephone 
and Telegraph company over $60,- 
000. The expense of cables running 
to Magnolia approximates $32,000 
and the switchboard and its equip- 
ment represent an investment of 
over $25,000. In addition there is 
the cost of the building, furnishings 
and labor. 
The new central office was de- 
signed to meet the telephone needs 
of Manchester and Magnolia for 
several years. It is of wooden con 
struction. In the basement is the 
stock room, on the first floor is the 
operating and terminal rooms and 
on the second floor is the rest room 
for the use of the operators. 
The Process of ‘‘Cutting-Over.”’ 
What is known as a 
eut-over’’ 
telephone 
is hardly what its name 
suggests. It is a transfer of sub- 
seribers’ lines of eommunication 
from one exchange to another, but 
there is nothing in the nature of 
‘‘eutting’’?’ in connection with this 
performance. On the contrary, it is 
peaceful and bloodless—an almost 
perfunctory performance in its lack 
of appeal to the eye. 
It is this lack of appeal to the 
eye, however, that is the real test 
of a good job. It caps the climax 
of, perhaps, a year’s work, and, 
though the telephone using public 
may not feel greatly concerned over 
this ‘‘cut-over,’’ the telephone man 
who has had any hand in it is an- 
xiously awaiting the verdict. If 
there is no appeal to the eye, no 
kicking from subscribers, no sensa- 
tional outbreak of any kind, the job 
has been well done. 
The ‘‘eut-over’’ then although it 
consumes but a few moments of 
time, and is only a small part of a 
complicated proceeding, is the 
supreme test by which the effiici- 
ency of months of labor is to be 
judged. 
When the telephone company de- 
cides to change from what is known 
as a magneto to a common battery 
system it must preface the actual 
‘‘eut-over’’ by a complete re-adjust- 
ment of its plant. Every foot of 
the many miles of open wires con- 
necting hundreds of houses and offi- 
ces with the exchange is carefully 
inspected, repaired and put in the 
best possible condition to avoid in- 
duction troubles. 
There are two kinds of switch- 
boards in common use, the magneto, 
thus named because the current 
necessary in calling the central of- 
fice is generated by a magneto, 
which is connected with each in- 
strument; and the common battery 
or relay system, where the current 
is all furnished at the power plant 
of the company. 
In the course of time these pre- 
liminaries, too technical for detailed 
description, are completed. Mean- 
while, a new exchange building or 
operating room has been equipped 
with the latest telephone applances, 
including a new switchboard, with 
its thousands of inter-connected 
lines. 
For several days before the ‘‘cut- 
ting-over’’ the new building, or 
operating room, is ready for the 
actual change, both new and exist- 
ing exchanges have _ switchboards. 
The original cables are extended to 
the new office, but the connections 
between subscribers are still com-_ 
plete in the old office. The effect of 
this is to have two fully equipped 
switchboards connected to the same 
lines or cables, one ready to super- 
sede the other. 
The cutting over is almost always 
done at night, because at this time 
the least number of subseribers use 
the wires. On the night of the 
‘‘eut-over,’’ additional operators are 
provided in order that both switvh- 
boards may be used The old 
switchboard is used up to the very 
second of ‘‘cutting-over.’’ In less 
than one minute after the ‘‘cut- 
over’’ the new switchboard may be 
used to the full capacity of service. 
In order to keep the lines running 
into the new exchange entirely free 
from connection or interference 
with the lines running to the old 
exchange, little pieces of wood 
called ‘‘opening plugs,’’ about the 
size of a lead pencil and an inch and 
a half long are inserted in the little 
holes or ‘‘jacks,’’ in which sub- 
seribers’ lines terminate. This is 
done in order to keep all the eireuit 
open and prevent subscribers’ calls 
from showing on the switchboard. 
The actual work of ‘‘eutting- 
over’? is simple. In the old ex- 
change one squad of workmen liter- 
ally rips the wires from the switch- 
board, while in the new exchange 
another squad is busily engaged in 
pulling out the wooden plugs, thus 
closing the circuit and putting the 
new system into instant operation. 
It is all over in a minute. 
The lines are then tested with 
ereat care. If there are any ‘‘trou- 
bles,’’ it usually is possible to 
remedy them before daybreak. If 
there are none, the subseriber simply 
lifts his receiver from the hook and 
gets the operator without turning 
the crank and ringing the bell, as 
of yore. 
