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Telephone QuAirERiY

VOLUME X, 1931

INFORMATION DEPARTMENT

AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY

195 Broadway, New York

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PRINTED IN U. S. A.

73319" J^ ^ '32

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

VOLUME X, 1931

TABLE OF CONTENTS
JANUARY, 1931

What the Electrical Communication Industries Expect of the Tech-
nical Schools, by Bancroft Gherardi 3

The Training of Telephone Operators, by H. C. LaChance 12

Moving the Indianapolis Telephone Building, by Vance Oathout and

W . H. Harrison 17

The Methods of Industrial and Business Forecasting, by S. L. An-
drew 26

Toll Conduit Construction on Private Property, by G. P. Dunn and

J. C. Nash 39

Overseas Telephone Extensions During the Past Year 57

Notes on Recent Occurrences 60

APRIL, 1931

Some Commercial Aspects of Radio Network Service, by H. H. Carter 69

Milestones, Guideposts and Footprints, by R. T. Barrett 80

Teletypewriter Service and its Present Day Uses, by W. L. Dusen-

berry 92

The Growing American Taste for Beauty and What the Bell System

is Doing to Satisfy It, by R. S. Coe 103

Population Changes in Small Communities and in Rural Areas, by

R. L. Tomblen 115

The Russell Portrait of Alexander Graham Beil, by W. C. Langdon 124

Notes on Recent Occurrences 127

JULY, 1931

International Radio Technical Conference at Copenhagen, by Lloyd

Espenschied I35

World's Telephone Statistics, January 1, 1930 138

Some Auxiliary Services and Facilities of the Bell System, by R. S.

Coe ISO

The Development of the Microphone, \iy E. A. Frederick 164

The Measurement of Noise; a New Service of Electrical Research

Products, Inc., by 5. K. Wolf 189

The Primary Production of the World, by Wm. Hodgkinson, Jr. . . . . 193

Notes on Recent Occurrences 203

OCTOBER, 1931

An Important New Insulating Process for Cable Conductors, by How-
ard G. Walker 211

Preliminary Returns of the Distribution Census, by R. L. Tomblen 216
Some Bell System Services Offered to Private Switchboard Users, by

Glen L. Whiteman 231

Buried Cable Distribution System, by C. G. Sinclair, Jr. ........... 237

The Beginnings of Long Distance, by William Chauncy Langdon 244

Talking Pictures in Industry and Education, by Frederick L. Dever-

eux 253

Notes on Recent Occurrences ' . 263

Instructing a Student Operator at a Practice Switchboard.
(See The Training of Telephone Operators, page 12 j

Bell Telephone
Quarterly

A Medium of Suggestion
and a Record of Progress

CONTENTS FOR JANUARY 1931

PAGE
What the Electrical Communication Industries Expect of the Technical

Schools — Bancroft Gherardi 3

The Training of Telephone Operators — H. C. LaChance 12

Moving the Indianapolis Telephone Building — Vance Oathout and W.

H. Harrison 1^

The Methods of Industrial and Business Forecasting — S. L. Andrew . . 26

Toll Conduit Construction on Private Property— G. P. Dunn and J. C.

Nash 39

Overseas Telephone Extensions During the Past Year 57

Notes on Recent Occurrences 60

VOL. X NO. 1

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY FOR THE BELL SYSTEM BY THE AMERICAN

TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY. SUBSCRIPTION, $1.50 PER YEAR.

IN UNITED STATES AND CANADA; SINGLE COPIES, 50 CENTS

Address all communications to

INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY

195 Broadway, New York

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

BANCROFT GHERARDI

Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., B.S., 1891; Cornell
University, M.E., 1893, M.M.E., 1894; New York Telephone
Company and The New York and New Jersey Telephone
Company, 1895-1907; American Telephone and Telegraph
Company, Equipment Engineer, 1907-09; Engineer of Plant,
1909-18; Acting Chief Engineer, 1918-19; Chief Engineer,
1919-20; Vice President and Chief Engineer, 1920-. Mr.
Gherardi is a Trustee of Cornell University and a Past Presi-
dent of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

HENRY C. LaCHANCE

New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1905;
Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, 1911; American Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company, Department of Operation
and Engineering, 1920. Engaged in development of training
plans.

VANCE OATHOUT

Plant and Commercial Assignments, Iowa Telephone Com-
pany, 1903-13. Supervisor of Traffic, Minnesota Division,
Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, 1913-16. Super-
intendent of Traffic, Minnesota Division, Northwestern Bell
Telephone Company, 1916-25. Engineer of Plant Exten-
sions, General Headquarters, Northwestern Bell Telephone
Company, 1925-27. Chief Engineer, Indiana Bell Telephone
Company, 1927.

WILLIAM H. HARRISON

A brief biographical note regarding Mr. Harrison appeared in
the list of contributors in the Bell Telephone Quarterly for
April, 1930.

SEYMOUR L. ANDREW

Harvard University, A.B., 1910. Entered Comptroller's De-
partment, American Telephone and Telegraph Company,
1910. Appointed Chief Statistician, present position, 1921.

GEORGE R DUNN

Drexel Institute, C.E., 1924. After several years with the
State Highway Departments of New Jersey and Pennsylvania
and also in real estate development in Florida, joined staff" of
the Chief Engineer, New York Telephone Company at
Albany, July, 1929.

J. CARTER NASH

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, C.E., 1927. Engaged in tele-
phone conduit construction with contracting company until
entering Plant Department, New York Telephone Company
at Albany, February, 1929.

What the Electrical Communication Indus-
tries Expect of the Technical Schools

Address by Bancroft Gherardi, Vice President and Chief Engi-
neer of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, at
Lehigh University, October 16, 1930.

AS a part of the ceremonies of the dedication of the James
Ward Packard Laboratory of Electrical and Mechanical
Engineering, I have been asked to speak on " What the Elec-
trical Communication Industries Expect of the Technical
Schools." At the outset, I must admit that I cannot under-
take to speak for the whole electrical communication industry
of these United States; I can only speak for that considerable
part of it known as the Bell Telephone System. Even in this
narrower capacity, I cannot say that there would not be some
who might differ from me in their ideas on this question. It is
a question in which I am greatly interested and to which I have
given much thought. What I say is based upon over thirty-
five years of experience and observation in the Bell System,
and I feel confident that my views do not differ in any essential
respect from those of the great majority of my associates.

The Bell System has in round figures 400,000 employees.
The administration of this number of people engaged in a busi-
ness which extends throughout the whole of this country, which
is growing rapidly, and which is based upon a complex and
rapidly developing art, necessarily requires much administra-
tive ability, a large and skilled administrative personnel, and
many departments whose work demands a knowledge of scien-
tific and technical questions not only by the supervisors but by
practically every member of the department.

A recent survey of the Bell Telephone System showed that
on the first day of this year there were over 14,000 college

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

graduates in the System. College graduates constitute a most
important part of the supervisory personnel, and about one-
third of all the supervisory positions in the Bell System are
filled by men who have had a college education. We were
among the earliest of the business organizations to recognize
the value and the opportunities of the college man in industry.
Almost from the invention of the telephone, it has been a defi-
nite part of our program to hire a number of college men each
year.

Of the college graduates in the Bell System, about 55 per
cent are graduates of scientific or technical courses; about 35
per cent of courses in arts and science; and about 10 per cent
come from business courses. Enough facts have been given to
show the dependence which the Bell System has placed, in the
building up of its supervisory and technical forces, upon the
graduates of our colleges and universities, and especially upon
the graduates of our scientific and technical schools.

We have been employing, on the average, during the last
few years about 1,500 college graduates each year, and there
is every reason to believe that this is a fair measure of our fu-
ture requirements. In making our studies of our needs for
college men, we are careful not to make our estimates so large
that we will be unable to give to each man opportunities for
advancement commensurate with his abilities. We also make
full allowance for the developing of men from our non-college
forces, and many able men in the supervisory and technical
forces of the Bell System have come from this source. For the
rest, we must look to the colleges. In addition we must go to
the colleges for a large part of the personnel of such depart-
ments as those dealing with engineering and research.

Perhaps no industrial organization has a greater diversity in
the scope of its work than the Bell System. The Western
Electric Company, the manufacturing department of the Bell
System, employs over 70,000 people, and at the present time
has about 2,700 college graduates. The Bell Telephone Lab-

COMMUNICATION INDUSTRIES AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS

oratories, the largest industrial laboratory in the world, em-
ploys over 1,200 college graduates; the remainder of our col-
lege graduates, over 10,000 in number, are engaged chiefly in
the supervision of operations and the carrying on of engineer-
ing and technical work pertaining to the telephone business.
In order that in this paper I shall not try to talk about too
many things at the same time, my remarks from now on will
be confined to a consideration of the requirements of positions
in the engineering and operating departments of the System,
although many of my comments might apply equally well to
our laboratories and manufacturing department.

Perhaps it would not be out of place at this point for me to
make some reference to the kind of men that we would like to
get from the colleges and technical schools, for the output of
the colleges is a product of at least two factors — the character-
istics of the men themselves, and the influence which their edu-
cation has had upon their knowledge, judgment and character.
As the technical schools are in general responsible not only for
the courses of training which they give to their students but for
the selection of the students themselves, it would perhaps not
be amiss for me to outline briefly what seem to us to be the
principal characteristics of a good man of the tj^e which we
are now considering. Perhaps such an analysis might be of
some help in the selection of the men who are to receive tech-
nical training, and perhaps it might have some influence upon
the kind of training to be given to them.

What we want are men who can recognize the problems with
which they are confronted; study the problems; determine the
appropriate action; and then take such action in the right way.
For men in administrative and general engineering depart-
ments, these seem to me to be the essential requirements, and
to perform them adequately there are a limited number of
characteristics necessary. There are others which are desir-
able, but those which I shall enumerate here seem to me to be
essential.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Understanding of the problem needs perception. Questions
do not ordinarily come to those in responsible positions in con-
crete form; such persons live in the midst of events and have to
see accurately what the situation is. There can be but little
perception without broad knowledge of the business, as things
must be seen in proper relation to each other and to the busi-
ness as a whole. There must be imagination, intelligence,
judgment, intellectual honesty, and high aims.

The study of the problem and the determination of the ac-
tion to be taken after perceiving that some action is required
or is desirable, requires, in addition to the characteristics al-
ready named, courage or the will to do; requires an active type
of courage — the willingness, even the eagerness, to face diffi-
culties, both difficulties of a physical nature and opposition
from others. The determination of action, which often in-
volves personnel questions, requires a sense of justice.

The effective carrying out of action when decided upon in-
volves an additional characteristic — skill in persuading and in
meeting difficulties, for there is often met inertia and opposition
in the processes of execution. These must be overcome and
the many subordinate questions which arise in a large under-
taking must be disposed of satisfactorily.

To the above, I would add only a few additional character-
istics: good health; a sympathetic understanding of people and
of the world at large; and an ability to carry on several projects
simultaneously without becoming overwhelmed or confused by
varied activities.

Some may be surprised that I have made no specific mention
of tact. It is admittedly helpful in getting things done and in
making life pleasant for all concerned; it is a desirable char-
acteristic for men in administrative work; it is perhaps, at least
in some of its aspects, included in " Skill in Persuading and in
Meeting Difficulties." Probably men wholly lacking in tact
will not be completely successful. However, I think we all
know enough successful men who are not markedly tactful to

COMMUNICATION INDUSTRIES AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS

suggest the possibility of overrating tact as an essential char-
acteristic. I believe that co-operation and good morale may
be maintained by other means, such as enthusiasm, sincerity of
purpose, and by just and fair dealing. An over-emphasis on
tact may result in the selection of colorless individuals and
those lacking force.

I have not specifically mentioned skill in the judgment of
people. This is essential, but in general I believe it goes with
the other characteristics outlined, for good all-round men in-
stinctively recognize one another. To be able to select good
men, train them and give them opportunities for advancement,
are of course essentials.

In speaking of the educational course itself, I shall confine
myself to discussion with reference to preparing the student,
not for his general responsibilities to society, but with reference
to the special qualifications needed in his professional work.
This is not because I underrate the importance of having a man
prepared to play his part in the general social structure, but to
undertake to consider that aspect of education would carry me
far beyond the scope of the subject on which I have been asked
to speak. Even the aspect of the subject to which I have
limited myself is so broad that it is impossible for me to treat
of it here comprehensively. I shall only undertake to bring
out a few ideas which my experience has indicated as worthy
of consideration.

Telephone engineering is one of the specialties into which
engineering has been differentiated, and while ordinarily con-
sidered a subdivision of electrical engineering, in fact it invades
many of the other fields of engineering, notably mechanical
engineering. I do not feel that the school training of a man
for communication engineering should be essentially different
from that given to electrical and mechanical engineers in gen-
eral. The communication engineer is, after all, confronted by
problems which are underlain by the common basis of these
branches of engineering; he deals with the same materials and

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

the same physical laws; and his problem, as in other branches
of mechanical and electrical engineering, is to accomplish the
most satisfactory results in the most economical manner, and
so that the product of his work will meet not only the con-
ditions of today but those of the future.

In the relatively short time available for the professional
training of the student, it is not possible to teach everything in
science and engineering which might be useful in his profession.
It seems therefore that the important thing is that the engi-
neering student should have discipline in the methods of solv-
ing engineering problems and a general foundation in mathe-
matics, physics and materials which will enable him to solve the
special problems that come before him by getting the facts in
that case and then interpreting these facts and reasoning from
them correctly. Train the student on the necessity of getting
his facts and teach him the best methods of getting engineering
facts, and train him on interpreting engineering data and in
reasoning therefrom. I am not suggesting that his education
should teach him the facts beyond the fundamental ones.

All important communication systems today, except those
which are essentially transportation problems, are basically
electrical. Therefore, in electricity, the student's work should
be carried further than in other branches of physics, and he
should have a thorough working knowledge of both direct and
alternating currents. In addition to giving this knowledge in
abstract form, it should be taught in some of its principal ap-
plications. Laboratory experimental work is valuable but
should, it seems to me, be carried on primarily as illustrating
fundamental laws and so as to give the student the manual
dexterity needed in handling electrical instruments. The time
devoted to this work may be divided between the different
branches of electrical engineering, and certain fundamental
problems with reference to the telephone and telegraph should
not be excluded.

COMMUNICATION INDUSTRIES AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS

One of my strongest convictions is that unusual effort may
well be made to teach every engineering student to speak and
to write a report or letter in clear convincing English, setting
forth the facts and arguments and conclusions pertaining to the
question before him. It is of the greatest importance to an
engineer that he shall be able to state in correct and logical
form the problem before him, and to enforce his conclusions
with arguments which shall be convincing. Such training as
this is not merely one in literature, composition or rhetoric, for
to present such a report the problem must have been mastered,
and clear thinking must precede clear speaking or writing. It
has always seemed to me that a knowledge of at least one
foreign language is desirable, perhaps more so than ever now
that the export business and foreign activities of this country
have become so great.

I do not know how much it is possible within the scope of
technical education to emphasize the importance of arriving at
the most economical solution of a given problem. Correct en-
gineering is the determination of the most economical way of
arriving at a desired result. It is not sufficient to find a way
to accomplish a result; it should be the most desirable way. I
can appreciate the difficulties of emphasizing this point of view
in a college education, but whatever can be done along these
lines will be helpful.

I do not think that it is possible to over-emphasize the im-
portance of accuracy. I have sometimes noticed that begin-
ners in engineering seem to feel that arithmetical errors are of
trivial importance as compared with the use of incorrect mental
processes. Without wishing to condone the use of incorrect
mental propesses, I should like to point out that, as far as
practical results are concerned, errors due to carelessness are
as serious as those due to incorrect r ental processes; in fact,
they are often even more troublesome to deal with, because
errors of logic can be detected by a competent chief engineer
in a comparatively brief examination of the subject, whereas

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

errors of computation and similar errors can be found only by
a complete re-check of the work.

In presenting my ideas to you on this matter, I have tried not
to be dogmatic. I recognize that it is for the educators to de-
termine how results in education shall be accomplished, while,
on the other hand, it is the duty as well as the privilege of those
in industry to outline what they need. In some ways the prob-
lem is analogous to the relation between the operating depart-
ments of the Bell System and its manufacturing company.
The operating departments undertake to tell the manufactur-
ing company and the laboratories what they want, but not how
it shall be manufactured; it is the function of the manufactur-
ing department to determine how a given device or mechanism
shall be manufactured in order to produce the desired result.
Education is in many ways a more complex operation, because
manufacturers use uniform standardized materials, while the
educational process is not applied to uniform materials but to
human beings of infinitely varying characteristics. While this
greatly complicates the problem of the educator as compared
with that of the manufacturer, it does not in my opinion greatly
change the relationship which should exist between the edu-
cators and the employers who subsequently will hire those who
have been educated.

In accepting the pleasant task of speaking to you as a repre-
sentative of the communication industries and in trying to out-
line what we " expect " of the colleges, I would not wish you to
think that I feel that in the past our colleges and technical
schools have not met the needs of the Bell System. We are
deeply appreciative of the contributions which the graduates of
Lehigh University and of the many other colleges represented
in our organization have made to our success. They will be
important contributors to further progress in the years to come.
Nothing that I have said should be interpreted as criticism of
these men or of the institutions in which they acquired their
academic training. On the contrary, I am ready to maintain

COMMUNICATION INDUSTRIES AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS

at any time that these men have been essential to the Bell Sys-
tem and that the training which they received during their
years of academic study was essential to the contributions
which they have made. If what I have said is helpful to the
educator in arriving at a more definite understanding of what
the communication industries expect of the technical schools, I
am grateful to have had the opportunity to present this paper
today.

The Training of Telephone Operators

THE important part played by the operator in furnishing
telephone service is a matter of common knowledge. As
the industry has grown, her work has evolved from a simple
occupation to one of such scope as to require careful training;
and the Bell System has attempted to meet this training require-
ment. This has involved the development of an extensive
educational system within the telephone business, adapting the
science of vocational training to the needs of one of the largest
and most essential classes of women workers.

The extent of this training problem was pointed out by Mr.
K. W. Waterson in his article, " Change from Manual to Dial
Operation," which appeared in a recent issue of the Bell
Telephone Quarterly. In this article it was shown that in
1920, at the time conversion to the dial system started, there
were 128,000 operators in the Bell System and that in July,
1930 with the System 28 per cent on a dial basis, there were
160,000 operators. It was stated, moreover, that by 1940,
when all proposed dial conversions will have been completed,
there will be 180,000 operators.

It is necessary to employ many thousands of new operators
each year to meet the demands of this increasing force, and the
Bell companies exercise great care in conducting the examina-
tion of applicants for these positions. In large cities, at least
two out of three applicants for operators' work are rejected
because they fail to meet the essential qualifications.

Each applicant for operators' work is interviewed by an
employment representative of the telephone company, and if
this interview is satisfactory, she also is examined by a phy-
sician. This interview and physical examination, which reveal
whether the applicant possesses the essential qualifications, are
conducted with the objects of protecting; and furthering the
interests of sustained, dependable telephone service, the in-
terests of the applicants themselves, and those of the other
employees with whom accepted applicants will work and be

TRAINING OF TELEPHONE OPERATORS

associated. Among the more important items considered are
intelligence, health, sight, hearing, voice, size, temperament,
character, appearance, and previous record.

An applicant accepted for employment is assigned to a train-
ing department which has the function of training her in the
work for which she was engaged, and she becomes a paid
employee on the day on which her training starts. Long ago,
telephone operating apprentices, as well as those in other oc-
cupations, were trained by being placed on the actual job, and
acquired skill as best they could through observation, contact
with skilled workers and the performing of such tasks as came
within the scope of their ability. This plan had the serious dis-
advantage that training became interwoven with productive
operation to an extent which was detrimental to both. The
recognition of this disadvantage led to the establishment of
organized vocational training in trade schools and also within
important industries. In this matter of providing exclusive
training facilities for its operating employees, the Bell System
can take pride in a record which extends back twenty- five years.
During that time well organized operators' training depart-
ments have been established and operated in all of the large
cities served by the Bell System.

The training department provides for the student a training
course which prepares her to start handling the ordinary work
of a regular operator in a central office in a dependable man-
ner. This training is given by instructors who, first of all, are
experts in the operating work in which training is to be given
and who also have the ability and training to teach others to
perform this work.

In the training department the student operator is instructed
in classrooms in the methods of performing her work and also
receives practice in the actual handling of this work. This
practice operating is considered the most important part of the
training and is given on special switchboards by means of
simulated calls under the full control of the instructors. These

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

calls are varied according to the requirements of the individual
students, but in every case a student handles many hundreds of
practice calls before she ever handles a regular service call in
a central office.

Intensive drills are given to the students in certain features of
their work, such as locating lines on the switchboard, the use
of phrases, and the understanding of speech as heard over the
telephone by an operator. The drills in the use of phrases and
in understanding are fundamental to an operator's work, affect-
ing, as they do, the transmitting and receiving of the orders,
requests, and acknowledgments which determine and control
the service rendered by her. Particular care is taken to impart
such training as will result in clear enunciation and accurate
hearing; and an ingenious arrangement has recently been pro-
duced for developing the hearing of students. By means of
this device, the transmission on practice calls is gradually re-
duced during the training course, until, at the end of the course,
the students are receiving orders which are more difficult to hear
than any they will ordinarily receive when handling actual calls.

Of all the training activities, the one which the students like
best is operating on the practice switchboard. This is quite
natural, since this activity is essentially the same as the job for
which they applied to the telephone company. The instructors
realize the advantage of satisfying this interest on the part of
the students, and an attempt is made to give them as much of
this practice operating as the general progress of their training
will permit. At the very beginning of the training course, one
of the first things the student does is to go to a practice switch-
board and establish a few connections under the direction of an
instructor. This lays a foundation of interest and satisfaction
for the training which is to follow.

In order to adjust the training of students accurately to the
work they will perform, periodical analyses of the work of
operators are made in the central offices in each city. This
adjustment of the training to the job — a basic requirement of

Student operators are shown a feature of telephone operation with a demonstration
switchboard.

Student operators listen in on numbers received at a working switchboard and write
them down.

Steps in the Training of Telephone Operators.

The girls at the left pass numbers to the student operators at the right who are
finding the hnes on a practice switchboard.

Student operators under instructors at a practice switchboard handle calls made by
the girls at the right.

Steps in the Tkaimng oi- Telephone Operatoks.

TRAINING OF TELEPHONE OPERATORS

effective vocational training — results in concentrating the train-
ing in each city on those operations which actually make up an
operator's ordinary job in that city. Only a relatively small
proportion of the wide range of operations embraced by any
important class of operating occur frequently enough to be
included in the ordinary work of an operator, and these con-
ditions vary as between cities. Hence the advantage of this
analysis is apparent.

Another interesting training analysis is one which is made, at
intervals, of the work of students immediately after they start
to operate in the central office. This reveals those features of
the work with which the students are encountering the most
difficulty and thus forms the basis for readjustments in the
training. Important advances in training have resulted from
this sampling process.

When the student is capable of handling a moderate quantity
of the ordinary work of an operator in a dependable manner,
she is sent to a central office. There she receives such addi-
tional instructions as she needs to prepare her to take up her
work. These additional instructions have to do with arrange-
ments peculiar to that particular central office or conditions
which are of such infrequent occurrence that they are not in-
cluded in the training department course. She is given all the
assistance and instructions she needs, but she is also given real
work to do, since the latter is an essential requirement at that
stage of her development as an operator. Soon she is per-
forming a regular operator's work, although, of course, in
limited quantity. Her remaining progress is largely a matter
of acquiring experience under the direction of expert super-
visors.

The progress of the student through her training course and
then on through the central office to become an operator is
gradual and uniform. Every training step has two objectives,
namely, training in the feature involved, and also preparing the
student to take up the steps which follow. This is important

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

to the student because it renders easier her task of acquiring
skill in her new work, and it is of advantage to the telephone
user because the student has acquired reasonable proficiency
before she handles his calls.

Throughout the training course and after the beginner goes
to the central office, careful attention is given to making the
training and the work as pleasant and interesting to her as pos-
sible. The training itself is planned and administered with
this in mind, and the associations of the student with the super-
vising and instructing employees and with her associates are
kept on a cordial and friendly basis. An attempt is made, in
particular, to let the student know of the interest which the
Company takes in her welfare and progress, and also to give her
the opportunity to observe the progress she is making.

Sustained attention is devoted to keeping operators' training
abreast of approved vocational training development and to
producing such distinctive new arrangements as the conditions
of telephone operation require. Training studies and experi-
ments are continually being made with these ends in view.

The training imparted to the student operator not only serves
to prepare her to perform skillfully the important work of tele-
phone operating, but also forms a sound basis for advancement
to higher positions. This is attested by an imposing group of
women employees, who started by taking this same student
training course and who, today, are occupying positions of im-
portance and responsibility.

The task of administering this training is full of live, human
interest and appeals to the imagination. The training organ-
ization, in performing its work, has the satisfaction of knowing
that it is not only contributing to the furnishing of an essential
service, but that it is helping thousands of girls to learn some-
thing useful and profitable.

The training described in this article is local operators' train-
ing, which differs in some respects from toll operators' training.

H. C. LaChance.

Moving the Indianapolis Telephone
Building

CONSIDERED from the viewpoint of popular interest, the
moving of the Indiana Bell Telephone Company's main
building in Indianapolis, housing the administration and down-
town business offices and toll equipment, was perhaps one of
the outstanding engineering projects of the year. This 1 1 ,000-
ton building of steel-frame and brick construction, eight stories
high, covering an area of 100 feet x 135 feet was moved and
turned from its original position at the front corner of the lot
facing Meridian Street to a new location at the rear of the
property fronting on New York Street, as indicated in Figure 1.

LINCOLN-
RILEY

BUILDING

. PIVOT j
POINT 5

a,J |,

- Original location of
Building.

- Location of Building
after being moved
52 feet south along
Meridian Street

- Final location of
Building after being
turned through 90°
frorn position 2 around
pivot point indicated.

Figure 1. Plot Plan,

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

It was determined after a study of several possible schemes
that by first moving the structure in a straight line 52 feet
south it would then be practicable in the space available to
rotate it through an angle of 90° into its final location. In
effect, the general plan of carrying out this operation was, after
excavating the site, to strip the building down to the steel skele-
ton below grade, cut it loose at the foundations and load it onto
rollers, the building then being pushed and pulled in the re-
quired directions using for a road-bed a system of tracks laid
generally railroad fashion on a concrete mat.

The structure, except for the basement, continued to be fully
occupied and business was conducted with the public and em-
ployees coming and going as usual and with the normal opera-
tion of all house services and telephone equipment. For ex-
ample, gas, water, sewer and steam heat services were continu-
ously maintained through flexible hose connections at the base-
ment ceiling level and the electric service through temporary
overhead leads from a pole, all as shown in Figure 2. Elevator
service, which normally included travel to the basement, was
continued by stopping the cars at the first floor with proper
safety apparatus installed on the steel framework under the
shaft. To avoid any interruption to the service, the telephone
wires where they left the building were lengthened by splicing
in place temporarily seven large armored submarine-type cables
— five for toll circuits and two for trunks to local offices — with
200 feet of slack. As a point of interest, through these cables
a telephone conversation between a young man in Australia
and his father who was ill in an Indianapolis hospital took place
while the building move was under way.

The objective in moving the structure, erected in 1906, was
to clear the front portion of the lot to provide space for the
erection of a new administration and equipment building re-
quired to keep pace with the continuing telephone growth in
Indianapolis. Meridian Street, along which the new struc-
ture is to be erected, is one of the principal thoroughfares of

Figure 2. Eighteen men with jacks push 8-story, 11,000 ton building. This picture shows
the start of the straight move south.

Figure 3.

A close-up view of jack operation, I-beam construcLion, rollers and rails.

MOVING THE INDIANAPOLIS TELEPHONE BUILDING

the city and by relocating the old building it was possible to
realize fully the inherent value of the property, to allow de-
velopment of the new building along the most desirable lines
and to secure the full service life from the existing buildings
and telephone equipment representing in all an investment of
close to $4,000,000.

Preliminary Work

To prepare for the move, a considerable amount of pre-
liminary work was necessary in the form of wrecking relatively
small buildings on the property, driving steel sheet piling to
hold up the embankments along the streets and underpinning
the adjacent Lincoln-Riley building in which is located local
telephone equipment. Also, to maintain connection between
the main entrance and the sidewalk, a movable steel and con-
crete bridge, shown in Figures 4 to 10, had to be constructed.
One end rested on the floor of the building vestibule entrance
and the other was supported on rollers near the sidewalk. Ar-
rangements were provided also for continuing in service the fire
escape at the rear.

Temporary provision was made on the first floor for the
mechanical and electrical house service equipment. The heat-
ing boilers which were used as a reserve for outside central
heating service and which were located in a sub-basement oc-
cupying a small area at one corner of the building were re-
moved and the lower level was built up solidly to the elevation
of the rest of the basement. Provision for these boilers did
not have to be made in the new location as this reserve will be
cared for in the new building. Following this the floor and the
walls, as well as the fireproofing on the columns in the base-
ment, were removed. With this space cleared out, except for
piping on the ceiling, the entire area over which the building
was to move was excavated to a depth of about 2 1 inches below
the level of the basement, and foundation footings were placed
in the new locations.

bell telephone quarterly

Trackage and Bracing for Building

The next step was to provide for the system of trackage.
For this a reinforced concrete mat, generally six inches thick,
was placed over the entire ground area upon which the build-
ing would travel and laid level with the top of the footings.
While the underlying gravel provided very firm bearing con-
ditions, the mat furnished a rigid flat base for distributing the
concentrated loads during the moving operation and insured a
level surface for laying the tracks and rolling the building.
On top of the concrete mat 6-inch x 8-inch timbers were laid
similar to railroad ties to act as a cushion and to help distribute
the weight. They permitted any slight unevenness in the
thickness of the mat or in the height of the rails to be taken up
as the building loads rolled along. Across the timbers rail-
road rails, used ones obtained for the occasion, were laid close
together generally without spiking, as there was no tendency
for the rails to move under the heavy loading and slow steady
movement. Both the timber and the track arrangements can
be seen in Figure 15.

As means for lifting and supporting the weight of the build-
ing, brackets formed of I-beams were riveted to the 59 columns
and under these brackets were placed two layers of heavy steel
beams extending in two directions. Some of this bracing can
be seen in Figures 2 and 3. All of these steel members were
rigidly fastened and tied together to resist any possible twist-
ing strains. The use of wood for structural bracing was
avoided for fire protection and other practical reasons.

With the mat and trackage in place and the steel supports
and bracing fastened to the columns, the building was ready to
be lifted the % inch required to permit of sliding the rollers
and steel bearing plates or shoes under the supporting beams,
all of which are illustrated in Figure 3. The longer columns
which had extended to lower levels because of the sub-basement
boiler room previously referred to, were burned off at a point

Figure 4. As the building appeared on
October 14 ready for the move to start.

FiGUKio .1. On October 18 the structure had
reached the end of the straight move.

Figure 6. October 25 showing curved
walk in place. The building turn has been
started.

Figure 7. By October 28 the turn of the
building was becoming quite apparent.

Figure 8. Two days later on October 30
shows one-third of the turn completed.

Figure 9. On November 1 the structure
had moved around to the half-way point.

The First St.ages of the Moving Operations.

Figure 10. November 4. The front face
of the buildmg has now disappeared from
view.

Figure 11. By November 6 only one-
quarter of the right-angle turn was left.

Figure 12. November S. The rear of the
building begins to show in this picture.

Figure 13. November 11. Next to last
day and only a few feet to go.

Figure 14. On the afternoon of November Figure 15. Pulling cables, trackage and ar-

12 the building move had been completed. rangements for pubhc to view operations.

The Secont) H.alf of the Turning Movement.

MOVING THE INDIANAPOLIS TELEPHONE BUILDING

above the tracks. The rollers were 3-inch solid steel shafting
30 inches long. The bearing shoes were made up of four short
lengths of railroad track laid between two % inch steel plates
about 2 feet x 4 feet in size, the bottom plate being bent up-
ward at the ends to facilitate feeding in the rollers.

The building was raised by 100-ton ratchet screw jacks
placed under the upper layer of beams. It was not practicable
to lift all of the columns in one operation and they were ac-
cordingly handled in groups of four to six at a time. The roll-
ing equipment was placed under the lower layer of beams and
the cast iron bases supporting the bottom of the columns were
slid out from under them. The jacks were then released trans-
ferring the loads to the rollers. This operation was repeated
until the entire building had been freed and placed on rollers.

It might be interesting to note here how the column loads,
which amounted for the largest ones to 250 tons and which
were supported on four sets of shoes and rollers, were dis-
tributed over the tracks. Each of these sets carried one-
quarter of this total load or about 64 tons. This was spread
over eight rollers, each of which rested on an average of four
rails resulting in a pressure on a rail of about two tons under
each roller.

Moving Operations

In pushing the building on the first straight move eighteen
jacks, each handled by one man, were used as shown in Fig-
ures 2 and 3. The jacks, although rated at 100-tons capacity,
were operated to exert a force of only about 10 tons each or a
total of approximately 180 tons. This was equal to a little
over V/i percent of the total weight of the structure. The
relatively large number of jacks was adopted with the view
of distributing the forces evenly along the length of the build-
ing and of balancing the pressure with respect to the steel brac-
ing on either side of the columns.

The jacks were braced against timbers clamped to the tracks

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

and projecting over to the steel sheet piling and retaining wall
at the street as indicated in Figure 2. Reblocking was neces-
sary for every twelve inches the building moved, this being the
limit of travel of the jack screw. As an idea of the speed of
operation, at the sound of a whistle the jack handles were
moved back and forth six times through an arc of 90°, this
taking about half a minute. The men rested about another
half minute and then the whole operation was repeated. For
these six strokes the jack screws and the building moved }i
inch. By counting the number of strokes and by judging the
amount of resistance offered in operating the jacks, the men
were able to determine with a fair degree of accuracy the
amount of pressure being applied and were able to maintain a
very even distribution of the pushing forces. As a safety fac-
tor the bracing between the columns provided insurance against
any possible twisting effect from unbalanced forces, and also
frequent check-ups were carefully made on the alignment of
the structure and supports as an additional precaution. The
distance of 52 feet for the first straight move was covered in
four days, October 14 to 18, this being illustrated in Figures 4
and 5.

At this stage of the operation, a steel and concrete curved
temporary walk shown in Figures 6 to 14 was constructed to
maintain sidewalk connection with the bridge entrance during
the turning operation.

As soon as the building had been rolled to its farthest point
south, the work of raising it again to change the position of the
shoes and rollers was started. This step, which was similar to
the first one of placing this equipment, was completed in four
days and then the building was ready for the turn into its final
position. The procedure was to rotate the structure around a
pivot point near the rear inside corner of the building which is
indicated in Figure 1 . The engineering features involving the
layout of the tracks and ties as well as the guiding lines, and
establishment of the pivot point formed a very important part

MOVING THE INDIANAPOLIS TELEPHONE BUILDING

of the project. The pivot point had to be so located that the
building might be rotated about it exactly into its final position.
Lines radiating from this point were painted on the rails as an
aid in setting the shoes and rollers which were required to be
parallel with them. Some of these lines can be seen in Figure
15. Other marks were placed on the rails to indicate at all
times the direction in which the structure was to travel. With
the radiating lines determining the position of the rollers and
with the requirement of having the rollers pass over the rails
at an angle of not less than 45°, it was possible by anticipating
these conditions to arrange the track layout in advance so that
it would be unnecessary to change any of the rails after they
were once laid.

The horizontal force for the principal part of the turning
movement was provided by ten jacks pushing on the south
side of the building and two sets of tackle blocks pulling on the
north side using stranded steel cables operated from separate
drums on a stationary steam engine. The pulling arrange-
ments are shown in Figure 15. The strain required on each
single line to keep it taut, with the jacks also pushing, was not
over three tons. This six-ton pull for the two lines was multi-
plied through the six-sheave tackle blocks to about 72 tons
total force. The ten jacks pushing on the opposite side of
the building developed in the order of twice this force, making
a total of something over 200 tons. These force agencies
easily moved the building with margin to spare and permitted
a more satisfactory rate of speed during the turning than could
have been obtained by the use of jacks alone. By using both
jacks and cables it was possible to obtain a movement which
measured on the arc traveled by the farthest front corner of
the building amounted to 10 to 17 feet per day. The total
distance at this point traveled on the turn was 224 feet, and
this was covered between October 23 and November 12, or
seventeen working days. The building turn is illustrated in
Figures 6 to 14.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

As a result of the careful preparations in the track layout
and guiding lines, the building in moving never varied more
than about one inch from the predetermined path. This varia-
tion when it occurred was immediately corrected by changing
the angle of the rollers slightly either in setting them as they
were fed under the shoes or by tapping them with a hammer
while they were under the shoes. During the last few feet of
travel, the building was steered over the guiding lines with ex-
treme accuracy to the exact position desired.

The smoothly applied forces and the slow, easy motion of the
building could not be felt by the occupants and was imper-
ceptible to the eye. The only way it could be detected was to
line up some object and check the relative change in position
from time to time during the day. Even with the rollers, the
movement was so gradual that it could be realized only after
a close-up inspection of them.

No damage to the building, even of a minor nature, resulted
from the move and the structure was in the same sound con-
dition at the end as it was before the move started. A few
small cracks in interior partitions appeared as the columns
were lifted in groups during jacking operations, but these as
a general thing closed up as the whole building was brought
back to an even bearing. During the rolling operation there
was no apparent change in the condition of these cracks.

Unloading of Building from Rollers
With the building in its final position on the lot, the reverse
of the original procedure of jacking up groups of columns was
followed progressively until the building had been lowered to
its permanent foundations. This last operation, involving the
preparation of the new column bases and the lowering of the
structure, required about a month to complete.

Certain columns which will be adjacent to the new structure
are now being underpinned to the new building subgrade, and
this work, together with the restoration of the walls and house

MOVING THE INDIANAPOLIS TELEPHONE BUILDING

service equipment in the basement, is expected to be entirely
completed in February.

Engineering and Contracting Personnel

The work was planned under the direction of the Engineer-
ing Department of the Indiana Bell Telephone Company in co-
operation with the Operation and Engineering Department of
the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Vonnegut,
Bohn and Mueller, Indianapolis, were the architects. The
consultants were Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, Architects;
Moran and Proctor, Consulting Engineers, for foundations;
H. G. Balcom, Consulting Engineer, for the structural steel
design, all of New York, and Bevington-Williams, Inc., In-
dianapolis, Consulting Engineers, for the mechanical and elec-
trical services.

The general contractor was Leslie Colvin of Indianapolis.
The contractor for moving was John Eichleay, Jr., Company
of Pittsburgh.

Because of the weight and size of the structure and due to
the restricted area available for turning, together with the
necessity of continuing normal operations within the build-
ing— including the regular business office activities with the
public and uninterrupted maintenance of telephone service —
this project introduced many problems new to the building
moving art.

The wholly successful result — accomplished without even a
minor mishap — is clear evidence of the ingenuity and precision
with which the plans were conceived and made and of the skill
and orderliness with which all the operations were carried out.

Vance Oathout
W. H. Harrison

The Methods of Industrial and Business
Forecasting

Extract from Paper Presented at Dedication of the James
Ward Packard Laboratory of Electrical and Mechanical Engi-
neering, Lehigh University, October 17, 1930.

ONE approach to the matter of business forecasting meth-
odology is through a consideration of the source from
which the universal need for such forecasting arises. Why is
it that business forecasting is so unavoidable? The answer to
this question is, happily, a simple one. Forecasting is neces-
sary because the modern economic system with its related
social order is highly dynamic in character. What we usually
call the economic machine is, in effect, a living organism which
has much in common with the characteristics of living organ-
isms in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Conditions in the
sphere of economic life are constantly in a state of flux.
Change is ever in progress in markets, in sources of supply, in
prices, in business organization, in methods of production and
distribution, in habits of consumption — to name only a few of
the elements of economic existence which every business man
recognizes. And behind the outward and visible change in
such elements as these, a process of modification is continually
taking place in economic relationships, in ethical standards, in
political beliefs, in social customs, morals, and ideals, and in all
those fundamental and frequently intangible forces which wield
an influence over the destinies of the human race and all its
institutions. Moreover, these changes do not occur in a steady
uniform flow. On the contrary, they come and go, they vary
in intensity and in radius; they may be continuous, discon-
tinuous, or periodic. In the case of any business institution,
the objective of forecasting is to discern these prospective

METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL AND BUSINESS FORECASTING

changes, to appraise their probable importance, and to trans-
late them into estimates, plans and policies relating to the fu-
ture operations of the particular enterprise.

The Nature of Forecasting

Many persons seem to regard business forecasting as a species
of black magic. As a matter of fact, of course, the processes of
business forecasting are in no way mysterious. But it is true
that these processes cannot be reduced to any rigid formula or
series of formulas which can be expounded in fairly concrete
terms. Unfortunately, forecasting in the business world may
still be more of an art than a science. Moreover, the forecast-
ing needs of some enterprises are radically different from those
of others. In the case of many merchandising establishments,
for example, the prime need is for short term forecasts covering
the period required for a single turn-over of their stocks,
whereas in other lines of business the emphasis naturally falls
upon forecasts covering far longer periods. Accordingly, fore-
casting methods which may be appropriate and adequate for
some enterprises may be wholly unsuitable for others. These
methods tend to vary from industry to industry and from con-
cern to concern, depending upon the character of the industry
and the position of the individual concern within the industry.
The methods actually employed must be closely adapted to the
particular needs of particular organizations. In short, while
the need for business forecasting is universal, the methods in-
volved in such forecasting are almost infinitely varied and
should never be purely mechanistic.

Under this set of conditions, the present discussion must
be confined to methods applicable to the forecasting work
of the larger industrial and business organizations; and it can
do no more than suggest the general character of these methods.
These suggestions, however, will be derived from the actual
experience of an organization which does not have merely a
hypothetical existence. This organization is the American

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Telephone and Telegraph Company and its associated com-
panies which together comprise the Bell System. Moreover,
the nature of the telephone business is such that its experience
in the field of forecasting has necessarily been exceptionally
wide and, perhaps, exceptionally significant. As a business
whose assets consist almost wholly of fixed and immobile
property which does not " turn over " in the ordinary com-
mercial sense of the term, long term forecasts are vital to the
determination of the quantity, type and location of plant and
equipment required to anticipate future demands for service in
the most economical manner. As a business which touches the
economic processes of the nation at every point, forecasts of the
probable fluctuations in economic activity over short periods in
advance are helpful aids to the preparation of short term
budgets and operating programs. Finally, as an institution
devoted to public service and intimately associated with the
social life of the people, the Bell System must anticipate in its
policies social as well as economic changes, both temporary and
permanent.

As we see it, there are two classes of business forecasting:
long term and short term. The line of demarcation between
the two classes may not be especially well defined; and of
course the differentiation between them will tend to vary among
different types of business enterprises. But we are disposed to
establish the distinction because the specific objectives of each
class, and the methods required to meet these objectives, are
essentially different from those of the other. In general, long
term forecasting may be described as comprising those processes
of intelligent prevision which are necessary, first, for reaching
sound conclusions in respect of such matters as the fundamental
rational status of the industry in economic society and the
average level, or rate of growth, of business volume which is
consistent with that status; and, second, for the development
of progressive business policies which are in tune with pros-
pective economic and social trends. Short term forecasting,

METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL AND BUSINESS FORECASTING

on the other hand, comprises those processes which are neces-
sary for the determination and measurement of the prospective
changes in economic and social behavior which are Ukely to be
ephemeral in character, and for the formulation of those tem-
porary plans and practices best adapted to adjusting the par-
ticular business to these transitory conditions. Even more
briefly, long term forecasting is concerned primarily with the
persistent trends of economic and social progress and with the
associated long term planning of business concerns ; while short
term forecasting is concerned primarily with seasonal fluc-
tuations and with the more or less periodic and rhythmic, semi-
rhythmic or quasi-rhythmic deviations of economic and social
phenomena around their lines of seculiar trend. These ob-
servations, I realize, are far from profound. I have ventured
to present them, however, because it is apparent that great
confusion exists in the public mind as to both the scope and the
nature of those excursions into the realm of the unknown to
which the term "business forecasting" has recently been
applied.

Long Term Forecasting

In discussions of forecasting, its objectives and its methods,
the emphasis is usually laid upon the class of short term pre-
dictions and estimates, almost to the exclusion of consideration
of long term forecasts. I intend to violate this tradition by
stressing the value of the longer look ahead. In my judgment,
the accurate forecasting of basic economic and social trends
is of vital importance to sustained progress on the part of busi-
ness organizations; for constant vigilance must be exercised in
order that fundamental business policies may be progressively
modified to accord with the spirit motivating those trends which
are persistently, though perhaps unobtrusively, tending to re-
fashion the structure and the character of contemporary civili-
zation. Business men generally should recognize that the
present economic regime, even though it has produced the

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

greatest advance in material welfare in the history of the world,
is still far short of perfection; indeed, it may not permanently
survive unless business leaders are sensitive to basic trends in
the economic concepts and in the social aspirations of our
people. The tides of human behavior are just as important as
the waves of passing fancy; and the two should not be confused.

There are two methods of approach to the problem of long
term forecasting. Purely for purposes of present convenience,
one of these methods may be called the quantitative, or statis-
tical, method; the other, the qualitative, or philosophical,
method. The two are not independent or alternative methods,
however; on the contrary, they are distinctly complementary
— so much so that it may safely be said that united they stand,
divided they fall. In fact, while investigations along the two
lines of approach have long been carried on simultaneously, it
has only been since there has been collaboration between the
mathematical statistician and the realistic economist that rapid
progress has been made in the development of an adequate
foundation for forecasting procedure.

The essence of the quantitative or statistical method is the
collection of significant periodic, usually annual, data descrip-
tive of various pertinent elements of economic life over a reason-
ably long term of years in the past; and the application to these
data of statistical methods of analysis which will yield a quanti-
tative measure of their characteristic behavior as to growth or
decline. In other words, after ascertaining those series of eco-
nomic and social statistics which are most significant and use-
ful for the purposes of the particular forecast, the secular trends
of these series are determined. These trends, it is clear, will
reflect the net effect upon the series of the interplay of economic
and social forces up to the current date. Under this method
a forecast of the probable future trend of any series may be
made merely by a simple projection of its current trend line.
Through the application of the same statistical processes, the
trends of elements within any particular business concern

METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL AND BUSINESS FORECASTING

(such as volume of sales) may be statistically described and
measured, the degree of correspondence with the trends of
external economic factors may be discovered, and current
trends may be projected with due recognition of any pertinent
relationships which have existed between internal and external
data.

The question of the extent to which this method can profit-
ably be employed by any particular business organization in the
analysis of the trends of economic factors and of internal opera-
tions for forecasting purposes is, of course, one which can be
decided only in the light of the type and character of the
organization. The general question, however, is competently
discussed in the bountiful crop of statistical textbooks which
have matured in recent years ; and these texts also explain the
details of the statistical processes which this method embodies.
It is not my purpose to compete with these excellent texts.
But it may be appropriate to call attention, parenthetically, to
the fact that practical experience shows a reasonable knowledge
of statistical technique to be an essential part of the equipment
of the potential forecaster in any line of business.

It is obvious that any objective extension into the future of
current trends, no matter how carefully these trends may have
been measured, will be fully significant only if the forces which
have affected them remain unchanged in number and in relative
intensity. The statistical approach might be adequate in itself
under static conditions. But in a dynamic society the forces of
development and progress do not remain unchanged. This
provides the cue for the entrance of the philosophical method
as a means of interpreting the statistical measurements and of
furnishing qualitative descriptions of the changing currents in
the economic stream.

This method presupposes in the forecaster a reasonable
degree of understanding of the complex structure of the current
economic and social order, and an insatiable curiosity to dis-
cover logical explanations for the action and interaction of the

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

many forces and groups of forces constantly at work to produce
change. It assumes an innate flair for the detection of those
undercurrents in economic behavior which are not visible on the
statistical surface of the stream, and a keen sensing of the
advent and the potentialities of new forces as yet in embryonic
stage. Under the method, economic processes are continually
under quasi-microscopic observation; and the observer must be
alive to the silent but relentless evolution in popular tastes,
habits, ideals and objectives which is characteristic of a pro-
gressive people and an advancing civilization. Cultural values,
as well as economic values, must be appraised. In a word, the
philosophical method provides the means whereby the pro-
jection of statistically-determined trends may be tempered and
modified to allow for the probable influence of factors and
forces which cannot be statistically described or measured.
The fact that the probable effects of such forces are not ex-
pressible in quantitative form in no way lessens the need for
their consideration. Indeed, a proper recognition of the exis-
tence of these intangibles and semi-intangibles is essential in the
formulation of policies and in the provision of sufficient flexi-
bility in the long term plans of business organizations.

The importance in business forecasting of an informed ap-
preciation of the character of economic processes and a high
degree of sensitivity to the significance of economic movements
is not, in my opinion, adequately emphasized in the ordinary
textbook which gives reluctant attention to the subject. Con-
sequently, it is perhaps not surprising to find the existence of a
fairly widespread belief that forecasting methods can be ex-
pressed in mathematical terms. I am firmly convinced that
one cannot learn all about the future merely by turning the
crank of a computing machine. There is no mathematical
substitute for sound economic judgment based upon economic
knowledge and economic intelligence. It is through the ex-
ercise of powers of philosophical reasoning, rather than through
the concoction of ingenious mathematical equations, that Amer-

METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL AND BUSINESS FORECASTING

ican business management must adjust its fundamental policies,
whenever necessary, to keep pace with the progress of a de-
veloping civilization reflecting the popular conception of eco-
nomic, as well as political, democracy.

To my mind, a knowledge of those economic and social
movements which have led up to our present economic structure
and a thorough understanding of the significance of these move-
ments, are exceedingly helpful in providing a background
against which the significance and the potentialities of con-
temporaneous movements may better be assessed. I am not
one of those who adhere to the belief that history is meaning-
less. On the contrary, I have no hesitation in entering upon
the record a few words of modest praise of the study of the
economic and social history of older communities and of the
more modern business annals from the time, in the 15th and
16th centuries in western Europe, when business began to
assume a position of dominance in the direction of the course of
civilization, — a position which has grown stronger as the cen-
turies have rolled by. In those days business men still con-
stituted only a small minority of a population which was over-
whelmingly agricultural ; but by the time the first settlers came
to America, the upward surge of the commercial revolution had
already delineated the fundamental elements of a complex
" money economy " or " business economy " in which the eco-
nomic motives of the community are dominated by the making
and spending of m.oney. The succeeding development of this
economic system is not only a fascinating study, but one which
is useful to the business forecaster. History still deserves an
honored place in educational curricula.

Short Term Forecasting

The problem of short term forecasting has received more
public attention than has the problem of long term forecasting.
This situation is primarily due, I suspect, to the fact that the
short term outlook is usually a matter of immediate and often

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

of pressing importance, whereas speculation as to the long term
trend of business can always be deferred until tomorrow and
may not be needed at all in certain types of mercantile enter-
prises. If month after month and year after year, business
invariably advanced steadily and uniformly along a measurable
line of secular trend, a forecast of this trend would serve all
purposes. But unfortunately for the forecaster among others,
business progress is characterized by recurrent periods of ac-
celerated and retarded growth. These alternating periods con-
stitute that sector of economic dynamics which has come to be
known as the " business cycle." In certain circles controversies
may rage over the suitability of this term. But the business
man is wholly indifferent to the niceties of nomenclature. He
merely knows that no matter how stable his business may be,
it will undoubtedly experience some degree of quasi-rhythmic
fluctuations; and he wants reasonable advance notice of these
movements — even though he may not act upon this notice when
he receives it. I assume that we, likewise, are not interested
in questions of terminology on this occasion. What we want to
consider is the major question of how these cyclical fluctuations
can be forecasted and anticipated.

Again I must be the bearer of bad tidings. There is no
adequate mechanistic, rule-of- thumb, or lazy man's method
of short term forecasting, if the subject is to be approached
on anything like a scientific basis. As in the case of long term
forecasting, there is need for statistical analysis and measure-
ment on the one hand and economic interpretation and judg-
ment on the other; but here the union between statistical
processes and economic reasoning is so close and so indissoluble
that they must be considered jointly in any discussion of the
fundamental principles of methodology.

In these days of interdependent relationships in the business
world, it may properly be assumed that any business organiza-
tion, in appraising the near-term prospect for its own affairs,
is first interested in forecasting the corresponding prospect for

METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL AND BUSINESS FORECASTING

business enterprises as a whole. To be most useful, this fore-
cast should be expressed in quantitative terms, just as future
long term trends must be expressed statistically. For practical
purposes, it is usually not sufficient to know that the outlook is
" good," " fair " or " poor," since such linguistic symbols as
these are overly vague and each of them is broad enough to
cover a fairly wide range of possibilities. One of the un-
fortunate characteristics of many forecasts is the fact that they
are couched in language which is reminiscent of the utterances
of the Delphic Oracle. What the business man wants is as
definite a picture as possible of the " balance of probabilities."
Qualifications may be necessary, but they should be presented
so as to clarify rather than obscure the main theme.

As one prerequisite to short term forecasting, the forecaster
must have at his command a quantitative and up-to-date statis-
tical index appropriately representative of the relative monthly
fluctuations of general business activity over a fairly long
period in the past. The type of index I have in mind is so well-
known that I believe no specific description is warranted.
There are a number of such indexes available to the business
man, such as those prepared by the Federal Reserve Board and
by a number of independent statistical agencies. Some busi-
ness organizations like our own, however, prefer to construct
an index themselves, since they thereby have full knowledge
of its ingredients, its character and its idiosyncracies. The
statistical processes involved in the construction of such an
index are fully explained in recent textbooks. Through the
application of these processes, we obtain an index reflecting the
relative monthly deviations of business activity around its
secular trend, deviations due to purely seasonal causes having
first been eliminated. That is, the index reflects those move-
ments of business which are primarily cyclical in character;
thus it gives the clearest possible picture of past cyclical move-
ments and of the stage in the latest cyclical movement which
has been reached by business as a whole at the time the fore-

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

caster must go to work. It likewise aids in the interpretation
of the results of statistical analyses of the cyclical movements of
those economic factors which must be considered individually
rather than en masse.

Such an index also assists greatly in the study of the phe-
nomenon of the business cycle and of the forces which generate
it. The more the forecaster knows about these forces — their
character, their relative importance and significance, their se-
quence, and so on — the better is he equipped to understand and
to interpret the current business situation from a cyclical point
of view. And I believe that we are making substantial progress
in our knowledge of cyclical behavior. This progress, more-
over, is not due to the fact that the cycle is a product of modern
industrial organization. The cycle is not a new phenomenon in
the economic world. Persistent students have uncovered a
cyclical trail back into the 18th century; and economic archae-
ologists have discovered unmistakable traces of the beast as
early as the 16th century. Indeed, the further back one fol-
lows the history of economic activity, the more precarious does
existence seem to have been. Rather has our progress in
cyclical knowledge been due to the fact that only comparatively
recently has sufficient statistical material become available to
make it possible to vivisect the phenomenon. While theories
of causation are still numerous and diverse, nevertheless we are
no longer ignorant of most of the vital facts as to the results
of the motivating forces, whatever these forces may be. This
certainly not only represents substantial progress, but gives
hope of continued progress in the future.

Study of the past oscillations of business activity above and
below its normal trend of growth shows beyond peradventure
of doubt that these cyclical fluctuations, while definitely wave-
like in their contours, do not exhibit a high degree of periodicity
in the mechanistic sense of the term. Nor are they uniform in
character. Business cycles are clearly governed by economic
laws, not by the laws of mathematics. They occur as a result

METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL AND BUSINESS FORECASTING

of economic forces which themselves vary in intensity. Conse-
quently, in forecasting cyclical movements of business it is
absolutely essential to undertake a careful analysis of the rela-
tive importance of the particular forces in operation at the
particular time. Knowledge of the current cyclical position, as
determined by statistical measurements, is of immense as-
sistance in this analysis. But a forecast of the future short
term movement of any statistical index of business can be made
only by the application of sound economic judgment based upon
thorough analysis of all available pertinent facts bearing upon
the probable influence of the various economic forces which
are currently in operation. Here again, it may be remarked,
the statistical procedure is indispensable as an aid to the
analysis of individual economic factors and the study of their
interrelationships.

The same general procedure is followed in making short term
forecasts of elements within a particular business organization.
First, the pertinent monthly data are statistically analyzed so
as to isolate the movements therein which are cyclical in char-
acter. In order to determine the extent to which these move-
ments are influenced by external factors, the cycles of the in-
ternal data are then compared with the cycles either in indexes
reflecting business activity as a whole or in indexes reflecting
certain lines of activity to which the particular business is
especially sensitive. In view of the interdependence of busi-
ness operations throughout the economic world, usually a
degree of correspondence between internal and external cycles
will be found which will permit a forecast of the prospective
cyclical movement of the external index to be translated back
into terms of the probable movement of the internal index. By
applying this estimate of the cyclical movement to a projection
of the trend and seasonal characteristics as previously deter-
mined in the statistical analysis, a forecast of the element in
question is secured. This forecast may then be tempered, if

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

necessary, by application of special knowledge relating to the
plans or the characteristics of the particular business.

Conclusion

I want to associate myself with those who believe that a
scientific approach to problems of business forecasting will
contribute its full quota to the achievement of that greater
steadiness in economic progress which is so devoutly to be
wished. Forward-looking industrial leaders are recognizing
that opportunistic action on the part of business institutions
merely for the sake of temporary competitive gain must more
and more give way to systematic planning of reasoned pro-
grams. The business statesman must supplant the business
politician, if order is to be maintained in a world in which the
economic machinery is becoming more intricate and the eco-
nomic processes more interdependent as time goes on. One of
the most important qualities of the business statesman, perhaps
the most important single quality, is intelligent foresight; and,
after all, business forecasting is merely a process of rationaliz-
ing this foresight. Taking business as a whole, it is probably
true, as some critics assert, that the effect of business forecast-
ing upon overall economic stability has not yet reached sub-
stantial proportions, though some beneficial effects are already
clearly visible. But it is also true that the science of business
forecasting is still in its infancy. It is an upstart among the
older sciences. By careful and sympathetic nurturing, can we
not confidently expect that it will develop and expand in use-
fulness as have other sciences? I can see no sound reason for
doubt on this point.

S. L. Andrew.

Toll Conduit Construction on Private
Property

Preface

THE toll conduit between Albany and Catskill, New York,
recently completed, was installed largely on private prop-
erty. Prior to the construction of this project the use of under-
ground conduit had been confined generally to highways and
city streets. Because construction across private property in-
troduces problems in design, construction and maintenance not
met in work along highways, it is felt that a description of the
experiences on this project will be of value in planning and
building underground systems of a similar nature.

This account of the various steps in design and construction
includes much data already available since existing standard
designs and methods were adopted wherever practicable. The
new features are described in more detail. Pictures of various
pieces of equipment and operations on different parts of the
work are included.

Subway Study

At the beginning of the year 1929, two aerial cables, the
" A " and " B " cables, were in service between New York and
Albany. A third, the " C " cable, was constructed aerially as
far north as Catskill in 1929. Growth studies made in con-
junction with the Long Lines Department indicated that the
" C " cable would be required between Albany and Catskill in
1930, and that subsequent cables would be required at approxi-
mately two-year intervals. After comparing available types
of construction, it was decided to construct underground con-
duit to provide for the " C " and subsequent cables from Cats-
kill to Albany. The decision as to the type of construction

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

was based on the expected reduction of maintenance costs, the
prospect of fewer service interruptions, and the right-of-way
situation in this region. It was anticipated that if aerial con-
struction were adopted, right-of-way would be difficult to ac-
quire and would become increasingly so as each succeeding line
was required. This situation was a very important factor in
favor of underground construction.

Preliminary Route Survey

The general route follows the west side of the Hudson River
valley through gently rolling country consisting largely of culti-
vated land and orchards with occasional small villages and
hamlets. The soil is generally clay loam and clay, although
the southern part of the project passes through considerable
sedimentary rock which required blasting. At several points
the line crosses swamps consisting of fine sand overlaid with
muck.

Factors Affecting Selection

Preliminary trips over the proposed general route indicated
that construction over private property rather than along exist-
ing highways was desirable. At the present time the only im-
proved road along the route is rather circuitous and, in general,
only 18 feet wide. The curves are frequently quite sharp.
The Highway Department is planning to improve a route on
the west side of the Hudson River similar to the high-speed
highway recently completed on the east side, and major changes
of line and grade were anticipated. At many places along the
road rock is close to the surface, and substantial blasting op-
erations would be required in connection with highway im-
provement work. It would be practically impossible to main-
tain a subway while highway construction operations were
under way. Because of the present narrow road, construction
of a subway in the shoulder would seriously interfere with
traffic. Subsequent highway widening and realignment would

TOLL CONDUIT CONSTRUCTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

undoubtedly throw some of the manholes under the driving
surface, which would create a dangerous situation when the
manholes were open for any new construction or repairs.

Aside from the construction difficulties which would attend
the selection of a highway route, there were other factors tend-
ing to throw the balance in favor of construction on private
right-of-way. Construction along the highway would have
subjected the cable to exposure to a 66 KV transmission line
which parallels the road for about 16 miles, whereas it was pos-
sible to select a route on private right-of-way that reduced this
exposure considerably. Also, this permitted the construction
of the conduit in practically a direct line for its entire length,
thus shortening the line by approximately three miles as com-
pared to the shortest highway route. This, of course, repre-
sents a substantial saving in present worth for the plant con-
templated during the period of study. Furthermore, this re-
duction in length was of added importance, inasmuch as it
might otherwise have been necessary ultimately to build an
additional repeater station.

Preliminary office studies of the route were made on a com-
posite map of United States Geological Survey sheets showing
the area through which the line would pass. A tentative line
was laid out for study in the field and trips were made to check
the desirability of this line, keeping in mind at all times that
all points along the route had to be accessible to motor vehicle
equipment.

Detailed Survey

Aerial Photographs

Aerial photographs were also used in the preliminary studies
of the route and in the right-of-way negotiations. These
photographs presented physical conditions in more detail than
the U. S. G. S. maps and also indicated improvements which
had been made since the maps were last revised. They showed

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

the objects which were to be avoided, fence and property lines,
and the character of the land through which the proposed line
was projected. At one point the photographs disclosed an
abandoned railroad grade close to the proposed line. Investi-
gation in the field showed that about five miles of this right-of-
way was adapted to the requirements of the proposed line, and
the tentative route was located to include this section.

The photographs, with the proposed line drawn upon them,
proved of considerable value in later discussion. With their
aid, property owners were shown how the line would cross their
properties, and the important features of the route were pointed
out to the surveyors. They also proved useful in condemnation
proceedings.

Factors Affecting Location

The line was laid out with as few deviations from a straight
line between the termini as was consistent with economical con-
struction. However, various factors, physical and electrical,
influenced the decision as to the best location. Exposure to
potential electrical troubles caused the most important devia-
tions. On the southern end of the project, the direct line route
would have carried the subway parallel to a transmission line
with very little separation between the two lines. Five miles
of the tentative line was relocated to '-educe this exposure. At
other points along the line minor deviations were caused by the
estimated inductive effects of proposed power lines and the pos-
sible electrification of a paralleling railroad.

There were many physical features which caused minor bends
in the line. Some of these were natural, such as streams,
swamps, rock and steep .banks, and some were man-made, such
as railroads, highways, and buildings. Crossings under rail-
road tracks were made approximately at right angles to the
tracks. Streams and ravines were crossed on existing bridges
or at sites where it was economical to build new structures.
Swamps and rock were avoided wherever it was possible to do

TOLL CONDUIT CONSTRUCTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

SO with a slight relocation of the line. Steep banks, were
crossed at points suitable for building and maintaining the duct
line.

Ultimate Line of Subway

The final line consisted of about 8 miles of construction in
city streets and along highways and 24 miles of construction on
private property. The total length of the conduit line is ap-
proximately two and one quarter miles more than the airline
distance between the cable vault at the central office in Albany
and the cable house at Catskill, the termini of the project.

Right-of-Way Negotiations

Permits

Construction on private property required extensive right-of-
way negotiations. Beside the actual right-of-way it was neces-
sary to obtain various easements, permits for surveying, rental
of storage space for materials, rights of entry to the conduit
line through the various parcels, and permits for construction in
state, town, city and village roads and streets, and for crossing
railroads and attaching to existing bridges.

Right-oj-Way

The right-of-way acquired consisted in a permanent ease-
ment to construct and maintain the various features necessary
for the telephone project, the company being restricted to the
uses mentioned. All other uses, not inconsistent with the
rights granted to the company, were reserved to the owner.
Rights were acquired for construction along highways where
the fee to the center of the road was retained by the abutting
property owner.

On private property the conduit line was laid along the
center of a 20 foot right-of-way, the space on the sides being
used for construction operations and to provide for future re-

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

inforcement. This width was sufficient when construction
equipment could be driven over adjoining land but was too
restricted when the use of equipment was confined to the area
between the right-of-way lines, as it was in all cases where the
property was condemned. A strip 25 or even 30 feet wide
probably could have been secured for the same price as the 20
foot strip, as the major factor in determining the value of the
strip was the effect of the presence of the easement on the
salability of the property.

Rights of Entry

Rights of entry were secured along an existing traveled way
or along a route suitable for trucking designated by the prop-
erty owner. They generally cost about half as much per lineal
foot as the right-of-way parcel which they served.

Condemnation

The preparation of petitions in condemnation required that
title searches and surveys be made for every parcel involved.
The searches were necessary to determine the parties having
interest in the property, so that they could be included in the
suit. The survey was required so that a plan could be pre-
pared showing the crossing of the proposed line and the pro-
posed route of entry. Detailed plans of the various construc-
tion features had to be included in the petition also. The
preparation of the engineering features of each case required
about three days work by two men. Progress reports were
kept, showing the right-of-way acquired, on the basis of lineal
feet of right-of-way, and the method of acquisition.

Duct Construction

Start of Work

Work in the city of Albany was started on July 29. Con-
struction work on the rest of the project was started shortly

TOLL CONDUIT CONSTRUCTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

thereafter. Working conditions on the rural sections were
such that mechanical equipment could be used on about three
fourths of the excavating and backfilling. In all, five trench-
ing machines, five mechanical backfillers, and three types of
excavators were used.

Duct Work

With the exception of two cases of special bridge attach-
ments and one case of steel pipe placed on a steep bank, all
described in detail later, vitrified clay conduit was used through-
out the project. The tile was hauled by truck to practically
every point on the line, the loads being reduced when the haul-
ing was too hard. Only standard lengths were hauled and
stocked in the rural sections, the short and special pieces being
secured when required. The other materials used in the duct
work were standard, with the exception of the forms and covers
used in making the joints.

Protection

Wherever soil conditions were favorable no top or bottom
concrete protection was placed where a 2 foot cover was se-
cured as it was felt that the danger from excavation was too
slight to warrant the placing of protective concrete and a satis-
factory bed could be secured without the use of a concrete base.
However, concrete top and bottom protection was used through
cities and villages and wherever the conduit line was within 100
feet of a highway. The concrete used was of 1 : 23^ : 5 mix and
was kept rather dry (about 1 inch slump) . At all points where
less than 2 foot cover was secured, concrete top protection was
used.

Special Construction
Swamp Crossings — Fills

Through swamps and across ravines, the conduit was gen-
erally placed upon fills made of suitable local material. The

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

decision as to whether the conduit would be placed under-
ground or on a fill was affected by various considerations. The
accessibility of the duct line and the assurance of positive drain-
age were the principal factors supporting construction on fills
in most cases. Construction on fills was expensive because not
only was the fill material required, but also forms had to be set
and concrete protection poured around the conduit. Gener-
ally, some sort of drainage structure had to be built also, to
carry the natural surface drainage through the fill. Where
underground construction would have been as satisfactory, com-
parisons of costs of the different methods were made. At some
points cost considerations were not a factor, as underground
construction would not have been satisfactory because of the
impossibility of draining the ducts.

The fills were made 10 feet wide across the top, with 1^:1
side slopes. Fills greater than 3 feet high required a wider
right-of-way or a reduction of the top width. Both methods
were used with satisfactory results. The fills were placed in
thin layers and thoroughly compacted, as time was not avail-
able to allow them to settle. In two cases suitable local ma-
terial was not available so screenings were secured from nearby
quarries and used in the fills. This material is apparently satis-
factory, but few of the fills have been subjected to erosion as
yet, so no definite experience can be cited. The possibility of
using trestle construction, consisting of a concrete slab resting
on concrete piers was studied but it was found that this method
would have been economical only where the height of fill ex-
ceeded four feet. This type of construction could have been
adapted to crossing ravines but suitable footings might have
been difficult to build in swamps.

Culverts

Vitrified clay pipe and concrete culverts were used to provide
drainage through the fills, the type depending on the relative

FiGLRt 1. Fill placed where route traverses swampy land.

Figure 2. Sewer pipe culvert under conduit on fill.

Figure 3. Concrete culvert under conduit on fill.

Figure 4. Manhole partially above ground (exterior view).

Figure S. Manhole partially above ground (interior view).

Figure 6. Piers for conduit bridge.

Figure 7. Steelwork for conduit bridge.

Figure 8. Forms for concrete encasement of conduit bridge.

Figure 9. Conduit bridge completed.

Figure 10. Forms and reinforcing for encasement of conduit

structure placed above ground.
Figure 11. Conduit structure on fill.

Figure 12. Conduit structure on fill, showing drainage culvert
Figure 13. Manhole marker on private property.
Figure 14. Manhole marker at side of highwaj'.

TOLL CONDUIT CONSTRUCTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

costs and the requirements of the site. No head walls were
used on the pipe culverts as the height of the fill was generally
low and it was cheaper to extend the pipe to the points where
the slopes of the fill met the normal ground. Concrete culverts
proved more economical than the larger sizes of pipe. The
former were used for sites where a waterway greater than that
afforded by a 24 inch pipe was required to carry a stream
through a fill. Span lengths of 6, 8 and 10 feet were used de-
pending on the location and waterway requirements. The de-
sign consisted of a reinforced concrete slab resting on two con-
crete abutments. The abutments were designed with wings to
retain the fill. The conduit was laid on the slab with a mortar
bed and encased in concrete. Footings were carried to a depth
sufficient to avoid erosion and frost heave. Where the duct
line drained to the culvert, weep holes were left in the slab to
carry off the water. These functioned satisfactorily at normal
temperatures, but during prolonged cold weather ice formed in
the weep holes. This resulted in the water backing up in the
ducts and subsequently freezing. To remedy this condition
intercepting drains were installed in the banks on either side of
the low spot. These drains consist of a stone pocket under an
open joint in the tile. Where practicable, an 8 inch vitrified
pipe is installed to drain from the pocket to an outlet.

Where manholes were required in sections where the conduit
was laid on a fill, the design was modified to provide for pulling-
in through the end of the manhole by constructing a pressed
steel coal window in the ends above the ducts. Recesses were
constructed in the end walls of the manholes. The manhole
walls were carried through the fill to bearing on a substantial
footing built in the original ground.

Conduit Bridges

At six points along the line where small streams had to be
crossed, studies were made to determine the most satisfactory

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

method of crossing. The costs of wrought iron pipe, steel pipe
encased in concrete and a concrete and steel trestle structure
were studied and the concrete and steel structure seemed most
economical and assured drainage of the duct line. Special con-
duit bridges were designed to carry the line across these
streams. These structures were constructed of steel channels
and angles encased in concrete for protection. Beside the
dead load, the designs provided for a live load consisting of
one cubic foot of ice per foot of span. The structures were so
designed that the entire weight was supported by the steel, the
only function of the concrete encasement being that of protec-
tion to the steelwork and duct, and affording also a somewhat
more sightly structure. The bond between the spans and the
piers and abutments was broken so that only vertical stresses
could be transmitted to the supports. The normal section of
tile conduit was carried through in each case. Span lengths
varied from 10 to 40 feet.

Comparisons of costs were made for these and longer spans.
On one structure, during the time between the design and the
construction, the water level rose so that the span length re-
quired to keep the piers on dry land was increased from 42 to
55 feet. The possibility of building a longer span and keeping
the piers on dry land was investigated but it was felt that con-
structing the shorter span with the piers in shallow water would
be more economical. The designs of the long span structures
required material which was not available locally. They were
revised so that material from local shops could be used because
steel deliveries in Albany were uncertain. These revisions con-
sisted in riveting heavier angles on the channel beams and rivet-
ing plates on the vertical leg where angles were used for the
beams. Longer spans would have required the use of built-up
members involving special erecting equipment.

No particular trouble was encountered in building the spe-
cial conduit bridges across the various streams. The structures
were constructed eccentric on the right-of-way, the center line

TOLL CONDUIT CONSTRUCTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

of the structure generally being parallel to and five feet away
from the center line of the right-of-way strip. The duct line
was brought back to the center line on a long radius curve.
The object of moving the structure away from the center line
was to allow sufficient space for the construction of a temporary
bridge beside the structure. (On a wider right-of-way this, of
course, would not have been necessary.) Piers and abutments
were constructed to the proper designs and elevations at each
location. Where the heavier steel members were required, a
gin pole was used in their erection. The steel members were
trucked as close as possible to the bridge site and then dragged
to the site by tractor. Forms for encasing the steel work and
conduit with concrete were generally suspended from the steel
beams. Encasement concrete was of 1:2:4 mix using one-half-
inch stone to reduce the tendency for honeycombing to form.
Care was required in tamping the concrete into the recesses
under the channel flanges but the remainder of the concrete
was easy to place. All exposed surfaces were floated with a
wooden float immediately after stripping the forms, in order to
remove form marks and rough places.

Drainage Provision

Drainage of the duct lines was provided for in laying the
grade lines on the profiles. Subsequent changes in the man-
hole locations threw two low points in the duct line. A pump-
ing sump consisting of a concrete box with 6 inch walls, floor
and roof, was constructed at one of these points. The inside
dimensions were 4 feet x 4 feet and it was carried to a depth of
1 foot below the bottom duct. It was equipped with a tj'pe
" B " 27 inch manhole frame and cover, so that a man can get
in and clean out any silt which might wash through the tile and
be deposited in the hole. At another point, a stone drain and
outlet pipe was placed at the low point in the duct line. Such
conduit drains were used only where a positive outlet could be
secured as it was felt that without positive drainage a rise in the

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

water table would cause water to flow from the drain into the
duct line.

Complete Encasement

Where there was less than 1 foot cover, or where the conduit
was exposed, it was completely encased in concrete. This en-
casement consisted of a 4 inch concrete base and 3 inch sides
and top. Where the conduit was in a trench, no forms were
used for the encasement. When the conduit was even with the
ground or on a fill a trench was dug for the concrete base and
side forms were used. One-half inch reinforcing bars were
placed in the base to prevent any local settlement of the fill
from affecting the duct line. Wire mesh 6 inch x 6 inch x 14
gauge was also placed in the base and around the tile to help
hold the encasement in position. A 1 inch chamfer strip along
the top of the form was used to furnish a guide for smoothing
off the top. This chamfer also decreased the possibility of
spalling along the top edges. Concrete for the encasement was
of 1:2:4 mix using 3^ inch stone. The use of larger stone was
tried but it was found too difficult to avoid honeycombing.
The exposed surfaces were floated immediately after stripping
the forms and defective places were patched.

Provision for expansion was made in most of the concrete en-
casement on conduit built above the ground. Two types of
expansion joints, poured and premolded, were constructed and
some short sections of encasement were constructed without
joints. Cracks about 30 feet apart have appeared in the latter
sections but, as the cracks are small, no serious trouble is an-
ticipated. In both cases where joints were provided they were
made only in the concrete encasement, it being felt that, if suffi-
cient stress develops, the bond between the concrete and the
section of tile spanning the joint will be broken and the ex-
pansion joint will function. Three-quarter-inch premolded
expansion material was used for one set of joints. This ma-
terial was placed to form a transverse joint through the con-

TOLL CONDUIT CONSTRUCTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

Crete every 30 feet. In the case of the poured joints, wooden
bulkheads 1 inch thick were placed in the concrete 30 feet apart.
These were pulled after the concrete had set, leaving]; a break
in the encasement. These spaces were then filled with bitumi-
nous mastic joint filler.

Manholes

Designs

Manholes on the toll run are so designed that no cable will
have to be moved after splicing. This feature seemed so de-
sirable that a study of the possibility of splaying the ducts en-
tering the manholes was made soon after the work was begun.
The results indicated that because of the special features in-
volved in the construction of this project the costs of splaying
would be abnormally high and that the operations would prog-
gress much more slowly. In view of this, no splaying was used.
The racks are set out from the wall to permit the splicer to
make the splice without moving the cable out from the wall.
Also, the cables are to be racked on 12 inch centers.

Loading Manhole Excavation

Loading manhole excavation was done by machine. In most
cases the holes were carried to a depth of about 15 feet. Sheet-
ing was used on all of them. A three-fourth-yard excavator,
equipped as a clam shell, was used on the northern end of the
job. The machine dug the center of the hole and hoisted the
material removed from the sides. In the city of Albany it was
emptied directly into trucks so that double handling was
avoided. Material around the sides of the hole had to be re-
moved by hand, and shovelled to a position where the bucket
could reach it. A three-eighths-yard crane was used on one
contract and a small shovel equipped as a trench hoe on an-
other. These machines were better adapted to the work than
the clam shell because of their smaller size and greater ease of
handling.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Line Manhole Excavation

Line manhold excavation was done by hand throughout the
job as the holes were not big enough to allow a machine to op-
erate. The trenching machine was used to dig a few man-
holes, but because of the demand for it in opening trenches, it
was available for manhole work only a small part of the time.
Sheeting was not, in general, required on these manholes but
shoring was used on about one-half of them.

Pouring

Two systems of pouring manholes were used. On the two
northern contracts mixers were set up at central points and the
mixed concrete was hauled to the manhole sites. On the two
southern contracts mixers were set up at each manhole site.
The use of the central mixing plant was very convenient in the
city work as it reduced the amount of street space necessary
for the construction operations. The setup in the city was
used for all the work on this contract and about three miles on
the northern end of the next contract. One other setup was
used to complete the remainder of the second section. The
maximum haul was about six miles, most of this being over im-
proved roads. The concrete and mortar were generally hauled
in special trucks consisting of hopper bodies mounted on Ford
chassis. Mortar was not seriously affected by the haul but
segregation appeared in the concrete, especially in the wetter
mixes. This was corrected to some extent by dumping the
trucks into a receiving hopper and shoveling from the hopper
into the forms. The concrete was remixed by hand where the
segregation was too great. Some type of agitation would have
been preferable for use on the extreme hauls over rough roads.
Extreme segregation occurred in only a few cases but remixing
by hand gave fairly satisfactory results.

TOLL CONDUIT CONSTRUCTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

Marking

One concrete marker was set along the side of the manhole
opposite the manhole cover at all manholes on private property.
This marker was set with one face parallel to the side of the
manhole and with about three feet exposed. The manholes
were numbered consecutively from Albany to Catskill with an
additional serial number for each loading manhole, the pulling-
in of the cable being started at the Albany end with cable reels
numbered in the order in which they would be placed. The
manhole numbers were stenciled on the concrete markers with
standard black stencil paint using 23<2 inch stencils. Where
the conduit was laid under the shoulder of a highway, one
marker was set on the right-of-way line of the highway opposite
the head. Numbers for manholes in these locations were sten-
ciled on this marker. On the manholes under streets the num-
ber was stenciled on the side of the roof opening under the cast
iron frame.

Equipping

Manhole frames were drilled and two anchor bolts, set in the
roof of the manholes, were used to hold the frames in place dur-
ing pulling-in. The anchor bolts were omitted in manholes
in the city where covers would be secured by sidewalks or
pavements. Where manhole heads were located in highway
shoulders close to the pavement a concrete ramp was con-
structed to prevent erosion of the surrounding soil from leaving
the head extending above the surface. These ramps consisted
of a 5 inch concrete slab with one edge level with the edge of
the highway and the other edges curved down beneath the sur-
face of the shoulder. A mason and helper, following the gang
stripping forms, laid the collars and set and bolted the frames
in place. The racks, loading manhole decks and manhole
markers were set in connection with rodding the ducts, to re-
duce the number of times the manholes had to be pumped out.

bell telephone quarterly

Winter Construction

Construction work on the project continued until the end of
January and cold weather proved a serious drawback to the
work. The frozen ground was much easier to haul over than
the mud but this advantage was not appreciable as most of the
trucking had been done earlier in the season. The tile froze to
the ground, both in the storage yard and along the job. When
pried loose, clots of frozen mud stuck to the sides and had to be
chipped off. Motor equipment was hard to start on cold morn-
ings and many small delays were caused by the inability to
start the trenching machine or trucks. With 15 inches to 18
inches of frost in the ground the trencher would not handle the
excavation. Unslaked lime was spread along the trench about
2 inches thick and covered with straw. In slaking, the lime
developed enough heat to draw the frost from the ground for
6 inches to 8 inches and the trencher was able to handle the rest
of the frozen ground. Heavy sod and the cinder ballast on the
railroad grade prevented the frost from penetrating as deeply
as it did in open fields. A compressor or steam jet probably
would have been required had the ground been frozen to a
depth of as much as two feet.

Concreting operations were made more difficult by the cold
weather and greater care was required to secure a good job.
The aggregates were heated by fires built in cans in the stock
piles. These were not very efficient in heating the aggregates
but prevented lumps of frozen sand from getting into the mixer.
Mixing water was heated in all cases and admixtures either of
salt or calcium chloride were used where the use of such admix-
tures was consistent with the purpose for which the concrete
was used. Where the central mixing plant was used it was
practically impossible to keep the concrete from freezing in the
trucks on the haul to the job. Because of this, concreting op-
erations were delayed until favorable weather. Less difficulty
was encountered in keeping the mortar warm as the sand was

TOLL CONDUIT CONSTRUCTION ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

easier to heat than the stone for the concrete. The steel joint
forms were heated and the joints were covered as soon as pos-
sible after pouring. Back-filling was done the same day that
the trenching was done because the spoil banks froze so solidly
over night that the back-filler would not handle the material
without its being broken up with picks. Several small fills had
to be made when the ground was frozen. As it was planned to
lay the duct immediately after the fill was completed unfrozen
earth was used so it could be compacted. The frozen crust was
stripped from a borrow pit and the material beneath was placed
in the fill as quickly as possible. The tractor treads collected
mud which froze and rubbed on the guards and body of the
tractor and had to be chipped off several times each day.

The labor cost of winter construction was about one-third
greater than that of work done in the summer and, even with
this additional cost, the job was not as satisfactory as fills could
not be compacted satisfactorily and concreting operations had
to await warmer weather. In this part of the country, there-
fore, such a job should be scheduled for completion not later
than early December, if possible.

Conclusions

Construction on this project is now completed and the first
cable, of 2^ inch diameter, was installed and placed in service
on May 1. Having reached this point, those intimately in con-
tact with the progress of the work on the entire project are
quite in accord in the opinion that in localities where the avail-
able highway routes are unfavorable from various standpoints,
a private right-of-way route will frequently afford an attrac-
tive alternative. Elimination of interference from traffic, par-
ticularly where high speed through highways would offer the
only alternative route, is, of course, a feature worthy of con-
sideration. Also, it was possible to take advantage of the
flexibility the selected route afforded in avoiding the natural

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

and man-made obstacles which would have presented them-
selves had the conduit followed a highway.

It is true that the selection of the route followed introduced
some new problems, but they were of minor importance in com-
parison with those which were avoided. Furthermore, the ex-
perience gained on this project will be invaluable in anticipat-
ing and providing for these new features when they are en-
countered on future projects. In view of the above, when new
conduit routes through similar territory are contemplated, care-
ful consideration will be given to the possible use of a route over
private right-of-way as against construction on an existing
highway.

G. P. Dunn
J. C. Nash

Overseas Telephone Extensions During
the Past Year

IN a letter written in 1878, the early dawn of telephone de-
velopment, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell foresaw that "A
man in one part of the country may communicate by word of
mouth with another in a distant place." Few prophecies, so
daring for their time, have been so completely fulfilled, both in
the letter and in the spirit.

On January 1, 1931, 91 per cent, or 32,200,000, of the
35,300,000 telephones in the world were within conversational
distance of any Bell System instrument. Additional arrange-
ments for international telephone connections during the year
1930 were responsible for 2,200,000 of these telephones, dis-
tributed among fifteen nations, seven of which previously had
been without telephone contact with this country. These
2,200,000 telephones were distributed also among four conti-
nents, two of which, namely. South America and Australia, had
been without such contact. The countries and districts served
by these newly connected telephones have an estimated popu-
lation of 92,000,000, which, together with the population
served by the Bell System and its previously established con-
nections, makes a total of some 450,000,000 people, or 21 per
cent of the world's population, to whom Bell System service is
now available.

The expansion of international telephony during 1930 is
briefly summarized as follows:

During 1930 radio-telephone service was established be-
tween the United States and two continents in the Southern
Hemisphere. The telephones of Argentina, Chile and Uru-
guay in South America were linked with this country by means
of a radio station at Buenos Aires, and the eastern portion of
Australia, including the city of Adelaide, has been connected

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

via London. In addition to the slightly more than one-third
of Mexican telephones previously reached, the remaining two-
thirds have been connected. In Europe, telephone service
with the United States was established for the first time with
Finland, eight cities in Poland, and two cities in Lithuania.
The international service which had been established previ-
ously was extended from Paris and certain other points in
France to include all of France; from Copenhagen to include
all of Denmark; from Budapest to include all of Hungary;
from Oslo to include all of Norway; from Luxemburg City to
include all of the Duchy of Luxemburg; from three Swedish
cities to include all of Sweden; from three Italian cities to in-
clude all of Northern Italy, Rome and Vatican City, or ap-
proximately 75 per cent of the Italian telephones.

In the realm of mobile radio-telephony, five ocean liners are
in contact with the Bell System telephones. In addition to
the service instituted with the Leviathan on December 8, 1929,
radio-telephone service was established during 1930 with three
other transatlantic liners, namely, the Majestic, Olympic and
Homeric, and with the steamship Belgenland now on a round-
the-world cruise.

There are very few of the larger countries of the world not
now connected with the United States telephonically. For
instance, of the countries not now accessible by telephone from
the United States, only five, namely, Japan, Brazil, New Zea-
land, Russia, and China have more telephones than the city
of Baltimore, Md.

With the establishment of the radio telephone station now
under construction on the Pacific Coast, service will be given
between the United States and Hawaii, and this station will
be capable of providing telephone service across the Pacific to
Japan and other Far Eastern countries. The establishment of
service to such countries will necessarily await the construction
of radio telephone stations there. The present indications are

OVERSEAS TELEPHONE EXTENSIONS DURING PAST YEAR

that if economic conditions and demand develop normally,
service to countries such as Japan is not far in the future.

Those radio telephone facilities in the United States now
serving three countries in South America will undoubtedly be
expanded to provide service to additional South American coun-
tries in the near future. It is probable, therefore, that within
a relatively short span of time the only larger nations of the
world not connected with the United States will be China and
Russia. The vast size of these countries is disproportionate
to their telephone development and it may be some time be-
fore the economic conditions there will justify the establish-
ment of telephone service with the United States.

When a goal is reached a new one must be visualized. The
Bell System has more than fulfilled Dr. Bell's early prophecy.
In the next few years we may expect connection with a ma-
jority of the remaining nine per cent of the world's telephones
with which Bell System service is not yet available. After that
international telephone extension must be interdependent with
the world's advances in civilization, economic development, and
more complete understanding. That is to say, that while there
is no necessity for telephone contact with undeveloped regions,
existing and possible international telephone circuits may well
become a powerful factor in extending the boundaries of civili-
zation.

Notes on Recent Occurrences

SCOPE OF OVERSEAS AND SHIP-TO-SHORE

TELEPHONE SERVICE FURTHER

EXTENDED

Australia

REGULAR commercial telephone service was inaugurated
by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company be-
tween North America and Australia on Monday, October 27.

The circuit employed in this service is by far the longest
ever established for regular commercial telephony. It con-
sists principally of two radio links, one across the Atlantic and
the other between England and Australia. With the wire lines
involved in the connection, the circuit between New York and
Sydney, Australia, is more than 14,000 miles long.

The service covers the States of Queensland, New South
Wales, and Victoria and the City of Adelaide. This adds
nearly half a million telephones, serving a population of some
five and a half million, to the network within the reach of Bell
System stations.

The Australian service was arranged by the American Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company in co-operation with the British
and Australian Post Offices and the Amalgamated Wireless
Company of Australia. The circuits across the Atlantic are
the same as those employed in the telephone service connect-
ing North America with England and the Continent. The
England-Australia link is operated by stations near London
and Sydney, which established commercial service between the
two countries last April.

The cost of a call between New York and any Australian
point is $45 for the first three minutes, and $15 for each ad-
ditional minute. For calls involving more distant points in

NOTES ON RECENT OCCURRENCES

North America, an additional charge is made, corresponding to
the present zone charge for the transatlantic service.

Among conversations passing between the United States
and Australia on the day after the service was opened was the
longest commercial call on record. It covered a total distance
estimated at 21,000 miles terminating at Los Angeles, Calif,
and Sydney, Australia.

Due to the eighteen-hour time difference between the two
points, the speaker in Australia talked at about one o'clock,
Wednesday morning, while his words reached the listener in
Los Angeles, approximately a fraction of a second later, at 7:00
a.m. Tuesday. Following the usual route of conversations ovei
the new speech channel, the call went from a Sydney telephone
to the local radio station. There it was amplified and sent to
London where it was received, switched to one of the regular
transatlantic circuits and forwarded to New York to the Ameri-
can Telephone and Telegraph Company's receiving station at
Houlton, Me. It then passed over the regular long distance
land lines to Los Angeles.

The novel feature of this call is the unusual path it followed.
As a result of extended tests at the Australian and British radio
stations it has been found that transmission in daylight is much
better than at night. To take full advantage of this, the radio
stations in England and Australia have, therefore, been set up
to transmit either directly at each other or around the other
side of the world, — for example, from London south westward
across South America and the Pacific to Sydney. This adds
about 4,000 miles to the total distance.

South America

All points in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay having telephone
connection with Buenos Aires are now within reach of Bell Sys-
tem telephones. This is in consequence of an extension, effec-
tive January 1, 1931, of the telephone service from the United
States to these three countries, operating through the New

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Jersey radio stations of the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company, and the Argentine stations of the International Tele-
phone and Telegraph Corporation. Previously the service was
limited to Argentina, nine cities of Chile and the city of Monte-
video, Uruguay.

Canada and Mexico

A similar extension became effective on that date in the
Canadian and Mexican territory connected by telephone with
Europe and South America. Practically all telephones in
Canada and Mexico now come within the scope of the service.
Formerly the overseas talking range was confined to the East-
ern part of Canada, a few cities in Western Canada and a
dozen cities in Mexico. Transatlantic telephone service to
Canada and Mexico is handled over the four radio-telephone
channels linking the A. T. and T. Company's stations with those
of the British Post Office in England and Scotland.

Europe

Within the past few months, transatlantic telephone service
abroad has been extended generally to practically all parts of
Western and Middle European countries in which the service
was previously available to only one or two cities.

Service Planned to Bermuda

Application has been made by the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company to the Federal Radio Commission for a
construction permit to erect stations for a short wave radio
telephone service between the United States and the Bermuda
Islands. The Company contemplates a service that will pro-
vide voice communication between the Bermudas and all the
United States. In Bermuda the service will be handled by the
Imperial & International Communications, Ltd., working in
conjunction with the Bermuda Telephone Company.

The plans call for the construction of a transmitting station

NOTES ON RECENT OCCURRENCES

at Lawrenceville, N. J., adjacent to the short wave transmitters
now used in the telephone service to Europe and South America.

The receiving station will be located at Netcong, N. J., the
site of the short wave receivers for the European and South
American telephone systems.

The Bermuda Islands are approximately 800 miles from
New York. While the population is small, since the entire
group lies within a 22-mile circle, the islands are visited an-
nually by thousands of Americans on vacation, and the num-
ber is increasing each year. The proposed direct voice channel
will enable these visitors to keep in close touch with affairs at
home.

The transmitting and receiving stations of the Imperial &
International Communications, Ltd., will be located in the
vicinity of St. George's and Hamilton, respectively, where con-
nection to the island telephone system will be made.

Ship-to-Shore Service

When the steamship Belgenland of the Red Star Line left
Antwerp for New York on December 2 to begin her round-the-
world cruise, she was equipped with a radio telephone system
similar to that which has been in service on several other large
vessels. Regular ship-to-shore telephone service through the
American Telephone and Telegraph Company's New Jersey
radio telephone stations linked the liner with this country
while she was in the North Atlantic, and will be in service on
the rest of her voyage around the globe as long as effective talk-
ing is found possible. Similar telephone connections will be
maintained with Europe through short wave radio telephone
stations in England, and with South America through the Ar-
gentine stations of the International Telephone and Telegraph
Corporation. This service will be largely experimental to de-
termine the extent to which ship-to-shore telephone service may
be extended to areas outside of the North Atlantic. Ship-to-
shore telephone equipment on the Belgenland is owned and op-

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

erated by the International Marine Radio Company, a sub-
sidiary of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corpora-
tion. This globe-circling voyage will be the first of such exten-
sive voyages during which telephone service has been attempted.

Permission to erect a radio station to be used for radio-tele-
phone communication between water craft operating in New
York Harbor and vicinity and the land telephones of the Bell
System is sought in an application which has been filed with
the Federal Radio Commission, through the Supervisor of
Radio of the United States Department of Commerce in New
York, by the New York Telephone Company. The New
York Telephone Company contemplates the introduction of
this new type of ship-to-shore service within the next year.

The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company and the
Southern California Telephone Company recently filed appli-
cations for construction permits for similar harbor telephone
stations to be located in the vicinity of Seattle, San Francisco
and Los Angeles.

HALE HOLDEN MADE A. T. & T. DIRECTOR

AT the meeting of the Directors of the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company on December 17, Hale Holden,
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Southern Pacific
Company, was elected a Director.

VICE-PRES. GHERARDI OF A. T. & T. CO.

ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE

AMERICAN STANDARDS

ASSOCIATION

BANCROFT GHERARDI, Vice-President and Chief Engi-
neer of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company,
was elected President of the American Standards Association at
the annual meeting of the Association in New York on De-
cember 11.

NOTES ON RECENT OCCURRENCES

Mr. Gherardi has been a member of the Association's Board
of Directors for some time. As President he will assume di-
rection of the standardization activities, national and inter-
national, in which more than 2,000 representatives of approxi-
mately 500 national trade, technical and governmental groups
are engaged under the auspices of the American Standards
Association.

Tin: Rib^iLL PoKTKAiT uF ALEXANDER Graham Bell. See page 124.

Bell Telephone
Quarterly

A Medium of Suggestion
and a Record of Progress

CONTENTS FOR APRIL 1931

PAGE

Some Commercial Aspects of Radio Network Service — H. H. Carter 69

Milestones, Guideposts and Footprints — R. T. Barrett 80

Teletypewriter Service and its Present Day Uses — IF. L. Dusenberry 92

The Growing American Taste for Beauty and What the Bell System is

Doing to Satisfy It — R. S. Coe 103

Population Changes in Small Communities and in Rural Areas — R. L.

Tomblen 115

The Russell Portrait of Alexander Graham Bell — IF. C. Langdon . . . 124

Notes on Recent Occurrences 127

VOL. X NO. 2

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY FOR THE BELL SYSTEM BY THE AMERICAN

TEI-EPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY. SUBSCRIPTION, $1.50 PER YEAR,

IN UNITED STATES AND CANADA; SINGLE COPIES, 50 CENTS

Address all communications to

INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY

195 Broadway, New York

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS ISSUE

HARRY H. CARTER

New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1903;
District Commercial Manager, Bangor, 1917; Division Com-
mercial Superintendent, Eastern Massachusetts division, Bos-
ton, 1918; Commercial Superintendent, Metropolitan division,
Boston, 1920; General Commercial Manager, Long Lines
Department, American Telephone and Telegraph Company,
New York, 1926.

ROBERTSON T. BARRETT

A brief biographical note regarding Mr. Barrett appeared in
the list of contributors in the Bell Teleplione Quarterly for
January, 1930.

WALTER L. DUSENBERRY

New York University. Entered Long Lines Department,
American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1913. As-
sistant to Commercial Representative, Washington, D. C,
1918 and subsequently Commercial Representative in Atlanta
and Cleveland. General Supervisor of Special Contract
Service, 1924. General Commercial Supervisor, 1928. Gen-
eral Sales Manager in charge of development of Toll Service,
Special Contract Service, Program Transmission and Tele-
photographs, 1928.

RICHARD STORRS COE

Yale University, A.B., 1913; Columbia University, LL.B. 1916.
Member of the New York Bar. Ensign, U. S. Naval Reserve
during World War. Entered American Telephone and Tele-
graph Company in Chief Statistician's Division, 1919; Infor-
mation Department, 1927; Associate Editor, Bell Telephone
Quarterly.

ROBERT L. TOMBLEN

A brief biographical note regarding Mr. Tomblen appeared in
the list of contributors in the Bell Telephone Quarterly for
October, 1930.

WILLL^M CHAUNCY LANGDON

Cornell University; Brown University, A.B. 1892; A.M. 1893.
Engaged in historical work since then. Member American
Historical Association; National Sculpture Society; Fellow
American Numismatic Society, and similar European societies.
Entered American Telephone and Telegraph Company in
Information Department, 1921; Historical Librarian, present
position, 1922.

Some Commercial Aspects of Radio
Network Service

RECENT surveys of the number of radio sets in this coun-
try and of the daily activity per set indicate the arrival at
the top of a new monarch in the American entertainment realm.
Though relatively young in years and still growing, the moving
picture has been outdistanced at least in quantity output by the
baby of the family — radio.

Yet it is hardly just to class radio any longer as an infant, for
wide public acceptance has already conferred maturity upon it.
No longer do people marvel at the achievement of picking up
music and speech " out of the air." The miracle of yesterday
has become the commonplace of today.

The rapid development of a more exacting public demand
has been of particular interest to the Bell System which has
been charged with the important task of conveying radio pro-
grams from the microphone to the radio broadcasting station,
sometimes individually, sometimes duplicated a hundred fold
across the continent.

A few short years ago each request to serve a broadcasting
station was a special undertaking, custom-tailored out of experi-
mental materials, as has been previously described in these
pages.^ Today it is a regular telephone company service avail-
able from coast to coast over permanent facilities representing
the latest developments in the art of sound transmission.
Paralleling the major talk highways of the nation between its
chief cities are entertainment ribbons of copper, dedicated to
public education and pleasure sixteen hours of every day.

Mr. H. A. Bellows, former Federal Radio Commissioner and

^ " Telephoning Radio Programs to the Nation," by L. N. Stoskopf , Bell Telephone
Quarterly, January, 1928.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

now vice president of the Columbia Broadcasting System, has
written recently: ^

" It is to the telephone, not to radio, that we owe the development of the
equipment whereby speech and music are made available for broadcasting,

" More than this, it is the telephone wire, not radio, which carries pro-
grams the length and breadth of the coimtry. John Smith, in San Fran-
cisco, listens of a Sunday afternoon to the New York Philharmonic Or-
chestra playing in Carnegie Hall. For 3200 miles the telephone wire
carries the program so faithfully that scarcely an overtone is lost; for per-
haps fifteen miles it travels by radio to enter John Smith's house. And
then he marvels at the wonders of radio !

" But what of programs from overseas? Here, indeed, wireless tele-
phony steps in, but not broadcasting in the ordinary sense. The program
from London is telephoned across the Atlantic by radio, but on frequencies
entirely outside of the broadcast band. . . .

" Broadcasting, then, is the child of the telephone; in America it is cer-
tainly the child of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The
whole structure of commercial chain broadcasting as we know it today has
grown out of the pioneer work done prior to 1926. Telephony has largely
created the mechanism of broadcasting."

High-pressure research and construction have at times had
to be crowded into months in order to keep pace with the public
demand for expansion and improvement as reflected by the
broadcaster customers to the telephone company. The very
shift of program service from the unusual and the experimental
basis to that of a regular service has brought about economies
in operation resulting in either improved facilities or reduced
charges. The broadcasting companies have become regular
customers of the telephone company, participating like the
smallest residence telephone subscriber in the benefits of re-
search and development skillfully applied to achieve the best
possible service at the least possible cost.

The growth of this network service has been one of the most
rapid and interesting developments in the past decade. Start-
ing back in 1923, there was only experimental service. At the
beginning of 1931 upward of 200 broadcasting stations received

-"Broadcasting: A New Industry," Harvard Alumni Bulletin, December 18, 1930.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

network service regularly over the 40,000 circuit miles of tele-
phone wire devoted exclusively to program transmission. Out
of a total of 630 broadcasting stations now operating in the
United States under licenses of the Federal Radio Commission,
only 320 are rated at 500 watts power or more. Of approxi-
mately 200 stations receiving regular network service at the
beginning of 1931, about 175 were stations of 500 watts or over.

The development of such a volume of business carries with
it of necessity developments along other lines. They may be
of a commercial nature, such as improved servicing practices,
or they may be along engineering or plant lines, involving new
types of repeaters to provide amplification, new types of cir-
cuits, improved apparatus at terminal cities, switching arrange-
ments, or better procedures for " lining up " and testing circuits.

It must be remembered that the telephone company's first
function was the satisfactory handling of telephone messages,
meaning the transportation by wire of the human voice between
two individuals. The range of the human voice is relatively
limited, as compared to that of even the simplest musical pro-
gram. Telephone equipment and lines in the past have been
designed and built for the purpose of doing a satisfactory job in
transmitting speech.

The sudden popularity of radio broadcasting, with its conse-
quent demand upon the telephone business for a system of net-
works to transmit programs to all parts of the country, brought
a tremendous problem in the enlarged frequency range that was
necessary for satisfactory transmission. The increase in range
was due to the fact that music must be handled as well as
speech, and the upper and lower frequency limits of normal
telephone circuits were no longer sufficient. At the present
time, program circuits are designed with such characteristics as
to permit the successful transmission of speech, symphony,
band and orchestral music.

The design of the amplifying devices known as repeaters had
to be changed to keep pace with the circuits, and research de-

COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF RADIO NETWORK SERVICE

veloped the necessity of a repeater of a type entirely foreign to
that previously used for telephone messages. The Bell System
investment in recent construction of plant has been far in excess
of former normal service requirements, for the reason that the
type of circuit necessary for the best service to broadcasters is
superior to anything which is required to handle ordinary tele-
phone conversations. At the present time the Bell System
facilities devoted to broadcasting purposes represent an invest-
ment amounting to more than $13,000,000.

There has been a constantly increasing demand on the part
of our broadcasting customers for a continually improved type
of service to meet changing conditions in the field of transmit-
ters and to keep pace with development of new commercial
radio receiving apparatus.

Receiving sets now handle faithfully a much wider frequency
band. The public prides itself on the fact that it is able defi-
nitely to judge the quality of transmission as well as the quality
of program material. Accordingly, the broadcasters have
found that they must improve the quality of the output from
their broadcasting stations if they are to continue to hold their
listening public.

As a result the telephone companies have been kept busy de-
veloping new types of facilities and improving the equipment al-
ready in use, to keep pace with the increasingly critical demands
of the public as passed along by the broadcasters. As the radio
art progresses, new and improved means of transmitting the
programs over the networks will have to be devised. All this
points to an increasing plant investment in the network field.

The Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., and the National
Broadcasting Company, Inc., are the major network users of
the country. There are numerous others using regional serv-
ices. To name a few: the Shepard group in New England with
key station WNAC; the Radio Quality Group, the key station
of which is WLW in Cincinnati ; the Chinese Rescue Society at
New York, keyed by WMCA; Station WTAM at Cleveland;

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Don Lee of Packard fame on the Pacific Coast, key station
KHJ, Los Angeles; and others.

More and more, the broadcasting of political speeches is be-
coming popular and each Fall shows an increase in the wire re-
quirements for this purpose. Coming along at the same time,
and adding to the Fall peak, are the football games which cre-
ate probably more interest than any other sport from the point
of view of the radio listener. Much is being done to stimulate
interest in other branches of sports, and a great deal of success
is being met with as far as boxing, baseball, hockey, and more
recently, track and field events, are concerned. The sailing
races for the America's Challenge Cup were delivered to the
networks from a marine pickup located on board a yacht which
followed the course of the race. In this way, the public at
large was enabled for the first time to keep track of the progress
of one of these races.

Some other outstanding broadcasts of the past three years
are listed below as a matter of interest.

The broadcasting, by both the National Broadcasting Company and the
Columbia Broadcasting System, of all activities in connection with the
nomination and election of the President of the United States. During the
nominating conventions of the Democratic Party at Houston, Tex., and
the Republican Party at Kansas City, Mo., portions of both the day and
evening sessions were transmitted to and broadcast by leading stations
throughout the United States.

After the nomination of the presidential candidate, the radio networks
were used as a means of presenting the platforms of both parties through-
out the entire period of the campaign. For the first time in the history
of a presidential election, radio network service was used as a means of
keeping the people throughout the country advised as to the election re-
turns.

The broadcast of the ceremonies in connection with the inauguration of
President Hoover, at Washington, was one of the most extensive programs
that was ever undertaken. The networks on which the broadcast was
handled were composed of 118 stations receiving service from 14 different
pickup locations within the city of Washington and composed the largest
group of stations ever to receive a single program up to that time.

New York Program Transmission Control Room.

Chicago Program Transmission Control Room.

COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF RADIO NETWORK SERVICE

The broadcast of the ceremonies in connection with the Golden Jubilee of
the Electric Light, from Dearborn, Mich., was a fete of international in-
terest and involved the picking up of proceedings from Dearborn and from
Berlin, Germany.

The broadcast by both major networks of the opening ceremony of the
Naval Arms Conference from a pickup at London, England, on January
21, 1930, as well as periodical resumes of the activities of the Naval Arms
Conference during such time as it was in session.

Ceremonies marking the inauguration of commercial telephone service
between North and South America were broadcast by both major network
patrons from a pickup in the temporary Presidential offices in the State,
War and Navy Building, Washington, D. C, on April 3, 1930.

The growth of international broadcasts has proved an inter-
esting development, and the overseas telephone channels from
Europe and South America are being used frequently for this
purpose. Transoceanic broadcasts began when a program fea-
turing Maurice Chevalier in Paris was picked up, September 28,
1929, for one of the networks. On December 8, 1930, music
was handled on the transatlantic link for the first time when
John McCormack sang from London for another network.
Since then, the use has been practically weekly, and programs
originating in England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland,
and Argentina have been successfully handled.

Late in 1930, a program was transmitted for network use
from the S. S. Leviathan which was making a special trip to
New York after an overhauling in Boston. Later on, the
Belgenland, while on a world cruise, originated a program which
was picked up and put on the National Broadcasting Company
network when the ship was in the vicinity of the Panama Canal.

On February 12, at the request of the Columbia Broadcast-
ing System assistance was given them in putting on their net-
work the first world-wide broadcast of Pope Pius XI from
Vatican City.

In order to transmit high quality programs employing a wide
frequency band, special one-way circuits are utilized. One of
the more interesting developments in chain broadcasting,

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

whereby the broadcasting company obtains a considerable
amount of flexibility in its network, is by the use of the so-
called " Round Robin " layout. Under this arrangement, two
one-way program circuits are provided between two main
sources of programs, one transmitting in each direction so that
programs can be transmitted from and to each point simultane-
ously. By routing each circuit through cities which are po-
tential sources of programs, the patron at a very small addi-
tional expense can pick up worthwhile programs at such inter-
mediate points and bring them into either or both of the main
offices.

In order to illustrate this more clearly, it may be of interest
to consider a specific example of such an arrangement. Let us
assume a Round Robin with one circuit transmitting from New
York to Chicago routed via Pittsburgh-Columbus-Cincinnati-
Indianapolis and the other circuit transmitting from Chicago to
New York via Detroit-Cleveland-Buffalo-Albany. Here is a
typical day's service showing exactly what use can be made of
the facilities:

8:00 A.M. — A New York program is sent out making the complete round-
trip, thus including all stations.

8:30 A.M. — The Pittsburgh station puts on a program which is sent to
Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Chicago.
At the same time a program originating in Chicago is sent
out over the circuit to New York and all points en route.

9:00 A.M. — The circuit returns to regular routine and a New York pro-
gram goes to all stations.

2:00 P.M. — Description of a Princeton-Chicago football game at Chicago
is picked up and sent to New York to be furnished to sta-
tions in the East.

At the same time, a description of the Wisconsin-Cornell
game being played in New York, which is of particular in-
terest to Midwestern points, is sent out over the New
York-Chicago circuit for distribution to radio stations
northwest of Chicago.

9:00 P.M. — A symphony orchestra program in Buffalo is transmitted to

COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF RADIO NETWORK SERVICE

New York and thence over the other side of the Round
Robin to Chicago and back to Cleveland, so that the
Buffalo program reaches Cleveland by way of New York
and Chicago.

There are other possibilities of use for the Round Robin arrangement, but
the above will give some idea of the program flexibility which such an ar-
rangement provides.

While radio network service is the major development, of
course, in the program transmission service field, other com-
plementary forms of service have been natural outgrowths of
the public's enthusiastic acceptance of the radio entertainment
field.

In the ]\Iiddle West, in the South, and in the Rocky Moun-
tain States, where the large cities are separated widely, the
problem of clear channels for broadcasting is not yet as pro-
nounced as it is in the East where many cities practically merge
into each other. It was a condition of this latter kind that
made necessary the Federal Radio Commission's control of the
allocation of wave lengths, time assignment, and amount of
power. All of these are definite limitations to broadcasting
and it was necessary for the art to find ways and means to over-
come the limitations. Experimental work developed the pos-
sibilities of synchronization. Co-ordination by wire proved an
effective answer and the Bell System has developed the ways
and means for performing the task satisfactorily.

This is called the Standard Frequency Service, by means of
w^hich the Bell System furnishes a chain broadcaster with a fre-
quency service to his radio stations, enabling him to operate
them on the same wave length without interference. Practical
synchronization is feasible only as a result of such a standard
frequency service. Synchronization introduced commercially
only in the last few months bids fair to solve a serious problem
of the broadcasting companies; it overcomes to a large extent
the limitation of the number of channels available in any given
area.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Public Address Service is another item becoming more popu-
lar each day. By means of it, a speaker in one city may ad-
dress large gatherings at some distant point. This service may
be used separately or in conjunction with program transmission
to broadcasting stations. The value to modern business of a
cheaper form of service of this general character caused the in-
troduction of a minor edition of this master method in the form
of Private Address Service. This latter service is finding ready
acceptance in the normal commercial business field, and con-
ferences and small groups are easily covered in this way at a
surprisingly low cost to the patrons, inasmuch as the service
does not require program circuits with their wide frequency
band but simply the best grade of regular telephone circuits.
Two-way discussions are successful over systems of this kind,
indicating the probability of universal acceptance for purposes
of this character.

While these services belong to the same general family that
network service does, they are somewhat apart from the pres-
ent discussion. To return to program transmission service:
As has been shown it has had a beanstalk growth. In seven
years it has developed into one of the most intricate branches
of a highly specialized art.

Back of the facilities devoted to network service is a small
army of highly trained specialists who engineer, operate and
maintain the networks. In control room, test room, repeater
station, in city office building and on patrol along country roads,
this efficient force is serving day and night. Few if any of the
multitude of broadcast listeners so much as suspect their ex-
istence. They themselves, however, are keenly aware that any
slight relaxation of vigilance on their part might mean instant
and serious interruption to the broadcast program and disap-
pointment to hundreds of thousands of listeners.

A typical instance of this devotion to service on the part of
the network guardians occurred on the bitterest day-before-
Christmas in years, while the nation prepared for the Radio to

COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF RADIO NETWORK SERVICE

lead it in carol singing. A shanty burst into flames by a New
Jersey roadside in Livingston, and an all-important telephone
cable was burnt through, severing the wires which form a vital
link to many of the broadcasting stations of the land. Their
own holiday preparations were forgotten by the telephone line
crew which responded to the call to face the stormy blast.

The cable splicers' fingers moved faster than the eye could
follow. Ten minutes' work — ten minutes' thawing of fingers,
while other fingers took up the task. . . . 400 flying fingers,
stinging in the sub-zero cold. And the carols went on the air
"as scheduled! "

H. H. Carter

Milestones, Guideposts and Footprints

A REVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENTS OF THE

PAST FIVE YEARS IN THE FIELD OF

TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION

THE past five years have been crowded with developments
in the field of communication, and particularly in the field
of telephone communication. Out of the scientific laboratory
have come achievements that have arrested the attention of a
world grown accustomed to miracles; accomplishments so
charged with drama and romance that they have made blase
humanity pause amid the high-speed business of life in sheer
amazement. Never, since man first began wig-wagging his
thoughts to his fellows and the art of communication began,
has a greater measure of accomplishment in this art been
achieved in so brief a length of time.

Outstanding among the telephone achievements of this period
have been the opening of commercial radio telephone service
between the United States and Europe, South America and
Australia and of telephone service by wire between the United
States and Mexico; the completion of a third transcontinental
telephone line; the inauguration of ship-to-shore radio tele-
phone service; the adaptation of radio telephone communica-
tion to the requirements of aviation; the development of talk-
ing motion pictures and noteworthy accomplishments in the
field of television.

One might review the past five years of telephone history
by describing these outstanding events, as a traveler pauses
along his road and counts the milestones he has passed. Or
one might search along the path of telephone development for
some guidepost which indicates the direction in which progress
has been made or which defines the objective toward which

MILESTONES, GUIDEPOSTS, FOOTPRINTS

telephone development has been aimed. Or, finally, one might
examine in some detail the footprints, as it were, that form this
pathway of progress — the innumerable accomplishments that,
taken together, have brought telephone development nearer to
its objective.

To enumerate the notable events of telephone history dur-
ing the past five years, however, is to describe them. They
speak for themselves. So widespread has been the interest
they have created that it is merely necessary to list them, with-
out discussing them in detail. In the present article, there-
fore, we shall seek, as it were, for guideposts and footprints;
shall look for some clear indication of the direction of telephone
progress and then examine some of the evidence that progress
has been made in this direction.

The Objective of Telephone Progress
Of the guideposts which have indicated the direction of tele-
phone progress during the past five years, one deserves par-
ticular emphasis. It affords the explanation and raison d'etre
not only of the spectacular achievements of telephone scientists
and engineers during this period, but of the general progress in
the development of the telephone art and the improvement of
telephone service.

This was the address delivered by Walter S. Gifford, Presi-
dent of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, be-
fore the National Association of Railroad and Utility Commis-
sioners, at Dallas, Tex., in October, 1927. The time is an im-
portant consideration, for it provides the background against
which must be viewed the picture presented by this representa-
tive of thousands of telephone employees and thousands more
of telephone investors. Mr. Gifford's address was a statement
of policy — the fundamental policy of the Bell System. He was
speaking at a time when the nation's prosperity was climbing
to its peak. Individuals and organizations alike were quite
generally bending all efforts toward taking the quickest possible

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

advantage of favorable business conditions; when "melon-
cutting" was more or less common practice and was looked
upon by the rank and file of the public as an evidence of astute
business management. He was speaking in an era which, as a
whole, had as its keynote the taking of profits.

And because he spoke with such a set of circumstances as a
background, what he said was all the more noteworthy. He
outlined the responsibilities of the management of his company
to its investors and to the telephone using public and sum-
marized them both in two striking sentences:

" Obviously, the only sound policy that will meet these obligations is to
continue to furnish the best possible telephone service at the lowest cost
consistent with financial safety. This policy is bound to succeed in the
long run and there is no justification for acting otherwise than for the long
run."

Going somewhat more into details regarding those phases of
the company's policy that were of particular interest to his
audience, Mr. Gifford continued:

" Earnings must be sufficient to assure the best possible telephone serv-
ice at all times and to assure the continued financial integrity of the busi-
ness. Earnings that are less than adequate must result in telephone serv-
ice that is something less than the best possible. Earnings in excess of
these requirements must either be spent for the enlargement and improve-
ment of the service furnished or the rates cliarged for service must be re-
duced. This is fundamental in the policy of the management."

More closely allied with the events of the five-year period
which we are about to review was Mr. Gifford 's statement that
" Progress is assured by having a large group of scientists and
experts devoted exclusively to seeking ways and means of mak-
ing service better and cheaper."

Translating a Policy into Action

The policy which Mr. Gifford thus outlined was not precisely
a new policy but, as never before in telephone history, it was

MILESTONES, GUIDEPOSTS, FOOTPRINTS

stated so definitely and concretely that every man and woman
in the telephone organization could understand it. Nothing
could be less vague or abstract than the ideal of " making tele-
phone service better and cheaper." Here was something
tangible; something that was capable of being translated into
terms of the day's job — a clean-cut proposal of increased indi-
vidual and group effort toward attaining an objective so simply
stated that about it there could be not the slightest misconcep-
tion.

Here was a definite challenge calling for progress — in the di-
rection of better and cheaper service. To this challenge the
Bell System's response was prompt, widespread and whole-
hearted. All along the line, in executive and engineering office,
in laboratory, in factory, at the switchboard and out where the
long distance lines make their way across country, men and
women began thinking, as never before, in terms of the ideal
and aim thus newly stated — and translating their thought into
more intensified action.

The True Measures of Advances

The footprints of these thousands of men and women — their
individual and group achievements in the direction of making
telephone service better and cheaper — are the true measures of
advances in the development of the telephone art and of tele-
phone service during the past five years.

One of the measures of progress is growth, for it is obvious
that telephone service must grow to meet the ever-increasing
needs of a growing nation. Statistics are notoriously prosaic,
yet at times they afford almost dramatic evidence of growth.
How well the Bell System has met its obligation to grow may
be appreciated from a study of statistics for the end of 1925 as
contrasted with those at the end of 1930. Some of the impor-
tant items of growth are shown in the following table.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Dec. 31, Dec. 31,

1925 1930
Number of telephones
Bell Companies:

Manual Service 10,538,935 10,705,118

Dial Service 1,496,289 4,976,941

Connecting Companies and Lines 4,685,000 4,416,242

Total 16,720,224 20,098,301

Number of Central Offices 6,017 7,163

Miles of Pole Lines 386,064 422,489

Miles of Exchange Wire:

Underground Cable 28,425,392 44,455,852

Aerial Cable 9,462,213 16,209,279

Open Wire 1,953,235 2,201,556

Total Exchange Wire 39,840,840 62,866,687

Miles of Toll Wire:

Underground Cable 2,057,196 5,769,125

Aerial Cable 1,209,332 4,576,627

Open Wire 2,366,172 3,035,826

Total Toll Wire 5,632,700 13,381,578

Total Miles of Wire 45,473,540 76,248,265

Average Daily Telephone Conversations *

Exchange 46,702,307 62,365,069

Toll 2,098,163 2,933,026

Total Conversations 48,800,470 65,298,095

Number of Employees 293,095 324,343$

Number of A. T. & T. Co. Stockholders 362,179 567,694

* For the year ending December 31.

J The employees of the Western Electric Company, Inc., and the Bell Telephone
Laboratories, Inc., numbering approximately 70,000 on December 31, 1930, are not in-
cluded.

Now, what does this growth mean in terms of increased value
to the individual telephone subscriber? It means a definite
advance toward making his telephone more useful to him, for
its value to him increases as its reach is extended. Reference
to the above table will show that the number of telephones
capable of being interconnected by wires of the Bell System has
been increased by nearly four million during the past five years.

At the beginning of this five-year period, the only foreign
telephones that could be reached by Bell System subscribers
were about 1,000,000 in Canada and about 62,000 in Cuba.
The opening of transoceanic radio telephone service and of wire
communication with Mexico has placed within his reach about

MILESTONES, GUIDEPOSTS, FOOTPRINTS

32,200,000 telephones on five continents — more than 91 per
cent of all the telephones in the world. In other words, the
total number of telephones capable of being connected with
Bell System telephones has practically doubled within the past
five years.

This increase in value, due to increased reach, is, however,
an increase in potential rather than in present value, so far as
the average telephone user is concerned. Of greater and more
direct importance to him are the increases in the value of his
own telephone to him as he utilizes it in his daily life. How
much better is telephone service than it was five years ago?

Some Service Improvements

Improvement in the quality of a public service cannot, of
course, be measured by statistics alone. In so intimate a serv-
ice as that provided by the telephone organization, quality is
evaluated not only in terms of efficiency and accuracy, but in
terms of the personal attitude of those who provide the serv-
ice. Much progress has been made during the past five years
in this direction. The personalization of service has been the
aim not only of the operators who handle telephone calls, but
of all telephone employees who have contacts with the public.
Their aim has been to impress the public with a sense of their
desire to serve it to the full.

During this period marked progress has been made in in-
troducing the dial system of operation. At the end of 1925,
about 12.5 per cent of Bell telephones were dial instruments; at
the end of 1930, about 30 per cent were of this type.

The extension of dial service has been an important con-
tribution to improved telephone service due to its greater ac-
curacy and reliability, particularly during hours of light use,
such as nights, Sundays, and holidays. Dial service is also
more adaptable to improvements and developments required
to keep pace with the rapidly increasing telephone business,

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

and is preferred by the great majority of those who use it, to
the manual system.

During 1930 a small dial intercommunicating system for
residences and smaller business establishments was made avail-
able for Bell System subscribers.

Many improvements in methods and in operation and super-
vision have raised the standard of efficiency to a higher level.
This uniformity is reflected not only in the quality of local
service, but also in that of toll service. On calls of the latter
type, two or more sets of operators, often in widely separated
territories, are involved in making the necessary connections,
and if there were not a uniform standard of accuracy and effi-
ciency, the best efforts of one group might be seriously offset
by poor traffic results on the part of the other.

There. has been a marked improvement in toll service dur-
incr the five-year period under consideration. This improve-
ment has included not only an increase in the percentage of toll
calls completed, but an even more significant increase in speed
of completion.

During 1925, the present practice of having the customer
remain at his telephone while a toll connection is being com-
pleted was not generally in use and there is no record for that
year of calls so handled. During 1930, toll calls completed
while the calling party remained at his telephone constituted
82 per cent of the total calls.

Facilities for long distance and toll service have been greatly
increased, an outstanding illustration being progress in extend-
ing the Bell System's toll cable network. Since the beginning
of 1926 approximately 15,000 miles of toll cable, providing
more than forty- two billion conductor feet of wire, have been
constructed and put in service throughout the system. Sev-
enty-five per cent of the cities of 50,000 or more inhabitants
are now connected with the network of toll cables that are
practically storm proof.

milestones, guideposts, footprints

Long Distance Rate Reductions

There began in the latter part of 1926 a series of reductions
in long distance rates which, taken in connection with the im-
provements in this type of service above outlined, as well as
others, strikingly illustrate the progress made toward more effi-
cient and more extensive telephone service at a lower cost to
the telephone user. The first of these reductions, made late in
1926, effected an estimated total annual saving to users of the
service of about $3,000,000. In December, 1927, a further
reduction was made, for a total annual saving estimated at
$1,500,000. On February 1, 1929, another reduction became
effective, for an annual estimated saving to the telephone users
of $5,000,000. On January 1, 1930, long distance rates were
further reduced, for an estimated saving of more than
$5,000,000 a year. These four reductions represent, at the
present time, a saving to the public of about $20,000,000 a year.

In the Bell System, about 20 per cent of all the telephones
are connected with private branch exchanges. In the larger
cities, such as New York and Chicago, the percentage is very
much greater. The operation of these switchboards is an im-
portant factor in determining the quality of telephone service
in general. During the past five years particular efforts have
been made by the telephone companies to improve the service
rendered through private branch exchanges by supplying them
with trained attendants and through close contact with those
already employed. Bell System companies have maintained
schools for the instruction of private branch exchange attend-
ants, to assist them in using the best methods of giving tele-
phone service.

Solving Installation Problems

An important aspect of the provision of telephone facilities
for the use of a subscriber is not merely to provide them, but to
provide them when he wants them. During the past five years
there have been important advances in speeding up installation

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

of equipment on subscribers' premises in order that this re-
quirement of adequate service might be met. To accomplish
this, it has been necessary not only to provide adequate fa-
cilities and equipment, but to improve methods of handling
applications for service.

One of the important factors in speeding up installation has
been the adoption of the Appointment Plan. Under this ar-
rangement the subscriber, at the time of filing his application
for service, sets a definite date upon which he desires to have
the installation made. This system was not in general use
throughout the Bell System until 1928, in which year 38 per
cent of all installations were handled by appointment. Dur-
ing 1930, 83.9 per cent of all installations throughout the sys-
tem were made under the Appointment Plan, and in 96.6 per
cent of these, the appointment dates were met.

During the past three years the hand telephone has been
made generally available throughout the system, thus adding
to the comfort and convenience of subscribers who use this
type of instrument. The number of instruments of this type
in use has grown from some 60,000 at the end of 1927 to about
1,750,000 in 1930.

Business offices have been improved in appearance and com-
fort for the customer and new methods have been introduced
that have made the transaction of his business with the tele-
phone company more convenient for the subscriber. Improved
systems of billing have made for greater accuracy and prompt-
ness.

Selling by Telephone

The use of telephone service, and particularly of toll serv-
ice, by business concerns has undergone a marked increase dur-
ing the period under consideration. An important phase of
this development has been the steady growth of the use of
the telephone in selling. During 1926 the Keytown Selling
Plan was worked out by telephone engineers and the follow-

MILESTONES, GUIDEPOSTS, FOOTPRINTS

ing year it was made generally available throughout the Bell
System. In connection with this plan, there has been pre-
pared a map on which the United States is divided into areas,
each with a centrally located "key town." From these cen-
tral points sales representatives may place calls to prospects or
customers in the surrounding towns. This is usually done by
filing sequence call lists with the telephone company. During
this period there has also been developed the Credit Identifica-
tion Card plan, by which sales representatives may have tele-
phone toll calls billed to their home office. These develop-
ments have proved important factors in increasing the value of
telephone service as an aid in establishing sales contacts con-
veniently and cheaply.

Directory Service

One of the vitally essential phases of providing adequate
telephone service is the publication and distribution of direc-
tories. It is interesting to note that in this respect the tele-
phone business is unlike all other industries. The Bell System
is the nation's only business concern which finds it necessary to
compile, and to distribute for public use, a complete list of its
customers and to do this, in a majority of cases, not only once
a year but twice a year. It is obvious that this activity neces-
sarily involves compiling the directory lists with the highest
possible degree of accuracy, getting them printed in the short-
est possible time, and distributing the printed edition without
delay.

This problem has increased in complexity and difficulty as
the number of telephone subscribers has increased. In 1925,
for example, the total number of copies of telephone directories
published by the Bell System was about 27,000,000, with list-
ings totaling about 14,000,000 separate names. The corre-
sponding figures for 1930 were 36,000,000 copies and
18,500,000 listings.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

That it has been possible to increase the accuracy of the di-
rectories and to speed up their production and deHvery, in the
face of these increases in the size of the total issue and in the
number of listings, is a striking evidence of progress in the im-
provement of the service as a whole during the past half-decade.

Meanwhile, steps have been taken generally to improve the
appearance of telephone directories by removing advertising
matter from the covers and to improve arrangement, typogra-
phy and quality of paper so as to make the use of directories
more convenient for the telephone user.

This effort to improve the appearance of directories is only
one manifestation of a trend that has become general through-
out the Bell System. The idea that beauty may be expressed
in that which is primarily utilitarian in purpose is becoming in-
creasingly a part of the Bell System's business and service
philosophy.

An important innovation in the directories has been the
inauguration of " Where to Buy It " service. Under this plan,
trade marks of nationally advertised products or services are
reproduced in the directories, followed by the names, ad-
dresses and telephone numbers of dealers, agents, service sta-
tions or other representatives from whom the product or serv-
ice may be obtained.

Proofs of a Pledge Fulfilled

These are some, but only some, of the " footprints " that
have marked the path of telephone development during the past
five years. There have been others — almost numberless steps,
most of them unspectacular, many of them seemingly unimpor-
tant when considered by themselves, but all pointed in the same
direction.

It is a far cry from so romantic an achievement as the open-
ing of radio telephone service between continent and continent,
across thousands of miles of ocean, and so prosaic an accom-
plishment as, let us say, the rearrangement of the type on a tele-

MILESTONES, GUIDEPOSTS, FOOTPRINTS

phone directory page. Yet, properly evaluated, both of these
are simply parts of the same general progress toward more ex-
tensive, more efficient and more economical telephone service.
Milestones and footprints alike indicate advances toward the
Bell System's objective as indicated by the guidepost of Mr.
Gifford's statement of its fundamental policy. They are evi-
dence of the fact that this statement of policy was more than
a statement — that it was a pledge of performance. They are
proof that this pledge is being fulfilled.

R. T. Barrett

Teletypewriter Service and Its Present
Day Uses

MIRACLES of modern science are available and in use to-
day in the conduct of normal business. The teletype-
writer is an outstanding example. The magic carpet of fiction
would today be considered inconvenient and uncomfortable and
probably slow, certainly slow when compared with the speed of
transmission of the teletypewriter. In addition to its speed,
the teletypewriter is convenient and after all takes up no more
room than the carpet would have taken if folded up and placed
beside it.

Teletypewriter Service is the answer to today's exacting de-
mand from business concerns for a communication service that
is almost human and less prone to error than a human being.
Briefly described, it is typewriting by wire. The distance,
whether a few feet or the width of the continent, is of no conse-
quence. The results are the same — accurate, fast, and reliable.

Its uses are infinite; it serves the rapid, continuous, high-
pressure demand of the Press, the extraordinarily complex de-
mands of financial organizations for a flexible and fool-proof
service to handle transactions affecting the world or involving
millions; it fits into the methodical, ceaseless grind of the in-
dustrial world when handling its manufacturing problems, ship-
ping instructions, orders, price changes, or the many burden-
some problems requiring prompt administrative opinion and
advice. Then, too, we find it on the great national airways, at
the landing fields, in the weather bureau offices, the radio sta-
tions of the Department of Commerce, and even in automobile
clubs whose members may be interested in weather information
which is so essential to the successful conduct of air navigation,
our fastest modern means of transportation, yet which after all

TELETYPEWRITER SERVICE

is slow compared to the functioning of the teletypewriter in
transmitting messages, ideas, thoughts, in fact all but the phys-
ical being, from one location to another. Finally, as if to dem-
onstrate conclusively its practically limitless application for
making easier business burdens, the teletypewriter holds an en-
viable place among the important tools of the police depart-
ments of the United States in handling information designed to
assist in the capture of criminals, in the tracing of missing per-
sons, as well as in the normal, and more or less routine, opera-
tion of these many and scattered police departments with their
numerous branches, precincts, headquarters, and remote sta-
tions.

Anything that does all of these things must be interesting —
its history must be interesting. Teletypewriter Service and its
history are interesting.

It has been many years since telegraph signals were first
transmitted; 1837 in fact. To facilitate handling the tele-
graph code, the " tape recorder " was developed. This used a
strip of paper tape on which the dots and dashes of the tele-
graph code were indicated as they came over the line. This
then was decoded visually.

Back in about 1848 the idea of the teletypewriter was re-
duced to crude machine form and known as "House's" ma-
chine. It had a piano type keyboard and used compressed air
to operate the mechanism. It printed typed characters on a
tape. Then other systems came along — David Hughes, Hu-
maston. Dr. Werner Siemans, Creed, Cell, Baudot, Donald
Murray, Delany, Rowland, Potts, Cardwell, Wright, Morkrum,
Kleinschmidt, and the Western Electric — all put apparatus on
the market.

Gray & Barton, which later grew into the Western Electric
Company, became interested in 1870 in printing telegraph
equipment, as it was then called ; and while much development
work went on from time to time in this field, it was not until
1915 that the service was finally, after many tests, tried and

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

proved successful. The latter part of that year, the Bell Sys-
tem furnished the United Press Associations a service consist-
ing of one transmitting station in the United Press Bureau
Office, six receiving stations located in newspaper offices in New
York City, and three others located in Jersey City, Hoboken,
and Newark. In 1916, the first commercial service was in op-
eration between New York and Chicago and between New
York and Kansas City. In 1917, a New York-Boston service,
with several intermediate points, was started for The Associ-
ated Press. From then on, its field of usefulness continually
increased and Press Associations, newspapers, and all lines of
commercial business enterprise accepted the teletypewriter as
an established fact. The United States Army Signal Corps
and the United States Navy used it during the World War. In
the years succeeding 1918, its growth has been steady; and at
the present time the Bell System has about 10,000 stations in
operation furnishing service to 800 concerns in practically all
lines of industry.

While it is true that from time to time many concerns have
been engaged in the manufacture of teletypewriter apparatus,
it finally boiled down to the point where there were only five
main manufacturing concerns and two of these were foreign
corporations: Siemans Halske in Germany; Creed in England;
Morkrum, Kleinschmidt, and the Western Electric in the
United States. Then Morkrum-Kleinschmidt companies com-
bined under that name; and later, for purposes of manufactur-
in<T economy, the Western Electric contracted with them to
manufacture the teletypewriter apparatus for the Bell System
and discontinued production itself. This left one organiza-
tion in the American field. Soon afterwards, Morkrum-Klein-
schmidt became the Teletype Corporation, which the Western
Electric recently purchased. The Bell System is, therefore, in
the very satisfactory position of having an efficient teletype-
writer manufacturing organization whose policy and procedures

(Left) Tape Printer Piano

Keyboard — 1855.

(Reproduced by permission of tlic

Scientific American.)

(Right) Page Printer
about 1900.

(Right) Potts Page Printer
about 1916.

The Evolution of the Teletypewriter.

(Right) Western Electric Page
Printer Type Bar 10-A— 1920

(Rightl The Bell System's
Latest Page Machine.

(Left) Type Wheel Tape
Printer— about 1921.

(Left) The Bell System's
Latest Tape Machine.

The Evolution or the Teletypewriter.

TELETYPEWRITER SERVICE

are shaped to the purpose of developing the art to the fullest
extent and at the lowest possible cost.

Teletypewriter Service plays an important part in keeping
the reading public acquainted with the happenings in the world.
It is the outstanding method of communication used by the
Press for collecting and disseminating news. It is said that
news travels fast; it has to. Any important development in
the political or economical situ .tion, a disaster, a new record,
anything, in fact, of interest to the general public, is flashed,
within a few moments from its happening, into the newspaper
plants of North America.

To accomplish this, the Press, in addition to utilizing other
facilities of the Bell System, operates 250 long-haul teletype-
writer circuits involving a total operating mileage of 300,000.
Page type equipment, being particularly adaptable for han-
dling straight news, takes the copy of the news report to 1,250
newspapers.

Tape type equipment, installed in the offices of 210 news-
papers, enables them to obtain still faster special news features
like the stock and bond market reports.

The greatest number of circuits is required between New
York and Kansas City. Some of the newspapers in this group
take the complete report of two or three news agencies, and at
the peak hours of the day, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., are receiving
from 15,000 to 20,000 words per hour. This does not take into
consideration special sporting news; such as racing charts,
baseball results, and other items that make up the sporting
page. It is estimated that the over-all news report delivered
by teletypewriter machines to the larger newspapers approxi-
mates 150,000 words; although when the edition is put out for
our edification, it numbers only 25,000 words.

The use of teletypewriters in the financial field has increased
steadily since the first service was established in April, 1925.
This operated between New York, Philadelphia, and Cleve-

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

land, and was followed shortly after by one between New York
and Chicago.

Stock brokerage houses are the largest users of this type of
service. Daily they set teletypewriters operating between all
principal cities in the United States and radiating to many
smaller municipalities, so that 160 cities are so connected.

NEW YORK FEB 18 1951

ANDERSON

CHICAGO

I STOCKS SOLD FOR TAX PURPOSES CANNOT BE REPURCHASED

FOR 30 DAYS BUT IT IS FREQUENTLY POSSIBLE TO SELL

DOUBTFUL STOCKS AND PUT THE CAPITAL INTO STOCKS WHICH

MIGHT HOLD BETTER DURING PERIODS OF MARKET WEAKNESS AND

RECOVER MORE QUICKLY WHEN CONDITIONS IMPROVE. WE WOULD

BE GLAD TO CONFER WITH CUSTOMERS REGARDING SALES OF

STOCKS OR BONDS IN CONNECTION WITH THE ABOVE.

MATHEWS pkO PM

Typical Message. Tape Service.

Tape service is particularly adapted to brokerage use be-
cause of its flexibility of operation. With several offices on a
line it is necessary for each office to be able to break in at will
and send an order even though a message is being transmitted.
To do this without making it necessary to retransmit the whole
message after the order is completed, tape service is used.

Previous to the opening of the Stock Market each day, the
services are kept busy with the transmission of market letters,
news items pertaining to financial markets abroad, and general
messages between members of the firms. Upon the opening of
the market, the service is cleared for the transmission of orders
that are to be executed on the Stock Exchange. During market
hours, orders have preference over everything else. Reports
of orders executed on the Exchange are next in importance.

TELETYPEWRITER SERVICE

Flashes are also transmitted which may relate to the condition
of the market, some item of interest pertaining to a particular

12 NY SELL 200 AGE ^^C 200-195

Brokerage. Sell Order. Tape Service.

stock, or news which might have an effect on the market in
general. A customer in a distant office often requests the latest
quotation on a particular stock before entering an order. In
the course of an average business day as many as two hundred
requests for " quotes " may be received over a single service.
After the close of the market, all orders which were executed
during the day are confirmed by the originating office. Ac-
counting discrepancies, which necessitate numerous messages
before the differences are corrected, frequently exist.

10 NY BOT 300 EL 81^ 500-81^

Brokerage. Confirmation. Tape Service.

Cases of quick executions and reports on orders over tele-
typewriter circuits have been called to our attention; an out-
standing example happened recently when an order was placed
in a San Francisco office, teletyped to New York, executed, and
the execution report handed to the customer in San Francisco
less than two minutes later.

In the banking business, messages relating to the transfer of
stocks or funds, those containing credit information. Foreign
Exchange rates, or messages of acceptance, are transmitted.
The Federal Reserve Board transmits hundreds of messages
each day relating to the transfer of millions of dollars between
its members.

Bond and security houses are very large users of Teletype-
writer Service. One particular house, dealing exclusively in
bonds and securities, has a network of circuits extending from
Maine to Georgia, and from New York to all the principal cities

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

in the Middle West and on the Pacific Coast. The teletype-
writers in the offices of this concern are installed in the same
room with the traders so that speedy execution of orders can be
reported. Cases have been known where an order for the pur-
chase of certain securities was placed on the Pacific Coast for
execution in Boston, and the report made to the customer four
minutes after the order was placed. Execution of orders be-
tween offices of shorter distances are often made in less than
one minute, when these offices are on the same circuit.

The use of Teletypewriter Service in the industrial field has
proven an important factor; for it brings together with speed,
efficiency, and economy branch offices, plants, mills, and ware-
houses. In effect, it enables them to function as though under
one roof. In fact, it has provided a means of stimulating sales,
manufacture, and shipments. It is particularly adaptable by
reason of the written record which greatly reduces the possi-
bility of error.

This service has enabled credit concerns to link their branch
offices in distant cities with the headquarters office, thereby
centralizing; the collection and dissemination of credit informa-
tion. Replies to inquiries are furnished in fifteen to thirty
minutes, and on rush jobs in two to five minutes ; whereas under
the old method of handling by mail and public telegraph, it took
from one to several days.

Textile companies' sales offices are easily connected with
mills in distant cities, facilitating the handling of orders, in-
quiries regarding manufacture, billing, and shipping. Trans-
mission of orders on forms with carbon copies arranged for bill-
ing and other purposes can be readily handled. Formerly, it
was necessary to send this type of communication by mail.

Many concerns in the metal industry use Teletypewriter
Service for communication between main and branch offices
and plants. By its use they are able to keep in touch with the
progress of their manufacturing job, check specifications, and
to handle labor and mill problems, replace stocks, rush a ship-

FlGlRE 1. DePAKT.MEXT OF Co.MAlLKCt R.^DIO STATION', HaDLEY FlELD, StELTOX, N. J.

Figure 2. American Can Company, Chicago Office.

Figure 3. E. A. Pierce and Company,
New York Office.

""ipKIIHii

Figure 4. International News Service, Bureau Oitice,
World Building, New York.

J»ll

" ^Jj

IK Bt* -i^tf

Figure 5. Installation in St.ate Police Headqu.arters
.^T Harrisburg, Pa.

TELETYPEWRITER SERVICE

ment on a broken part, or handle any one of the hundred or
more things that arise and call for action. It is also used for
administrative purposes and for the carrying of communications
of more importance than ordinary routine matters.

55 NY 1/10/31

R E WILLIAMS

CHICAGO
SHIP TO JONES 4 BROUN ST. LOUIS 24 GROSS LOT 15 BLEACHED ORDER NUMBER
FOUR EIGHT SEVEN SIX BILL THEIR ATLANTA OFFICE ALSO WIRE CONFIRMATION
Oil CREDIT TO SEVENTY SIX ON AMOUNT ELEVEN SEVENTY SEVEN EIGHTY FIVE
CALDVfELL 3:10 PH

A Typical Page Service Message.

A hosiery mill has recently given us an interesting comment
on the service by saying, " The instant and continuous contact
between all units guarantees smooth production. This is par-

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

ticularly important to us where factories are dependent upon
each other, one making yarn, another hosiery, and another
labels for boxes. Teletypewriter Service provides the vital
contact which brings the separated units closely together. Bill-
ing and purchasing are centralized ; duplicate records are elimi-
nated ; traffic matters are handled quickly and accurately. Our
officials in different cities communicate directly with each other
in the space of minutes to ask and answer questions, make de-
cisions, or give instructions, and, further, have their ' conversa-
tions' in typewritten form, a record insuring against misun-
derstanding. The teletypewriter gives customers exceptional
service. A store may be out of a certain style of hosiery on
Friday and need a supply for Saturday business. A message
is teletyped directly to the factory, and the order is on its way
to the store almost immediately."

To list some of the advantages of the service, we quote hap-
hazard from expressions of customers: "Brings together gen-
eral office, mills, and export offices"; "Handles sales quota-
tions, market information, costs, accounting data, and op-
erating directions"; "Speeds orders, shipping advice, matters
relating to production; customers get faster service; secures
quotations, dates of shipment"; "Tends greatly to increase
the speed of sales in a highly competitive market."

Leaving normal everyday business procedure and departing
into realms that contain much more readily seen " service ro-
mance," we find that there, as well. Teletypewriter Service
plays its part. The airways of the United States, which as
recently as ten or twelve years ago were totally unprotected
and generally even uncharted, are now provided with the most
efficient guides and safeguards science has been able to develop.
From a single air route operating from Washington to New
York at that time, we now find about 30,000 miles of regularly
operated airway. Half of it is lighted for night flying; and all
the principal routes are protected by the best land line com-
munication system available, the teletypewriter. The Air-

100

TELETYPEWRITER SERVICE

ways Division of the Department of Commerce of the United
States Government has put its stamp of approval on this com-
munication medium; and, as a result, large airway operating
units like Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc., " The Luding-
ton Line," Eastern Air Transport, Inc., and others, have seen
fit to specify this service as a protection to their passenger
traffic. No other means of communication offers the degree of
reliability found here, which, of course, is essential in handling
necessary information to keep the airway pilots informed as to
the conditions on their operating section.

The service furnished the Airways Division of the Depart-
ment of Commerce between Newark and Cleveland exemplifies
how teletypewriters help maintain schedules despite adverse
weather conditions. The Weather Observer at Newark types
out the local meteorological conditions at short intervals. All
the way to Cleveland, the information rolls out on the tape
services at the various intermediate fields. As Newark finishes
its message, the observer at Northampton, Pa., the next field
westward, types out the meteorological data collected at his
station. So in a few minutes, every station along the airway
has accurate and detailed information on conditions at every
other landing field along the way.

WEATHER REPORT NEWARK TO WASHINGTON

5A0 PM MK THIN OVC LIGHT HAZE CEILING EST 12

THSD 5 NE

25 42 22 2958 TA THIN OVC HAZE UNL 6 NE 16 59

2951

DUSTY SUN VISIBLE THROUGH OVC PA OVC EST 5000

8 NE

19 40 2954 AB OVC EST 5000 5 N 16 41 25 2955

BO OVC ESI

4000 6 N 15 59 2956 WN OVC EST 7000 7 N 21 59

24 2964

Department of Commerce, Airway DI\^SION, Weather Report. Tape Service.

The police usage offers an interesting example of up-to-date
methods to offset the advantages otherwise accruing to crimi-
nals in flight. These advantages are speed, as evidenced by
automobiles, crack trains, speed boats, and planes. They are

101

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

the most rapid means of transportation available, and the
criminal makes the most of them. However, before he has
barely begun his journey, the teletypewriter networks of the
police have flashed their messages and usually block his way.
Data on stolen cars, missing persons, fires, riots, disasters, as
well as the ordinary routine procedure which goes to make up
the normal police work must be handled rapidly and accurately;
therefore, headquarters, precincts, stations, booths, and de-
partments no matter how widely separated, are tied together
by the teletyep writer and are only a key length apart.

The need for still more extensive police networks is evidenced
clearly in an editorial appearing in The Saturday Evening Post,
November 22, 1930, which discussed networks of the New Jer-
sey State Police, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the New
York City Police, and said in part, " We see no reason why co-
operation of this type stimulated by science should not go very
much farther. The police force of the whole country should
be a highly interrelated system; separately they can never com-
pete with the criminal."

If this is the development that has taken place in Teletype-
writer Service and it is used as extensively as we have said,
perhaps in your mind will rise the thought that we have found
nearly all the use for it that exists. Hardly. Teletypewriters
are now numbered in the thousands. Their future lies in the
millions. They are as inevitable as the telephone and will, be-
fore many years have passed, rank with it as an absolutely es-
sential office appliance. Where there are now thousands in
use in business, in a few years there will be infinitely more thou-
sands located in homes where they will be considered to be as
desirable as a radio with the added value that the running story
of the event can be received on tape whether you are there or
not, so that when you come in from the theatre or a bridge game
you can consult the teletypewriter for the latest news of the
world, political, economical, sporting, or whatever it is that
holds your interest. W. L. Dusenberry

102

The Growing American Taste for Beauty

and What the Bell System is Doing

to Satisfy It

ONE of the most encouraging tendencies in our modern
American life is the increasing appreciation of beauty
which is manifest everywhere. Until within the last few dec-
ades the American people poured nearly all their energies into
the material tasks of settling a continent and building a nation.
There was little time for the cultivation of a taste for the
beautiful. But today the modern spirit finds opportunity to
explore the satisfactions of increased attention to beauty; and
the expression of that spirit is rapidly transforming the Ameri-
can scene. Ugly things, drab furnishings, uninspiring build-
ings are gradually giving way to new creations which satisfy
the modern taste for the beautiful and which are expressive of
the modern mind.

The beauties of landscape, too, are much more widely ap-
preciated than once they were. Our National Parks bear elo-
quent witness to that. For additional evidence we need look
no further than the Palisades on the Hudson, which the Vic-
torian era started to use as trap-rock quarries, but which are
now preserved as a public park. The movement against un-
sightly bill-boards, especially along scenic highways, is another
manifestation of the same trend.

For this increasing appreciation of natural scenery, the auto-
mobile is largely responsible. With the good roads which it
has brought forth, the beauties of hill and dale, moor and moun-
tain, seashore and lake have become accessible to millions whose
horizon would otherwise be bounded by city streets or by the
unlovely environs of a provincial town.

The cars that took the lead in thus broadening the horizon

103

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

of the modern American family were unquestionably the old
models dedicated uncompromisingly to utility and economy
without noticeable regard for beauty. It is a far cry indeed
from the old black pre-war automobiles, tall and angular, to
the swift and silent cars of the present day, brilliant of color,
long, low and luxurious — graceful embodiments of the modern
spirit of speed and comfort.

Despite their undeniable utility and economy the old cars
had to give place to the new, in which the popular demand for
beauty is fully recognized and met. Color, stream-lines,
chromium plate — you can make an efficient motor-car without
any of these, but it will not meet the present day demand for
beauty. And those whose prosperity depends on satisfying
the public realize that they must cater to that demand, they
must keep in line with the modern trend.

We see the results all about us, in a myriad forms, affect-
ing the appearance of countless articles of everyday use. This
is an industrial age and it is the products of industry that pri-
marily reflect the spirit of the time. " I salute the workers in
physical research as the poets of today . . ." says Owen D.
Young. " They appeal to the imagination of us all. They
contribute the warming glow of inspiration to industry, and
when industry pulls their ideas down from the heavens to the
earth and harnesses them for practical service, it too feels that
it is an important actor, not only in the making of things, but
on the larger stage of the human spirit. There may be enough
poetry in the whir of our machines so that our machine age will
become immortal."

It is the workers in physical research, of v^^hom Mr. Young
speaks, that have brought from the fields of industrial chemistry
a rich selection of new materials, combinations, alloys, colors
and the like. In the hands of skilled designers these new me-
diums of expression have been turned to countless uses in
beautifying otherwise prosaic products and affording scope for
the exercise of creative artistic imagination. A few examples

104

THE GROWING AMERICAN TASTE FOR BEAUTY

that come to mind are chromium plating, monel metal, the new
quick-drying lacquers, improvements in color printing, neon
gas glow lamps, bakelite, fabrikoid, imitation tortoise-shell,
cellophane, rayon, improved linoleum, indirect lighting, colored
flood lighting of buildings and the like. The list could be ex-
tended indefinitely.

Beauty is achieved, however, not only through the use of
new processes and new products but also through the applica-
tion of old techniques in a new spirit. The development of
new and more artistic typefaces is one example. The notable
recent progress in interior decoration is another. The tasteful
assembly of furniture and furnishings, rugs, draperies, pictures,
mirrors and lighting fixtures that are not only beautiful in
themselves but that harmonize and blend to form an attractive
interior, has achieved a great vogue in recent years. The serv-
ices of professional decorators are in demand not only for resi-
dential but also for business interiors. Contrast the modern
specialty shop — or even the modern grocery-store — with its
prototype of twenty years ago and you cannot fail to appreci-
ate what progress has been made toward meeting the popular
demand for beauty in the field of retail shopping.

The contents of the shops, too, have in many cases been care-
fully beautified. There has always been some striving after
beauty in women's clothes, but today beauty and style have
completely superseded durability in this field. Where are the
black cotton stockings of a former day? Even the serviceable
black leather shoes that went with them have wellnigh disap-
peared. The women's shoe business has become like the milli-
nery trade, a kaleidoscope of rapidly changing styles, varied
materials and designs, and pleasing colors.

Much attention has been given, also, to presenting merchan-
dise in attractive packages. The huge growth in the demand
for perfumes and cosmetics in recent years reflects the all-per-
vading attention to beauty. It has, however, been substan-
tially stimulated by the attractive array of decorative jars,

105

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

bottles and boxes in which such articles are sold. Even food
products are displayed in tempting guise, and the rapid turn-
over of package foods is encouraged by the attractiveness as
well as the convenience of the handy containers.

A volume could be written on the increasing use of color in
the general beautification of the adjuncts of life. Its appK-
cation to automobiles, women's shoes and stockings, neon lights
and floodlighting, has already been mentioned. From the
garage it overflowed into the kitchen, and the granite-wear
utensils of yesteryear were displaced by pots and pans gay with
red or blue or yellow enamel. Here and there a gas-stove, a
refrigerator or a set of wash-tubs blossomed out in vivid hues.
The bath-room was the next to feel the influence and tiles, fix-
tures and accessories were inundated with a flood of color. No
longer did it resemble the sanitary but chilly dairy-lunch or
hospital operating-room, — white porcelain and tiles gave way
to variegated brilliance suggesting sometimes the rather bar-
baric splendor of an oriental palace.

Time would be lacking to tell of all the varied manifestations
of this modern urge for beauty — of colored fountain pens and
cameras and gasoline-pumps, of camouflaged gas-tanks and
colored electric signs, of the enthusiasm for esthetic dancing
and rhythm, of the fad for dieting, of regional planning, of ar-
tistic design applied to coins and stamps, of village improve-
ment societies and the magazines devoted to beautiful homes
and gardens, of the improvement in moving picture artistry
and in magazine illustration and poster art, in the design of
motor-boats and in architecture, both residential and business.
All of these and many more are instances of this same urge for
beauty which makes itself felt in many ways till it seems in a
sense to form the unifying influence that co-ordinates many of
the diverse activities of our time. As Myron C. Taylor has
put it: " Love of beauty, an inquiring mind as to higher spirit-
ual things, is evidenced as a growing force in the commu-
nity. . . ."

106

THE GROWING AMERICAN TASTE FOR BEAUTY

What, then, is the Beil System doing to co-operate with this
trend? Operating, as it does, a nation-wide service of per-
sonal communication, having more contacts with the pubhc
than any other business enterprise, it is fitting that the Bell
System should be responsive to such trends of popular thought
as make for a fuller and more satisfying life. In some respects,
the Bell System is in a position to advance signally the move-
ment for beautification of the American scene. Of course, the
beautification of all the Bell System's far-flung instrumentali-
ties of service is not the work of a day. It is a gradual proc-
ess, carefully planned and long-continued, a step here, a step
there, as economic considerations warrant. In newly devel-
oped communities, in new telephone buildings, in new installa-
tions generally, considerations as to appearances can be given
great weight. Much has already been done and more will be
accomplished in the future toward beautifying the innumerable
instrumentalities through which the telephone service is car-
ried on. In all of these, utility must of course remain the pri-
mary consideration, but beauty is a factor of increasing impor-
tance.

The telephone instrument — which to so many users epito-
mizes the whole telephone service — is a case in point. For all
practical purposes the standard Bell System desk telephone is
satisfactory. But it is not distinguished for beauty and there
is no question that the telephone hand-set fits in better with
modern decorations and gives an up-to-date touch to the home
or office of today.

In the design of this instrument it was first necessary to over-
come the technical difficulties of securing satisfactory service
with the transmitter and receiver combined. The essential
specifications as to the size of these and other parts were
worked out by Bell System engineers after careful tests. The
distance between transmitter and receiver, for example, was
determined by the average distance between the human ear
and mouth. The size of the " cradle " had to leave room for

107

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

springs and for a dial of certain dimensions. These matters
having been decided, various designs were worked out and com.-
mercial artists, of the same caHbre as those who design new
automobile bodies and the like, were retained to pass on the
designs and suggest improvements from the standpoint of ar-
tistic appearance. The result has been the hand-set as we see
it today — low, simple and giving the streamline effect which
appeals to discriminating modern taste.

Special designs have been worked out, too, for particular
uses, such as subsets for outdoor use at taxistands and else-
where, and intercommunicating sets for large residences and
small offices. In these last the design of the buttons in the
base of the hand-set, by which connections are established, was
given special attention to make sure that they should be simple
and easy to work. Suggestions from the consulting artist cover
such matters as whether the corners of the wall mountings
should be bevelled or rounded, and the provision of chromium-
plated face plates, molded phenol plastic housings and other
slight changes to improve the appearance of the small push-
button type keys used in connection with wiring plans.

The placing of the instruments when they come into use has
also received careful attention. Bell System engineers have
co-operated with the manufacturers of steel and wooden desks,
telephone tables and cabinets in working out designs for con-
venient and attractive receptacles for the telephone and for the
telephone directories.

Telephone installers have been instructed and trained to
make the interior wiring necessary for connecting up the tele-
phone as inconspicuous as possible. Much can be done by the
installer, but in order to attain the best results along this line
the Bell System has been active in encouraging architects and
builders to provide wire runways in the walls and floors of new
buildings with outlets at convenient points, so that whatever
the arrangement of the furniture, the telephone wires can be
kept out of sight. This suggestion has been stressed in Bell

108

THE GROWING AMERICAN TASTE FOR BEAUTY

System advertisements in building and architectural journals
and in booklets distributed among architects and builders.

Where telephone booths are to be installed the Bell System
has encouraged the provision of built-in booths specially de-
signed to harmonize architecturally with the interiors in which
they are placed. Improvements have also been made in the
appearance of the standard booths and 25,000 of the better
looking type have been placed in service.

Systematic attention has also been given to improving the
appearance of telephone plant outside as well as inside the sub-
scribers' premises. Great progress has been made in placing
telephone cables underground and in the congested sections of
our large cities the telephone plant is practically all out of sight.
In many smaller cities and in suburban residential areas, too,
the telephone network has been put underground, including
both the main cables and those connecting them with the sub-
scribers' premises. At present practically two-thirds of the
entire mileage of Bell System wire is in underground cable.

In localities where economic conditions do not warrant the
considerable additional expense of placing telephone cables
underground it has often been possible to utilize aerial cable
(which now makes up more than 27 per cent of the total Bell
System wire mileage). Such cable, suspended from short,
sturdy poles, is less conspicuous than a like number of circuits
in the form of open wire. In many residential neighborhoods
the telephone cables are run along alleys or on the rear line of
properties, avoiding the necessity of pole lines along the streets,
and thus enhancing the attractiveness of the community.
Similarly, toll and long distance lines are frequently constructed
on private rights of way, rather than along main highways.

Much attention is also paid to keeping up the appearance of
Bell System pole-lines. The use of shapely poles, the elimina-
tion of broken attachments, and the erection of cable in uni-
form spans, help to keep the telephone pole-lines inconspicuous.
It is not practical to paint the poles because they would soon be

109

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

scratched and marred by the cHmbing-irons of the linemen.
Vines cannot be trained about them, either, for they would
interfere with the work of the linemen and would cause leakage
of current from the wires. But the end desired is attained in
other ways.

Where connections are made between overhead and under-
ground cable, the somewhat bulky cable terminal boxes are
much reduced in numbers and are located at inconspicuous
points away from the front of residences or other buildings
where they might be objectionable on esthetic grounds. Guy
wires, too, are placed in such a way as to render them relatively
inconspicuous.

In the matter of tree-trimming along aerial telephone lines,
the Bell System is giving practical proof of its interest in the
movement for landscape beautification. Pruning specifications
have been issued establishing an orderly routine for tree-trim-
ing and instructing telephone linemen how to prune trees with-
out permanently marring their beauty. These specifications
have met with the approval of Shade Tree Commissions in sev-
eral States. Some of the Bell Telephone Companies have em-
ployed outside firms of tree experts to do their trimming for
them, thus assuring property-owners of having the work done
by experienced specialists. The attention paid to the protec-
tion of trees from damage due to pruning was recently cited by
Earnest Elmo Calkins as an " encouraging phase of the tele-
phone policy " of giving thought to improving the appearance
of Bell System plant.

Then there are the telephone motor vehicles, approximately
20,000 of them operating all over the country. Much care is
being given to securing a pleasing appearance so that they may
be a credit to the Bell System and to the communities in which
they operate. The Associated Companies of the Bell System
and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company under-
took, some years ago, extensive experiments with various colors
for the purpose of working out a standard color scheme for

110

THE GROWING AMERICAN TASTE FOR BEAUTY

trucks that should be both practical and attractive. Panels
showing seven or eight colors for truck assemblies were pre-
pared and the Bell Telephone Laboratories engaged in research
for the purpose of improving the lacquers and finish and the
method of application. As a result, uniform color schemes for
Bell System trucks were worked out, providing for either a
sagebrush green or a blue-gray color, centering on the former.
The lettering and figures and the familiar Bell seal are being
given systematic attention and attractive designs have been de-
veloped which are put on by transfer. The introduction of
these improvements is necessarily gradual, owing to economic
considerations, but progress is being made in the right direction.

At the same time much attention has been given to designing
the lines of the truck bodies for beauty as well as utility. In
the case of certain makes, de luxe bodies, which resemble pas-
senger automobiles rather than trucks, have been standardized.
The design of the truck cabs has been modified to resemble a
coupe, and facilities for carrying tools and materials have been
so arranged as to make them orderly and inconspicuous. In
addition, every effort has been made during the last few years
to make the trailers, pole-setting and earth boring equipment,
etc., conform with the general design of the vehicles.

The zeal for good appearances has even in a few cities been
carried experimentally to the extent of having a uniformed
force make deliveries of telephone directories to subscribers.
The appearance of the directories themselves has been made
much better during recent years by the gradual elimination of
advertising from the covers and by the adoption of more pleas-
ing: cover-stock. The inside of the directories has also been
greatly improved by new and more attractive type-faces (espe-
cially developed for use in telephone directories), by rearrange-
ment of the page make-up — particularly in the classified sec-
tions— and by the standardization, as to size and shape, of the
advertisements printed in the directories. The introduction
of Trade Mark Listings (showing the names, addresses and

111

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

telephone numbers of authorized dealers listed under the names,
trade-marks and brief descriptions of advertised products) also
enhances the appearance as well as adding to the usefulness of
the classified telephone directories.

But, when all is said and done, it is in its buildings that the
Bell System most strikingly exemplifies the careful attention
given to the beautification of its facilities for service.

In their design and construction, these buildings, large and
small, reflect the policies of the Bell System. They are planned
to provide at reasonable cost for present service needs and for
the continuing growth of telephone use. Modern in concep-
tion, they also reflect in their substantial character and careful
planning something of the System's stability and its regard for
the comfort and convenience of its customers and its employees.
These buildings contribute toward the achievement of the ideals
of the communities in which they are located and exemplify the
progressive spirit which has made possible modern telephone
communication as it is today and as it will be in the years to
come.

Several of them contain decorative features of outstanding
beauty. Notable among these are the impressive mural paint-
ings in the new Headquarters Building of the Mountain States
Telephone and Telegraph Company at Denver. These include
allegorical representations of The Crucible of Science and The
Wings of Thought, besides more mundane subjects such as The
Lineman and The Cable Reel Crew. Historical themes ap-
propriate to the locality inspired paintings of the Indians'
Smoke Signal and of the Pony Express. The Spirit of Service
is represented in symbolic pictures of an operator and of a re-
pairman. " They are all," said Allen True, the Colorado artist
who painted them, " intended to beautify the place where the
company meets its patrons and are but another expression of
its actuating principle which is service to the public."

Many other Bell System buildings contain artistic decora-
tions which testify to the attention paid to matters of beauty.

112

THE GROWING AMERICAN TASTE FOR BEAUTY

Among these may be mentioned the group of statuary repre-
senting the Spirit of Service in the Telephone and Telegraph
Building at 195 Broadway, New York, and the great colon-
naded marble lobby in which it stands. The restrainedly
modernistic decorations in the Newark Headquarters Building
of the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, the ornamental
hanging lamps in the New York Telephone Company's Head-
quarters, and the rich ceiling on the ground floor of the Pacific
Telephone and Telegraph Company's Headquarters at San
Francisco, are other examples of the careful attention paid to
decoration.

In this connection it may be mentioned that a few years ago
the American Telephone and Telegraph Company presented to
the Smithsonian Institution at Washington a bust of Alexander
Graham Bell, who was formerly one of the Regents of the In-
stitution. The bust was the work of the well-known sculptor,
Victor Salvatore, of New York.

The counterless business offices which have come into gen-
eral use during the last few years are another earnest of the
Bell System's interest in improving the appearance of its facili-
ties. The provision of individual desks, at which the com-
pany's representatives transact business with its customers, is
primarily in the interest of giving more personal and more
satisfactory service than is generally attained in dealings across
a counter. But it also undoubtedly enhances the attractive
appearance of the telephone company's business offices.

The Bell System is thus not unmindful of the modern trend
toward putting added emphasis on beauty. It conforms to that
trend while at the same time giving every attention to the effi-
ciency and economy which must always be the foremost con-
siderations in the rendition of its indispensable communication
service. Evidence of the interest and attention given to mat-
ters of beauty may be found, as has been pointed out, in the
design, installation and maintenance of Bell System instruments
and other plant, both on the subscribers' premises and in the

113

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

open; in the neat and attractive appearance of telephone
trucks; and of telephone directories; and last but not least in
the buildings which house the telephone equipment and the tele-
phone workers and which are designed to be a credit to the Bell
System and a source of pride to the communities in which they
stand.

Richard Storrs Coe

114

Population Changes in Small Communities
and in Rural Areas

IN spite of the increase of 17,000,000 in the population of the
United States between 1920 and 1930, recorded by the lat-
est Federal Census, more than a third of the counties and about
40 per cent of the incorporated places actually lost inhabitants
during the decade. Declines or slow growth were particularly
characteristic of rural areas and of small communities, although
there were a few very exceptional gains in such places. Since
territory of this type has always presented some especially diffi-
cult problems from the standpoint of the telephone industry,
some analysis of the census returns to determine what is oc-
curring in these areas and what future changes are indicated
by present trends may be important.

There are 14,842 telephone exchanges in the United States
with under 500 telephones each, of which number 8,762 have
less than 200 telephones. Generally, each of these exchanges
covers one or more small communities and considerable con-
tiguous rural territory. It has always been difficult to furnish
such areas with telephone service comparable with that given
to large communities, and often the operation of the small ex-
changes, considered by themselves, has not been financially
profitable. Automobiles, good roads, and other factors in our
economic life are tending to reduce the population in the rural
sections of these exchanges and sometimes to wipe out entirely
the central community.

Changes in Rural Counties

More than 600 counties, out of a total of 3,073, now have a
smaller population than they had in 1890, although in the
meantime the United States has doubled the number of its in-

115

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

habitants. Indeed, over 2.5 per cent of all the counties had
fewer people at the time of the 1930 census than they had in
1850 when the population of the country was only one-fifth of
its present size. In many instances the losses have been steady
decade after decade, but in other cases the decline during the
last ten years wiped out the large gains of preceding inter-
censal periods.

The number of counties losing population between 1920 and
1930 exceeded 1,100, while as a result of outward migration an
additional 1,000 counties lost at least part of their natural in-
crease. Moreover, there were declines in the rural portions of
one-third of the counties which gained in total population ; and
such gains as were recorded in rural counties were generally
slight (with some notable exceptions) and frequently occurred
in small communities arbitrarily classed by the census as rural
rather than in scattered territory of purely rural character.

The population changes in rural counties are naturally asso-
ciated with the radical developments which have been taking
place in agriculture. Modern farming methods and the use of
power machinery have permitted a greatly increased output per
worker, with a consequent decrease in the amount of labor re-
quired. Consolidation of farm holdings and the abandonment
of marginal crop lands have caused a reduction of 150,466, or
2.3 per cent, in the number of farms in the United States since
1920. The 1,805 counties with fewer farms in 1930 than in
1920 may be compared with the approximately 1,800 which
either lost in total population or suffered rural losses.

While the losses in both farms and rural population were
distributed very similarly by counties throughout all 48 states,
a detailed comparison shows in a few instances partial incon-
sistencies in the correlation. The explanation of some of these
lies in the changes which have taken place in coal mining dur-
ing the last decade. For example, the increased efficiency in
mining methods has made possible a material reduction in the
number of wage earners and has contributed towards heavier

116

POPULATION CHANGES

population losses in some areas than would have been caused
by the decline in agriculture alone. On the other hand, the
shift of coal mining from one location to another has brought
about rural gains in some counties which lost farms. Factors
contributing to rural gains in the face of agricultural and min-
ing losses have been the rapid growth of essentially industrial
communities, such as the unincorporated textile mill villages in
certain southern states, the increases in suburban areas whose
population cannot be separated from the census " rural " (based
on an arbitrary definition), and the development of resort sec-
tions where catering to tourists has proved more profitable than
farming.

While the rural counties generally lost population and their
declines can be explained by the shrinkage in the labor demands
of the extractive industries, some rural counties had tremendous
gains. Particularly in the semi-arid high plains extending from
southwestern Texas to western Nebraska, the substitution of
field crops for grazing has brought about a rapid growth.
Large-scale wheat production has been undertaken in the
northern portion of the area, while in the remainder (as yet
free from the boll weevil infestation of much of the South) the
profit to be derived from a mechanized cotton production dur-
ing an era of high prices has led to a great expansion of that
industry. Since the census was taken cotton prices have
dropped drastically, which lessens the possibility of further
development in this area.

In fact, it is questionable whether the gains of the past
decade may be considered permanent if lower cotton prices are
accompanied by years of subnormal rainfall such as recur in
this section of the country. The amount of moisture is often
the deciding factor between success and failure in farming.
For example, there may be a period of years in which the aver-
age rainfall is exceeded and a series of good crops are realized.
This temporary success encourages many new settlers to un-
dertake farming in the region. Then will follow several years

117

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

of subnormal precipitation when crops fail completely and the
recent migrants abandon their farms and move elsewhere.

Considerable rural gains occurred in other areas perhaps
better suited for continued crop cultivation. The most notable
increases were in Florida, California and southeastern Texas.
It is possible, however, that the future growth of these areas
will repeat the history of other sections of the country just be-
yond the frontier stage of development, where first gains have
proved to be excessive and periods of declining population and
readjustment have soon followed. For example, it is possible
to trace the progressive movement of population by successive
decades through broad though rather well-defined territorial
belts. Between 1890 and 1900 many counties in the strip ex-
tending from southern Minnesota through Iowa, Missouri and
Arkansas grew rapidly but lost population in the next decade.
Likewise from 1900 to 1910, numerous rural counties in the
band of states including South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and
Oklahoma gained heavily, only to lose during the following ten-
year period. As migration proceeded further west, various
counties in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and
New Mexico experienced substantial increases between 1910
and 1920 and then lost considerable numbers in the past decade.

Perhaps Montana is the most outstanding example of recent
rural population losses. The State as a whole (almost entirely
rural) gained 172,836 or 46 per cent from 1910 to 1920, but lost
11,283 between 1920 and 1930. Here much land was brought
under cultivation during the war period under the stimulus of
high prices for wheat. After the reserve of accumulated mois-
ture was exhausted, however, many producers were forced to
abandon their holdings as reduced yields and low prices com-
bined to render their operations unprofitable.

Changes in Small Communities

About 6,200 incorporated places, in which number every
State in the Union had a share, lost population between 1920

118

POPULATION CHANGES

and 1930. These losses occurred in communities of widely
different sizes, ranging from such small places as Arundel-on-
the-Bay, Maryland, which declined from 12 persons in 1920 to
1 in 1930, and Douglas, Arkansas, which lost 146 of its 151
population in 1920, to such cities as Lowell, which lost 12,525
during the decade, and New Bedford, whose size in 1930 was
only 93 per cent of its 121,217 population in 1920.

The census returns for incorporated places showed a wide
variation in the proportion of the different sized groups losing
population. The principal declines occurred in the small com-
munities whereas in general the larger cities grew, many of
them very rapidly. This change might be aptly characterized
by paraphrasing an old Biblical passage to read — To the city
that hath shall be given, and from the community that hath
little even that which it hath shall be taken away. The dis-
tribution of losses and gains, by size of place, among incorpo-
rated places of less than 50,000 inhabitants is shown in the ac-
companying chart.

PERCENTAGE OF INCORPORATED PLACES

GAINING OR LOSING POPULATION 1920-1930

c
o

"Jo

a.
o

Q-
<30
C

<D
CL>

Percent Losing Population

60
70

80
90
100

IJIBiHi^HHHHIH

10 20 30 40 5
1920 Population of Places in Thousands

The geographical distribution of the population losses in in-
corporated places is significant. The general tendency was for
the proportion of losing communities having under 2,000 in-
habitants in 1920 to increase from east to west. For example,

119

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

in the group of places of 500 or less, the percentages ranged in
the northern half of the country from 29.4 in the New England
and Middle Atlantic States through 51.2 in the East North
Central region and 55.3 in the West North Central to 57.8 in
the Pacific Northwest; in the southern area the corresponding
percentages were South Atlantic 35.8, East South Central 40.4,
West South Central 50.6 and the Pacific Southwest 44.6. This
last figure, reflecting the only exception to the general trend,
may be accounted for by the heavy growth in resort and retired
population in California, while the explanation for the other
geographical differentials lies mainly in the fact that in the East
many of the places are at least partly industrial in character and
consequently less subject to population declines than are the
trading towns further west, which are largely dependent on the
prosperity and buying habits of the surrounding rural territory.

Moreover, the evidence available indicates that the unincor-
porated places as well as the small incorporated communities
declined both in size and in number during the past decade,
many having practically if not actually disappeared. Accord-
ing to the 1921 edition of a standard atlas, about 129,000
places were in existence in 1920. Nearly 16,000 of these com-
munities were incorporated and a few thousand more were lo-
cated within the boundaries of large cities or in suburban terri-
tory. Thus there were about 110,000 unincorporated places
in the United States in 1920, with an average population of less
than 100. Comparative figures from the 1931 atlas indicate a
net loss of about 8,000 places during the past decade. That
this decline of 6.2 per cent is some measure of the number of
places which have passed out of existence is corroborated by
the reduction of 6.8 per cent in the number of post offices dur-
ing the same period. Since there has been little change in the
number of incorporated places, it may be judged that the de-
cline has been chiefly in unincorporated communities.

The losses in the small communities during the past decade
must be interpreted in the light of the economic conditions pre-

120

POPULATION CHANGES

vailing at the dates of the two most recent censuses. In 1920
industrial activity was at a high level and had drawn many
workers from small places into the large cities; in 1930, on the
other hand, a considerable number of urban workers under the
stress of unemployment had perhaps returned home to rural
areas for a time. Consequently, it is possible that the actual
declines of the small communities exceed substantially the losses
recorded by the census.

In the widespread tendency for small places to suffer rather
heavy losses during the past decade, one type of community
fared decidedly better than the group as a whole. This fa-
vored class included the county seats all over the country,
which benefited appreciably by reason of the concentration of
judicial, political, and associated business activities within their
confines, and from the added advantages of a central location
and good roads. Thus, most of the county seats in the rural
areas gained population, usually at the expense of other places
in the surrounding territory. This growth, however, may not
continue much longer, as accessibility to larger centers becomes
more general and as proposals looking toward consolidation of
counties, or at least of administrative headquarters, tend to
bring about reduced per capita governmental costs in declining
territory where taxes might become excessively burdensome.

Percentage of Places Losing Population, 1920-1930

All Incorporated County

Size Communities Seats

Under 500 48.5 20.0

500-1,000 47.2 26.1

1,000-1,500 41.2 30.0

1,500-2,000 33.0 ' 29.5

2,000-2,500 31.4 25.9

2,500-5,000 23.3 19.3

Over 5,000 16.4 14.4

Total 4L0 2L8

Effect of the Automobile on Population Distribution

The fact that many small places lost population and at the
same time the county seats of similar size were doing relatively

121

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

better suggests the possibility that the influence of the auto-
mobile and good roads in facilitating travel may be responsible
for increasing the distances between growing communities. It
has frequently been said in connection with rural transporta-
tion that the range of travel for ordinary purposes was formerly
necessarily limited to the distance which could be conveniently
covered by horse-drawn vehicles, perforce only a few miles in
most rural areas. This is one reason why the average distance
between places in the United States is approximately five to
six miles. The assumption that factors contributing to easier
and faster transportation are tending to place growing towns
farther apart is supported by the fact that, while all incorpo-
rated communities are separated by an average distance of 15
to 16 miles, those which gained population between 1920 and
1930 are located 20 to 21 miles apart. Moreover, the towns
along major highways, especially those carrying through traffic,
appear to be doing better than other places of comparable size.

Per cent Gain in Population in Small Incorporated Places in Counties
Traversed by Representative Highways

State

Places with Less Than 1,000
Inhabitants in 1920

Places with 1,000-2,500
Inhabitants in 1920

On Highways

Off Highways

On Highways

Off Highways

Virginia

22.2

14.5

-2.8

9.5

4.7

-3.1

13.8

0.5

-10.3

4.5

-0.9

-2.3

19.6
20.6
3.7
19.4
-2.7
22.1

5.3

Tennessee

-1.8

Illinois

-9.5

Nebraska

-6.7

North Dakota

Oregon

0.9
-0.7

Total Group

5.5

-2.0

12.0

-3.8

The influence of the automobile as a contributing factor to
the decline in rural population has perhaps only just begun to
register its potential possibilities, for it was not until the middle
of the past decade that car ownership became quite general and
construction of improved roads reached large proportions.
And in large sections of the country the development of all-

122

POPULATION CHANGES

weather roads is still to come. Thus, the effects of the con-
tinued expansion of paved roads and the accompanying increase
in automobile ownership during the present decade should be
much more pronounced than anything in the past.

Effect of Rural Losses on Small Telephone Exchanges

In view of the type of places either losing population or re-
maining stationary, it may be interesting to see to what extent
the telephone industry is affected. All parts of the country,
of course, have many exchanges of relatively small size, the
number of places with exchanges of less than 200 telephones
totaling 8,762, as previously mentioned. About 4,800 of these
are in unincorporated places essentially no different from the
many rural areas declining in size. Of the remaining 4,000 ex-
changes (located in incorporated communities), approximately
one-half were in communities which lost population between
1920 and 1930.

In general, these small exchanges have been of the type which
often experience plant and commercial difficulties by reason of
their small scale operations in a rural market of marginal char-
acteristics. The significance of population losses in small
places may be more apparent when it is noted that over 500
Bell exchanges having less than 200 subscribers each in 1930
suffered a net decline in telephones during the last five years,
which was a period of rapid increase in overall telephone devel-
opment. The continued building of good roads and the wider
use of automobiles, together with a further decline in rural in-
dustries, may tend to accentuate the so-called rural problem,
which has always been a serious one for the telephone industry.

R. L. Tomblen

123

The Russell Portrait of Alexander
Graham Bell

THE British Institution of Electrical Engineers has paid
its tribute to Alexander Graham Bell as one of the great
geniuses of the electrical science and art by placing a portrait
of him on the walls of its auditorum in London. Recognizing
him not simply as the inventor of the Telephone, but as an out-
standing figure in the whole field of the knowledge and use of
electricity, Dr. Bell is represented not as the young man of
twenty-nine, but as the white-haired and bearded man of years
at the height of his career. The portrait was presented to the
Institution by Sir Hugo Hirst, Bart., and unveiled at the regular
meeting on January 8, 1931. It was received by the many
eminent engineers present with the heartiest appreciation and
applause.

The desire of the Institution to honor Dr. Bell in this way
was first communicated more than two years ago by Colonel Sir
Thomas F. Purves, Engineer-in-Chief of the General Post
Office of England, in a letter to Bancroft Gherardi, Vice Presi-
dent of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
From the standpoint of painting the problem was not a simple
one, for only one portrait of Dr. Bell, as it happened, had ever
been painted, and that did not represent him in the period or
character that was appropriate for the present purpose. Nor
of course would any mere color copying of a single photograph
answer. The painter would have to construct his portrait from
a number of photographs and gain his understanding of Dr.
Bell's character and temperament and manner from biographi-
cal material. Every assistance possible was gladly given not
only by those in the Company to whom the matter was referred,
but by Dr. Gilbert Grosvenor, and Mrs. Grosvenor, Dr. Bell's
daughter, and others of the family. Those actively interested

124

RUSSELL PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

in the matter in England expressed their sincere appreciation of
this American co-operation, and the result is evidenced by the
fine achievement of the painter. Some idea of the portrait may
be gathered from the reproduction used as the frontispiece of
this number, if it be remembered that black and white repro-
duction can never give the full effect of anything that is done in
color and that is intended to be seen in color and not merely in
drawing and tone.

One question that presented peculiar difficulty will be of in-
terest to everyone. Of what color were Dr. Bell's eyes? The
first round of inquiry sent to those who, it seemed, would be
able to answer authoritatively brought a confusion of testi-
mony. Some said brown ; some said hazel ; some actually said
black, though nothing is really black. It may be remembered
that when the Salvatore bust of Dr. Bell was presented to the
Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Walter S. Gifford, as President
of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Chief
Justice William H. Taft, receiving it as Chancellor of the Board
of Regents, and praising the bust as a remarkable likeness,
spoke of the unique character of Dr. Bell's eyes, which no one
could forget and which nothing could reproduce. So now in
this inquiry, however widely they disagreed as to the color, all
agreed that his eyes glowed. It came down eventually to the
conclusion that Dr. Bell's eyes in color were medium dark
brown, as was said by his early associate, Thomas A. Watson,
and by Theodore Spicer-Simson, an artist who had frequently
studied his face, but that at times of intense interest or emo-
tion, which were not seldom, the pupils of his eyes dilated to
an unusual degree and gave his eyes the glowing effect of actu-
ally being black. This quality it will be seen the painter has
secured.

For the painting of this portrait the British committee de-
cided to give the commission to Walter Westley Russell, R.A.
Mr. Russell is noted in England for the subtle yet firm under-
standing of character in his portrait work, an understanding

125

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

which is aided withal by a strong but well subordinated sense
of humor. He is also noted as a teacher; it is sufficient to say-
in this respect that Sir William Orpen and Augustus John were
his pupils. Genre scenes of almost rowdy humor, and land-
scapes in oil and in watercolor of exquisite delicacy and mastery
of color indicate the range of his ability. His paintings are
treasured in many of the most important galleries of England
and of the British Empire. Since 1927 Mr. Russell has had
charge with the title of Keeper of the Royal Academy of the
art collections of that famous body of painters and sculptors.

Sir Hugo Hirst, who presented the portrait of Dr. Bell to
the British Institution of Electrical Engineers, is one of the
leading industrialists of England. He is Chairman and Man-
aging Director of the General Electric Company, Limited, but
his interests are by no means circumscribed by his duties in that
capacity. The working conditions of employees, their sports
and education, coal mining, the industrial situation in Australia,
football and the turf, breeding and scientific agriculture, all
come within his amply diversified range. And now for the
second time he has been elected Master of the Glaziers Com-
pany, one of the oldest of the City Guilds of London, and with
historical enthusiasm is undertaking to rebuild the hall of that
Company, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. It
will be recognized as quite natural that a man of such wide and
generous interests should take a special interest in a man of
such intense, such human and diverse interests as Alexander
Graham Bell and should take the lead in placing a notable por-
trait of him on the walls of the British Institution of Electrical
Engineers.

William Chauncy Langdon

126

Notes on Recent Occurrences

NEW SHIP-TO-SHORE TRANSMITTING STATION
OPENED AT OCEANGATE, NEW JERSEY

NEW transmitting facilities for contact between the Bell
System and ships at sea were made available on January
15 when the radio telephone transmitting station of the Ameri-
can Telephone and Telegraph Company at Oceangate, N. J.,
went into service. The station was in communication during
the day with the Leviathan of the United States Lines and the
Majestic and Homeric of the White Star Line. The Majestic
was three-quarters of the way across to Europe while the
Homeric was a few hundred miles off the coast of Ireland.
The Leviathan was a few hundred miles off the American coast
bound for England.

The Oceangate station was also used in endeavoring to keep
in communication with the Belgenland of the Red Star Line,
while far out on the Pacific bound for the Orient on a round-
the-world cruise. In this endeavor, Bell System engineers set
up a special antenna array at Oceangate with marked direc-
tional characteristics and capable of rotation so as to point in
different directions.

The Oceangate transmitter operates on short waves in the
range of from 17 and 63 meters. The power delivered to any
one of four antenna arrays is about 15 kilowatts. These ar-
rays are of the " curtain " type and have directional properties,
the energy emitted being confined to directions covering the
principal steamship lanes to Europe.

During the construction of the Oceangate station the trans-
mitting end of ship-to-shore telephone service on the American
side was handled by the experimental radio station of the Bell
Telephone Laboratories at Deal Beach, N. J. It was this sta-
tion that inaugurated ship-to-shore service in December, 1929,

127

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

with the Leviathan, handling a record volume of holiday traffic
while that vessel was approaching New York just before Christ-
mas. Through it service was also opened with the Majestic,
the Homeric and the Olympic, and several conversations were
handled to and from the Belgenland, including a broadcast by
Albert Einstein when the Belgenland was off the coast of Cen-
tral America in the Pacific.

The receiving station for ship-to-shore service on the Ameri-
can side is at Forked River, N. J., a few miles from Oceangate.
This station's antenna arrays also have directional character-
istics.

Oceangate and Forked River are connected to Bell System
telephones through the long distance center of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company at New York. By means
of this link the four transatlantic liners are in touch, through-
out the greater part of a voyage, with all telephones in the
United States, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.

ANOTHER TELEPHONE CABLE TO CUBA
GOES INTO SERVICE

A TELEPHONE call from New York City to Havana on
January 22 marked the opening of commercial service
over the first circuit in the new undersea telephone cable be-
tween Key West, Florida, and Havana. At Key West the
cable connects with the Bell System, while at Havana it meets
the lines of the Cuban Telephone Company.

With the three older telephone cables, the new cable is
owned and operated by the Cuban American Telephone Com-
pany which is jointly owned by the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company and the International Telephone and Tele-
graph Corporation. It is 125 land miles long, and at places
lies a mile below the surface of the Florida Straits. Developed
by the Bell Telephone Laboratories, it represents electrically
the latest improvements in telephone cable design. By the ap-

128

NOTES ON RECENT OCCURRENCES

plication of carrier methods using high frequencies it provides
as many telephone circuits as do the three older Key West-
Havana cables combined.

The new cable was laid by the company which manufactured
it — The Norddeutsche Seekablewerke of Nordenham, Ger-
many. The course was buoyed beginning December 14. Fol-
lowing that, the various sections were laid, spliced and tested,
after which a series of acceptance tests and overall tests of
cable and apparatus was conducted.

announcejnient is made of a new numerical
center of telephones

Announcement was recently made by the Chief Sta-
tistician's Division of the American Telephone and Tele-
graph Company that the " median point " of telephone develop-
ment in the United States, sometimes referred to as the " nu-
merical center of telephones," was located at the beginning of
1930 in Van Wert County, Ohio, at a distance of about twenty-
four miles almost due west of the city of Lima, Ohio, and ap-
proximately ninety-five miles east of Logansport, Indiana.

The median point is the junction of the line dividing the
number of telephones equally north and south with the line
dividing them equally east and west and was determined as the
intersection of the 40°44' north parallel of latitude and the
84°34' west meridian of longitude.

The median point of population was located in 1920 about
six miles southwest of Union City, Ind., whereas the corre-
sponding telephone point was situated at that time about ninety
miles air line distance northwest of that city near Logansport,
Ind. From 1920 to 1924 the median point of telephones
moved about one mile in a northerly direction and approxi-
mately thirty-nine miles in an easterly direction. During the
five years from 1924 to 1929 this point moved about one mile

129

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

in a southerly direction and approximately fifty-six miles
farther to the east.

Information is not yet available from the 1930 Census in
regard to the movement of the median point of population dur-
ing the decade from 1920 to 1930.

THE ANNUAL MEETING

THE annual meeting of stockholders of the American Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company was held on March 31,
1931. It was voted to make the term of the corporate exist-
ence of the Company perpetual and to increase the authorized
capital stock from $2,000,000,000 to $2,500,000,000. The
Directors were re-elected, Arthur W. Page being elected a di-
rector to fill the vacancy caused by the recent death of Henry
S. Howe.

TELEPHONE SERVICE TO JAVA

REGULAR telephone service between North America and
the Island of Java in the Dutch East Indies began on
April 1. Voices from Bell System telephones make the first
leg of the journey over the regular transatlantic telephone
channels. At London they are switched to Amsterdam over a
land line and submarine cable. There they go on the air
through a Dutch short wave station, to be received at Rant-
jaekek, the receiving station in Java. The transmitter is at
Soerabaja. The telephone network of the island, which em-
braces some 30,000 telephones, is connected to this radio cir-
cuit through the long distance center in Bandoeng.

During certain hours of the day connection is established
through a German station near Berlin, instead of through the
Dutch station. The overall length of the circuit from New
York to Bandoeing via Amsterdam is about 10,400 miles, and
via Berlin 10,900.

The service is available to all Bell and Bell-connected tele-

130

NOTES ON RECENT OCCURRENCES

phones in North America and to all telephones in Java. Calls
are accepted at any hour of the day. The rate from New York
and nearby states is $45 for the first three minutes and $15 for
each additional minute.

There is a time difference of 12 hours and 20 minutes be-
tween New York and Java. When it is nine o'clock in the
morning in New York, it is 9:20 in the evening in Java.

131

Bell Telephone
Quarterly

A Medium of Suggestion
and a Record of Progress

CONTENTS FOR JULY 1931

PAGE

International Radio Technical Conference at Copenhagen — Lloyd

Espenschied 135

World's Telephone Statistics, January 1, 1930 138

Some Auxiliary Services and Facilities of the Bell System — R. S. Coe . 150

The Development of the Microphone — H.A.Frederick 164

The Measurement of Noise; a New Service of Electrical Research

Products, Inc.— 5. K. Wolf 189

The Primary Production of the World — Wm. Hodgkinson, Jr. ... . 193

Notes on Recent Occurrences 203

VOL. X NO. 3

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY FOR THE BELL SYSTEM BY THE A^fERICAN

TEI^PHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY. SUBSCRIPTION, $1.50 PER YEAR,

IN UNITED STATES AND CANADA; SINGLE COPIES, 50 CENTS

Address all communications to

INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY

195 Broadway, New York

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

LLOYD ESPENSCHIED

A brief biographical note regarding Mr. Espenschied appeared
in the list of contributors in the Bell Telephone Quarterly for
January 1930.

RICHARD STORRS COE

A brief biographical note regarding Mr. Coe appeared in the
list of contributors in the Bell Telephone Quarterly for April 1931.

H. A. FREDERICK

Princeton, B.S., 1910, E.E., 1912; Engineering Department,
Western Electric Company, 1912-1925. Mr. Frederick entered
the Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1925 and is now in charge
of researches and engineering on telephone transmission
instruments.

S. K. WOLF

Louisiana State University, B.S., 1922; Sheffield Scientific
School, Yale University, M.S., 1926. Employed by the West-
inghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, 1922-23.
Served on the Faculty of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale
University, 1923-28. Entered Electrical Research Products,
Inc. as Installation Engineer, 1928; Acoustic Engineer, 1929;
Manager of Acoustic Consulting Department, 1930.

WILLL^M HODGKINSON, JR.

Harvard College, B.A., 1925. Entered Chief Statistician's
Division, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1925.

International Radio Technical Conference
at Copenhagen^

TOWARD the end of May, about 200 representatives from
some 35 different countries met at Copenhagen, Denmark,
to study the technical problems involved in the use of the com-
mon radio medium by the nations of the world. This gather-
ing was the second meeting of the International Technical Con-
sulting Committee on Radio Communication (C. C. I. R.)
which was formed under the international treaty known as the
Washington Radio Convention of 1927. This committee, as is
indicated by its title, is advisory in character and deals with
technical and engineering questions.

The questions studied are concerned largely with the reduc-
tion of interference between radio stations, including such fac-
tors as the degree to which radio stations may be expected to
hold their frequencies constant and to confine their emissions
to very narrow bands. While the technical advance repre-
sented by the findings of the meeting cannot be said to be as
outstanding as that represented by the work of the previous
meeting at The Hague in 1929, nevertheless the progress has
been fully as great, particularly in respect to the consolidation
of technical ideas concerning the problem of interference and
the better recognition of the technical requirements which need
to be observed.

Perhaps the most important single technical recommenda-
tion is that indicating the degree of constancy with which radio
stations engaged in various services should be expected to hold
their frequencies. The Copenhagen recommendation slightly
relaxes the figures which the Hague Meeting had suggested for
observance in the future, a result of a better appreciation of
the practical difficulties involved. This very appreciation,
coupled with the desire evidenced by all concerned to observe

1 L. Espenschied, High Frequency Transmission Engineer, L. E. Whittemore, Special
Radio Representative, both of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and
W. Wilson, Assistant Director of Research of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.,
attended this conference as representatives of the Bell System in the United States
delegation. — Editor.

135

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

the recommendations, represents real progress in the interna-
tional co-ordination of radio channels.

Advice is given for the first time on several specific radio-
telephone problems. The Conference has taken account of
ship-to-shore radiotelephony and has drawn up a set of guiding
principles for the establishment of systems engaged in this
service, following the experience which has been obtained in
the operation of the ship-to-shore telephone systems on the
North Atlantic. The recommendation upon the subject in-
cludes information on the appropriate relations between the
frequencies to be used for this service but does not go so far as
to allocate frequencies.

The question of selectivity of receiving sets was discussed at
the meeting but the study had not been carried far enough to
permit of definite recommendations. It was left over for
further study.

A related question which has now been raised for the first
time before the C. C. I. R. is that of interference with radio
reception from man-made sources, such as electrical contacts of
various kinds. This refers especially to interference with
broadcast reception in the home. Denmark has undertaken to
act as a centralizing administration in collecting the informa-
tion.

The problem, of how and for what purpose the various fre-
quencies of the radio spectrum are to be used, is of course, a
fundamental one in the whole radio situation. It involves
other and even more important factors than the purely tech-
nical. The C. C. I. R. has no authority to deal with this ques-
tion, and both the Hague and the Copenhagen Meetings have
taken care to avoid it. However, it is distinctly in the back-
ground of the technical meetings, and the technical recom-
mendations are carefully weighed in terms of their effect upon
it. In fact it is because of this question of frequency alloca-
tion that the C. C. I. R. has considerably more governmental
interest and is more formal in its conduct than are the corre-
sponding telephone and telegraph technical committees which

136

INTERNATIONAL RADIO TECHNICAL CONFERENCE

derive their authority under the International Wire Convention
of St. Petersburg.

It is, therefore, of no small interest that the Copenhagen
Conference has agreed that the C. C. I. R. would undertake a
study of the physical side of this problem, i.e. of the uses to
which the different frequencies are best adapted by virtue of
their propagation characteristics. This study is to be co-ordi-
nated by Great Britain, with a number of other nations col-
laborating, including the United States. It is planned that re-
sults from the study will be available in time for use at the next
general radio conference which is to be held at Madrid in Sep-
tember, 1932.

The most immediate problem which has given rise to the
need for this study is the desire on the part of the European
broadcasting interests to make further use of the longer wave
portion of the spectrum for European broadcasting. Such
use would make inroads on the channels used for maritime
services, and this in turn raises the question of the dependence
which maritime communications may place upon the shorter
waves. Naturally, any move in the direction of changing the
uses to be made of certain wave bands is a disturbing factor and
will raise the question whether the advantage is sufficiently out-
standing to justify the undertaking of a readjustment, involv-
ing as it may serious economic, political and even juridical
problems. Such questions as these can be dealt with only at
major conferences such as that due to be held in Madrid in
1932. The agreement at Copenhagen to get in hand the phys-
ical facts of the case reflects a progressive and constructive atti-
tude on the part of the conference members and may prove to
be the most important outcome of the Copenhagen meeting.

No note on this conference would be complete without men-
tion of the splendid facilities for it provided by the Danish
Government. The great parliamentary building, Christians-
borg Slot, was put at the disposal of the Meeting and the kind-
ness and hospitality of the people of Denmark were evidenced
on every occasion. Lloyd Espenscheid

137

World's Telephone Statistics

January 1, 1930

^ ^ T WAS 2 1 when I made the first telephone for Bell and I
JL am still going strong." Thus spoke Dr. Thomas H. Wat-
son before a gathering of telephone men in Indianapolis in the
early part of May of this year. Watson constructed the first
telephone in 1875. The latest world survey of telephone
growth and development indicates that there were, on Janu-
ary 1, 1930, 34,526,629 telephones throughout the world. The
rapidity of the growth of this means of communication, which
has developed into a world-wide network of interconnected in-
struments during the lifetime of one man, can hardly be ap-

DISTRIBUTION OF THE WORLD'S TELEPHONES

January 1. 1930

GERMANY ,

9% \

GREAT BRlTAINv ^x''"^
5Va°/o \^\

FRANCE s</K" \

/ . EUROPE
ALL OTHER / ~"-:

EUROPEAN *4 ^V J 1 UNITED STATES

COUNTRIES . _--^ r 58%

ii>4% L-— ""^ — // /

ALL OTHER \. / / /

COUNTRIES ^\/ / y

9% X / •

predated even by telephone people themselves. In fact, the
telephone had reached its quasi-majority of twenty-one years
of useful service before 80 per cent of the present Bell System
workers were born.

This recent survey, conducted by the Chief Statistician's
Division of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company,
indicates that 1,962,409 instruments were added to the tele-
phone networks throughout the world during the year 1929.
This increase appears more significant when it is recalled that

138

world's telephone statistics

there were fewer than this number of telephones in the world
at the beginning of the present century. Of the total number
of telephones in the world on January 1, 1930, 20,068,023, or
more than 58 per cent, were located in the United States; more
than 99 per cent of these telephones were either owned by or
connected to the Bell System. On the same date, Europe had
10,035,580 telephones, representing 29 per cent of the total in
the world. The remaining 13 per cent of the world's tele-

TELEPHONES PER 100 POPULATION

January 1. 1930

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 1.6

UNITED STATES

CANADA

NEW ZEALAND

DENMARK

SWEDEN

AUSTRALIA

SWITZERLAND

NORWAY

GERMANY

GREAT BRITAIN

NETHERLANDS

FINLAND

AUSTRIA

BELGIUM

ARGENTINA

FRANCE

CUBA

JAPAN

HUNGARY

CZECHOSLOVAKIA^^

CHILE

ITALY

SPAIN

POLAND

MEXICO

BRAZIL

RUSSIA

ITGTALWQRLDI

Telephones per lOO Population

phones were distributed among the countries of Asia, Africa,
Oceania, South America and North America other than the
United States.

The survey involved the gathering of authoritative informa-
tion through correspondence with telephone officials in all for-
eign countries. As in former years, the data have been col-
lated and printed in a pamphlet from which the accompanying
tables and charts have been reproduced.

139

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bell telephone quarterly

Comparative Telephone Development of Countries

No change occurred during 1929 in the relative standing of
the principal countries as regards telephone development. The
United States still headed the roll of nations with 16.4 tele-
phones per 100 population. Canada with 14.2, New Zealand

OWNERSHIP OF THE WORLD'S TELEPHONES

January 1, 1930

GOVERNMENT
3 2.2%

with 10.3, and Denmark with 9.6 telephones per 100 popula-
tion, were, respectively, second, third and fourth. Although
Denmark ranked fourth in relative telephone development
among the countries of the world, it was first in rank among
the European countries. The next highest European country
was Sweden with 8.3 telephones per hundred population, or
about one-half the relative development in the United States.
Norway and Switzerland each with 6.7 telephones per hundred
population, ranked next. The chief European countries, Ger-
many, Great Britain and France, were, however, distinctly be-
low the leaders in telephone development, having 5.0, 4.1 and
2.5 telephones per 100 population, respectively. Of the South
American countries, Argentina, with 2.5 telephones per 100
population, had by far the greatest telephone density. About
72 per cent of all the telephones in Asia were in Japan, al-
though this Island Empire had no more than 1 .4 telephones for
each 100 inhabitants. The relative position of the principal
countries of the world in point of telephone density is shown
by the chart, "Telephones per 100 Population."

142

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143

bell telephone quarterly

Telephones in Large and Small Communities

The table, "Telephone Development in Large and Small
Communities/' indicates the relative extent to which telephone
service in the principal countries is made available in the smaller
communities. That the less populated sections of the United

TELEPHONES PER 100 POPULATION
COMMUNITIES LESS THAN 50,000 POPULATION

January 1. 1930

UNITED STATESt

CANADA

NEW ZEALAND

DENMARK

AUSTRALIA

SWEDEN

NORWAY

SWITZERLAND

GERMANY

GREAT BRITAIN

NETHERLANDS

BELGIUM

FRANCE

AUSTRIA

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

JAPAN

POLAND

3SS3

Telephones per 100 Population

States are well provided with telephone facilities is evident from
the fact that there are 12.1 telephones for each 100 inhabitants
of communities of less than 50,000 population, a degree of de-
velopment which exceeds the total development of any other
country with the exception of Canada. Compared with con-
ditions existing in the United States, rural telephone develop-
ment may, in fact, be said to be practically non-existent in the
principal European countries. Germany had a development of
only 2.9 telephones per 100 inhabitants in communities of less
than 50,000 population. Great Britain had 2.6, and France, 1.3.

144

world's telephone statistics

Telephones in Large Cities
The fact that the telephone service in foreign countries is

TELEPHONES PER 100 POPULATION
OF LARGE CITIES

January 1. 1930

SAN FRANCISCO

WASHINGTON

DENVER

SEATTLE

STOCKHOLM

LOS ANGELES

CHICAGO

OMAHA

TORONTO

MINNEAPOLIS

NEW YORK

PITTSBURGH

MONTREAL

OSLO

COPENHAGEN

ZURICH

GOTHENBURG

HELSINGFORS

PARIS

BERLIN

HAM BURG- ALTONA

MUNICH

AUCKLAND

COLOGNE

SYDNEY

BRUSSELS

LONDON

HAVANA

VIENNA

ROTTERDAM

ANTWERP

BUENOS AIRES

AMSTERDAM

BUDAPEST

TOKIO

DANZIG

MANCHESTER

PRAGUE

MEXICO CITY

LIVERPOOL

GLASGOW

WARSAW

BIRMINGHAM

MANILA

ROME

MADRID

RIGA

OSAKA

DUBLIN

BARCELONA

MARSEILLES

LENINGRAD

MOSCOW

RIO DE JANEIRO

BUCHAREST

PEIPING

NANKING

20 25 30

Telephones per 100 Population

confined largely to the more densely populated regions is also
reflected by the figures in the table, " Telephone Development

145

TELEPHONE DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE CITIES
January 1, 1930

Estimated

Population
Country and City (City or Exchange

(or Exchange Area) Area)

Argentina:

Buenos Aires 2,300,000

Australia:

Adelaide 325,000

Brisbane 319,000

Melbourne 1,018,000

Sydney 1,239,000

Austria:

Graz 164,000

Vienna 2,000,000

Belgium:

Antwerp 519,000

Brussels 938,000

Liege 423,000

Brazil:

Rio de Janeiro 1,500,000

Canada:

Montreal 975,000

Ottawa 183,000

Toronto 710,000

China:

Hong Kong 500,000

Nanking 500,000

Peiping 1,200,000

Cuba:

Havana 650,000

Czechoslovakia :

Prague 732,000

Danzig, Free City of 305,000

Denmark:

Copenhagen 790,000

Finland:

Helsingsfors 234,000

France:

Bordeaux 264,000

Lille 208,000

Lyons 588,000

Marseilles 672,000

Paris 2,955,000

Germany:

Berlin 4,330,000

Breslau 613,000

Cologne 725,000

Dresden 630,000

Dortmund 535,000

Dusseldorf 478,000

Essen 645,000

Frankfort-on-Main 623,000

Hamburg-Altona 1,590,000

Hannover 442,000

Leipzig 675,000

Munich 725,000

Nuremburg 494,000

Stuttgart 420,000

Great Britain and Northern
Ireland (March 31, 1930):

Belfast 420,000

Birmingham 1,115,000

Bradford 330,000

Bristol 410,000

Edinburgh 440,000

Glasgow 1,170,000

Hull 353,000

Leeds 505,000

Liverpool 1,165,000

London 7,740,000

Manchester 1,100,000

Newcastle 480,000

Nottingham 305,000

Portsmouth 290,000

Sheffield 515,000

Stoke-on-Trent 300,000

Telephones

Number of

per 100

Telephones

Population

149,968

6.5

32,035

9.9

24,580

7.7

96,181

9.4

118,269

9.5

8,719

5.3

148,432

7.4

34,813

6.7

86,635

9.2

17,824

4.2

44,144

2.9

187,985

19.3

37,750

20.6

201,419

28.4

11,937

2.4

2,749

0.5

12,830

1.1

52,659

8.1

38,869

5.3

17,248

5.7

136,528

17.3

31,180

13.3

16,207

6.1

14,301

6.9

27,435

4.7

24,140

3.6

370,308

12.5

515,175

11.9

42,779

7.0

68,967

9.5

62,393

9.9

24,756

4.6

46,281

9.7

29,291

4.5

65,606

10.5

173,828

10.9

37,826

8.6

69,985

10.4

75,621

10.4

36,924

7.5

47,042

11.2

15,138

3.6

49,805

4.5

17,363

5.3

17,933

4.4

27,038

6.1

54,653

4.7

16,424

4.7

20,952

4.1

55,091

4.7

675,783

8.7

59,998

5.5

18,363

3.8

14,812

4.9

6,993

2.4

18,049

3.5

6,578

2.2

TELEPHONE DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE CITIES (Concluded)
January 1, 1930

Estimated

Population Telephones

Country and City (City or Exchange Number of per 100

(or Exchange Area) Area) Telephones Population

Hungary:

Budapest 990,000 60,539 6.1

Szeged 127,000 2,560 2.0

Irish Free State (March 31, 1930):

Dublin 396,000 15,350 3.9

Italy:

Genoa 628,000 22,516 3.6

Milan* 965,000 65,000 6.7

Rome 950,000 40,393 4.3

Japan (March 31, 1930):

Kobe 755,000 28,938 3.8

Kyoto 755,000 33,439 4.4

Nagoya 905,000 27,834 3.1

Osaka 2,409,000 96,044 4.0

Tokio 2,295,000 136,546 6.0

Lat\ia (March 31, 1930):

Riga 378,000 15,745 4.2

Mexico:

Mexico City 950,000 47,165 5.0

Netherlands:

Amsterdam 749,000 47,048 6.3

The Hague 466,000 39,846 8.6

Rotterdam 597,000 40,158 6.7

New Zealand (March 31, 1930):

Auckland 198,000 20,558 10.4

Norway (June 30, 1929) :

Oslo 250,000 45,353 18.1

Philippine Islands:

Manila 370,000 16,000* 4.3

Poland:

Lodz 824,000 11,912 1.4

Warsaw 1,109,000 52,426 4.7

Roumania:

Bucharest 800,000 15,280 1.9

Russia (October 1, 1929):

Leningrad 1,840,000 63,104 3.4

Moscow 2,420,000 70,247 2.9

Odessa 435,000 4,886 1,1

Spain:

Barcelona 845,000 32,848 3.9

Madrid 814,000 35,320 4.3

Sweden:

Gothenburg 242,000 35,376 14.6

Malmo 120,000 17,454 14.5

Stockholm 415,000 126,529 30.5

Switzerland:

Basel 146,000 20,629 14.1

Berne 112,000 17,191 15.3

Geneva 131,000 20,132 15.4

Zurich 222,000 37,864 17.1

United States:!

New York 6,898,600 1,811,410 26.3

Chicago 3,360,000 987,891 29.4

Los Angeles 1,270,000 383,979 30.2

Total of the 8 cities with over

1,000,000 population 19,302,800 4,898,715 25.4

Pittsburgh 976,200 229,135 23.5

Milwaukee 708,100 155,209 21.9

San Francisco 642,300 262,019 40.8

Washington 500,000 163,343 32.7

Total of the 10 cities with 500,-

000 to 1,000,000 population. 6,824,400 1,585,578 23.2

Minneapolis 487,700 131,907 27.0

Seattle 397,500 124,504 31.3

Denver 287,100 89,756 31.3

Omaha 226,200 65,150 28.8

Total of the 32 cities with 200,-

000 to 500,000 population . . 9,649,400 2,090,988 21.7
Total of the 50 cities with more

than 200,000 population.... 35,776,600 8,575,281 24.0

* Partly estimated.

t There are shown, for purposes of comparison with cities in other countries, the total development of
all cities in the United States in certain population groups and the development of certain representative
cities within each of such groups.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

in Large Cities." London, for example, had 675,783 tele-
phones on March 31, 1930, constituting about 36 per cent of all
the telephones in Great Britain. Paris, with 370,308 tele-
phones, had 35 per cent of all the instruments in France. The
four principal cities of Berlin, Hamburg-Altona, Leipzig and
Munich had about one-fourth of all the telephones in Germany.
On the other hand. New York, with 1,811,410 telephones, had
about 9 per cent, and Chicago, with 987,891 telephones, had
less than 5 per cent of all the telephones in the United States.
Eleven American cities with populations of over 200,000 are

TELEPHONE DEVELOPMENT
IN UNITED STATES AND EUROPE

20
18
16
14

20
(8
16

iUNITED states!

12
10
8
6

[EUROPE]

2
P

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5 •.

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3 «.

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} «

D C

5 "

January 1st of each yeor

shown in the table, none of which had a development of less
than 21.9 telephones per 100 population. All cities in the
United States with a population of 200,000 or more had an
average development of 24 telephones for each 100 inhabitants.
This figure is all the more impressive when it is considered that,
excluding Sweden and Canada, no foreign country has any large
city in which the development is as high as 20 telephones per
100 population.

The comparatively high telephone development of the large
American cities is further emphasized by the chart, "Tele-

148

world's telephone statistics

phones per 100 Population of Large Cities." In this chart San
Francisco heads the list, with 40.8 telephones per 100 popula-
tion, followed by Washington (32.7), Denver (31.3), and
Seattle (31.3). Stockholm, by far the best developed of the
larger European cities, had 30.5 telephones per 100 population,
and ranks fifth. Paris is nineteenth, Berlin twentieth, and
London twenty-seventh, with developments of 12.5, 11.9 and
8.7 telephones per 100 population, respectively. Of the first
ten cities shown on the chart, eight are in the United States.

Countries Reached by Telephone from the
United States

The chart, "Countries Reached by Telephone from the
United States," shows that on April 6, 1931, thirty-one coun-
tries could be reached by telephone from any Bell System in-
strument. In fact, on that date any Bell System telephone
could be connected to any one of 12,600,000 telephones outside
the United States. Adding these to the telephones connected
to the Bell System in the United States, we have a total of
32,600,000 instruments available to Bell System subscribers, or
91.5 per cent of the estimated present total number of tele-
phones in the world.

149

Some Auxiliary Services and Facilities
of the Bell System

THE primary service of telephone communication rendered
by the Bell System is so well known that its extent and
efficiency are rather taken for granted by the American public.
But there are ramifications of Bell System service that are not
so familiar, and they include some highly interesting and use-
ful auxiliary and by-product services of one kind or another.
These fall naturally into two classes: first, those offered by
Bell Operating Companies as refinements and adaptations of
telephone service to meet the needs of particular situations and
to increase the usefulness of the services; and, second, those
facilities developed by the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.,
and made available through the Western Electric Company
and its subsidiary. Electrical Research Products, Inc., which
afford services independent of and distinct from the telephone
system proper.

The first class of auxiliary services has been developed by
Bell System engineers to enable the operating companies to
offer a flexible service adapted to individual personal or busi-
ness needs. The objective is to develop new services and new
adaptations of existing service and then show the public how
these services can be advantageously utilized. For no matter
how complete a service is offered by the telephone company
and no matter how efficiently it is operated, the service, from
the telephone user's standpoint, is not at its best unless his
telephone arrangements meet his requirements as to comfort,
convenience, and efficiency.

The hand-set telephone, which in addition to its attractive
appearance can be manipulated with one hand, is an example
of how telephone service may be made of maximum conven-
ience to the user. In addition to the familiar form of this in-

150

AUXILIARY SERVICES OF THE BELL SYSTEM

strument, it is also available in a hang-up type which may be
installed unobtrusively at the side of a desk or elsewhere.
This is especially appreciated by architects, engineers, builders
and others who like to keep the tops of their desks clear for
spreading out large plans and drawings.

Residence Telephone Service
The simplest arrangement of telephone facilities, of course,
either residence or business, consists of one line to the central
office with one telephone on the subscriber's premises. In ad-
dition, one or more extension telephones may be provided, con-
nected with the same line. This makes it possible to provide
telephone comfort and convenience in the home by installing
one telephone downstairs and another upstairs, or one in the
living room, one in a bedroom and another in the kitchen, etc.
A great many people in comfortable circumstances now provide
themselves with every modern facility for comfort and conven-
ience in the way of telephone equipment as well as other elec-
trical appliances in their homes. The Bell System has for some
years been actively calling attention to the possibilities of really
adequate telephone service in the home, for saving time and
effort, and fitting in with the modern way of life. This is di-
rectly in the interest of rendering a service that shall be thor-
oughly satisfactory to the user. The reduced rates for evening
and night long distance calls, the arrangements for reversing
the charges, etc., all help to make telephone service as useful
as possible for personal as well as business messages.

In large residences, adequate telephone service may include
the provision of two or more lines to the central office, one or
two for the social uses of the household and the other primarily
for the use of the servants. Of course, there is at least one
telephone on each line and, in addition, extensions may be pro-
vided on either one or both of the lines as may be desired.

Such a lay-out is extremely flexible and can be so arranged
as to meet practically any service need. Generally speaking,

151

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

the telephone companies are in a position to provide any one
of many different wiring plan arrangements for use in resi-
dences. Suppose, for example, that telephones are installed in
the living-room, in the kitchen and in an upstairs bedroom.
There are a good many different things that can be done with
such a lay-out. If one of the family wishes to talk from the
bedroom to the maid in the kitchen, the facilities can be ar-
ranged so that that can be done. Or if the subscriber is talk-
ing over the telephone in the living-room or bedroom, he can
cut off the kitchen telephone. Different numbers may be as-
signed to the kitchen telephone and the living-room telephone,
if the subscriber wishes, so as to separate incoming calls for the
family from those for the servants. And even with such an ar-
rangement, it can still be made possible for the maid to answer
in the kitchen when someone is wanted on the living-room tele-
phone. She can even hold the call on one line while she talks
(over another line, but from the same instrument) to one of the
family — who may be upstairs, for instance — and tells him he is
wanted on the telephone. The person who has called up, of
course, does not hear that conversation. And from any tele-
phone one can call people to any other by bells, buzzers, or
electric lamps, which the telephone company can install prac-
tically anywhere about the premises.

These arrangements are available irrespective of whether the
subscriber is served by a dial or a manual central office. Then
there is also apparatus for intercommunication of larger ca-
pacity which is still compact and unobtrusive. For instance, a
set of buttons in the base of the telephone is all that the user
needs to see of the apparatus that makes possible intercom-
munication among any number of telephones up to fifteen.
The rest of the equipment is in a cabinet which may be rele-
gated to some out-of-the-way corner. And those little push
buttons in the base of a neat hand telephone have been designed
with an eye to good appearance as well as convenience. Such
an intercommunicating system is useful for lawyers, doctors and

152

AUXILIARY SERVICES OF THE BELL SYSTEM

small business offices as well as for large residences and private
estates. A system of this kind was described in detail in the
Bell Telephone Quarterly for October, 1930.

Portable Telephones

In most homes there are certain rooms that are not continu-
ously occupied. The guest-room, for one. The dining-room,
for another. In some houses a sun-porch in summer or a
billiard-room in winter represents additional space which is in
use at certain times, but not continuously. Guests appreciate
the extra touch of thoughtful hospitality implied in having a
telephone in the guest-room. And it is convenient to be able to
take a call on the sun-porch in summer. It is not necessary to
keep a telephone in the guest-room or dining-room or sun-porch
when they are unoccupied, however. "Jacks" or outlets can
be installed in these locations and a portable telephone,
equipped with a cord and plug, can be carried from room to
room and plugged into a convenient jack for making or an-
swering calls.

Some restaurants provide this jack and portable telephone
equipment so that patrons can have a telephone brought to their
table, if they wish. Certain progressive barber shops have
found that customers appreciate being able to telephone direct
from the barber's chair whenever they want to. There is a
place for such equipment in "beauty shops," too, as women
enjoy being able to chat with their friends by telephone, par-
ticularly while undergoing a permanent wave.

Head Receivers and Deaf Sets

Sometimes the telephone companies' customers have certain
particular problems to be solved in connection with their tele-
phone service, and the companies arrange to meet these indi-
vidual needs. Occasionally a customer is hard of hearing and
finds difficulty in using the telephone. For this situation there
is available a telephone equipped with an amplifying unit. A

153

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

key is provided to connect and disconnect the amplifier from
the telephone circuit, and the volume of amplified speech can
be made louder or softer at will.

Private Branch Exchanges

The telephone services above described for residence pur-
poses are also available for business use. Of course, large busi-
ness establishments have more telephones than even the most
elaborate residences and many business private branch ex-
changes are installed on a subscriber's premises by which one
or more employees of the subscriber can switch incoming or out-
going calls among as well as interconnect the various telephones
in the subscriber's establishment. These range all the way
from the small key (cordless) switchboards to the large boards
installed in hotels, banks, department stores, newspaper offices,
etc. The little cordless boards usually provide for seven tele-
phones and three trunk lines to the central offices. The larger
manual boards may be either non-multiple, for use in locations
where three or more trunks and seven or more telephones are
required; or multiple, for use where more than two private
branch exchange operators must have access to all lines.

In addition, there are dial systems where the subscriber dials
his intercommunicating and outgoing calls, attendant service
being provided for incoming calls.

Order Receiving Equipment

There has been an extensive development of late years in
shopping by telephone, and department stores have found that
it pays them well to provide up-to-date equipment for the
prompt handling of orders that are telephoned in. News-
papers have a similar problem in taking care of classified ad-
vertisements by telephone. To meet this need, equipment has
been developed by the Bell System that is designed for the re-
ception of orders with a maximum of convenience and speed,
and permits of an efficient distribution of incoming calls among

154

Hand Telephone, Hang-up
Type.

Gongs, Horns, etc.. Code Calling Service.

Intercommunicating System Handset.

Portable Telephone.

Telephone for the Hard of Hearing.

Dial Private Branch Exchange,
Attendant's Turret.

Cord Private Branch Exchange, with
Code Calling Equipment.

Taking Orders by Telephone.

Teletypewriter and Control Board.

Teletypewriter.

Public .Address System.

AUXILIARY SERVICES OF THE BELL SYSTEM

a group of attendants equipped with head receivers. The
equipment consists of a small cabinet or turret which is mounted
on a suitable table, and as the calls come in they are answered
by a group of attendants who sit at the table. These installa-
tions may be provided for any number of attendants, depend-
ing upon the amount of business to be handled. They may be
non-multiple or multiple as desired. Equipment may be op-
erated in connection with a private branch exchange, or may
be connected directly to the central office, or, if desired, it may
be connected directly to the central office with lines running
also to the private branch exchange switchboard.

Code Calling Equipment

For other special needs there are other forms of specialized
equipment available. For example, there is the case of the
superintendent of a factory with one or several buildings cover-
ing acres of floor-space. He has an office on the premises, but
he spends a large part of his time keeping in personal touch with
operations here, there and everywhere throughout the factory.
Important telephone calls come in when he is not in his office,
but is known to be somewhere around the plant. To meet that
situation there is available what is known as "code calling
equipment." This is an arrangement of apparatus whereby
bells or horns at various locations throughout the premises may
be operated to sound code signals and thus summon persons
who are not at their regular telephone stations to step to the
nearest telephone and from there answer an incoming call.
Each person is assigned his own particular code call. Occa-
sionally, people having large residence establishments or estates
ask the telephone company to install code calling equipment so
that when the owner happens to be in the garage, or down at
the boathouse, or out at the tennis court, he can be easily called
when he is wanted on the telephone.

155

bell telephone quarterly

Outdoor Set
Still further convenience is afforded by special outdoor tele-
phones in weatherproof boxes which can be put up at tennis
courts or golf links, or in similar locations. That is rather an
incidental use of this equipment, however. The outdoor tele-
phone is chiefly used for police call boxes and for taxicab stands
and other businesses at outdoor locations. Sometimes it is
placed at railroad stations and like localities with an arrange-
ment which enables a prospective customer to call a taxi and
have the call charged to the taxi company.

Conference Equipment, Etc.

Another case calling for special telephone equipment is that
of the business executive who wishes to be able to confer with
a number of his associates quickly and easily, without taking
them away from their desks. He can do this by means of
what is called "conference equipment." This provides means
by which telephone conferences may be held by several persons
simultaneously, everything that is said by any of the conferees
being audible to all.

Then there is the case of the business or professional man
who wishes to have his secretary answer his telephone calls
when he is out, but does not want to have it possible for her to
listen in while he is talking. The telephone company can ar-
range his telephone equipment to meet those requirements
precisely.

Private Line and Foreign Exchange Services
Some business concerns want a private telephone line be-
tween office and factory, for example, not connected to the gen-
eral telephone system at all. The telephone company can sup-
ply that. Or, again, if they wish direct lines connecting two or
more private branch exchanges, that equipment also can be
furnished.

Another problem is that of a subscriber who desires to make
it possible for people in another exchange area to call him up

156

AUXILIARY SERVICES OF THE BELL SYSTEM

by telephone without having to pay a toll charge for the calls.
There are two different ways in which this can be done. A
store may have a special telephone number for its order de-
partment, and may arrange with the telephone company to
have the charges reversed on calls to that number. Or a sub-
scriber may have " foreign exchange service." This arrange-
ment is exchange service furnished from a central office in an
exchange area other than that in which the subscriber is lo-
cated. For example, a subscriber in Boston may have a tele-
phone number in New York. This has proved to be a very
effective method for building up out-of-town business, espe-
cially when used in connection with advertising campaigns, in
newspapers and direct mail, urging customers to place their
orders by telephone, and pointing out that they can do so with-
out payment of toll charges.

Practically all of these services and devices are adaptations
of regular telephone service in one way or another. But sup-
pose a company has an office in New York and a factory in
Detroit, and wants to arrange for the use of the telephone all
the time without paying for each call separately — or for the
use of the telephone every day at a specified time — say from
two to three o'clock, or any other period desired. Arrange-
ments for such services can be made with the telephone com-
pany by contract.

Another form of service provides for manually operated tele-
graph service. The telephone company provides the line and
the equipment, and the subscriber provides the operators on
either end. This is a service extensively utilized by brokerage
houses and newspapers.

Teletypew^riter Service

In this connection the teletypewriter is coming into con-
stantly greater use. This device may be described as two or
more typewriters at separated points, whether in the same
building or thousands of miles apart, connected by wires and

157

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

electrical apparatus in such a way that anything typed at the
sending machine will come out in typewritten copy at the re-
ceiving machines, either in page or tape form. The telephone
company provides and maintains the necessary connecting
channels and associated apparatus. The teletypewriter makes
it possible to transmit simultaneous messages to any one or all
of a number of receiving points from a single transmitting sta-
tion. The teletypewriter is being widely used by brokerage
houses and newspapers, and for communication between air-
ports and the like. It is an invaluable means of quick com-
munication between the police departments of neighboring
communities, especially for sending out descriptions of
" wanted " persons or stolen cars. For a detailed discussion of
teletypewriter service and its present day uses, see the Bell
Telephone Quarterly for April, 1931.

Program Transmission Service
The telephone companies also play a large and very essential
part in radio broadcasting. They provide local or inter-city
circuits for the purpose of transmitting programs from various
sources to broadcasting stations. Chain broadcasting, in fact,
is made possible by the utilization of thousands of miles of
telephone circuits. On one occasion 106 broadcasting stations
were linked up by 25,300 miles of telephone wire for the
simultaneous broadcasting of a single speech. At another time
121 stations were joined by telephone wires for simultaneous
broadcasting. An article on this service was published in the
Bell Telephone Quarterly for April, 1931.

Telephotograph Service
Another auxiliary service is the transmission of photographs
by wire. Telephoto transmitting and receiving apparatus is
maintained at eight cities, Boston, New York, Atlanta, Cleve-
land, Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
News pictures are frequently sent in this way, and by dis-
tributing them by air mail from the cities reached by telephoto

158

AUXILIARY SERVICES OF THE BELL SYSTEM

service, it is possible to send a photograph to newspapers all
over the country within a very short time. The service is also
useful for the transmission of thumb prints and Rogues' Gal-
lery photographs for police identification of criminals, for the
transmission of pictures of new styles as soon as they are re-
ceived at New York, and for transmitting proofs of advertise-
ments and the like. Advertisements, particularly those to be
released simultaneously on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, can
be transmitted in this way without risk of error, since the
photograph received, of course, is an exact duplicate of the
photograph transmitted.

Telephone Directories

Then there are the telephone directories. The telephone
companies try to make them as useful as possible to telephone
users. A telephone subscriber can get directories for other
areas if he needs them, and in many localities there are avail-
able, at a reasonable charge, directories listing the names and
telephone numbers of subscribers numerically by street address.

If a subscriber wishes he can arrange under certain condi-
tions to have several names listed in the telephone directory in
addition to the listing that goes with every telephone. Or a
firm, say Smith & Jones, may have its firm name and the names
of individuals in the firm listed separately with its business tele-
phone number. In addition, a notice can be put in the direc-
tory telling what number to call if the regularly listed number
does not answer. An adaptation of this is the night listing,
which tells what number to call during certain hours or after
certain hours. These two services are especially useful for
doctors, but there are others, too, who find them of advantage.

Then there are the classified listings and display advertise-
ments which enable business telephone subscribers to be repre-
sented in the classified telephone directories under the heading
of the product or service they have to sell. A subscriber may

159

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

purchase as many such listings or advertisements as he has
products to advertise.

"Where to Buy It" Service

Within the last few years the Bell System has introduced
Trade Mark Headings in the classified telephone directories.
These consist of the name of a trade marked product or serv-
ice, a few words descriptive of it, and the trade mark symbol,
under which are placed the names of dealers in the product or
service. If one is looking for a Ford Service Station, or a
dealer in Sherwin-Williams Paints, or Whitman's candy, he can
find them by turning to the Trade Mark Heading in the classi-
fied telephone directory. The Service is of great value to
dealers also in steering to their stores people who have been
" sold " by the advertising of the manufacturer of the trade
marked product. In this way it links up national advertising
with local distribution, to the mutual advantage of the manu-
facturer, dealer and purchaser. Further information on this
subject may be found in the Bell Telephone Quarterly for
July, 1930.

Services for Salesmen

The use of toll and long distance telephone service in selling
by representatives of manufacturers and retailers has increased
greatly in recent years. Like other uses of long distance serv-
ice, it has no doubt been stimulated by the successive reduc-
tions in long distance telephone rates in 1926, 1927, 1929
and 1930 which represent a saving to the public of about
$20,000,000 a year. To assist sales representatives in getting
the utmost value out of their use of the telephone, the Bell Sys-
tem has worked out plans for "Key-town" selling, whereby
the salesman visits the key-towns in his territory and canvasses
the surrounding areas by telephone. Key-town maps, obtain-
able from the telephone companies, show the location of key-
towns and the rates for calls to nearby points.

160

AUXILIARY SERVICES OF THE BELL SYSTEM

A further refinement of the Key-town plan is the " Skip-
stop " plan, — the salesman visiting alternate towns on his route
and covering intermediate towns by telephone. On the next
trip he visits the towns he covered by telephone before and
telephones to customers on whom he called personally on the
previous trip.

At many points customers' rooms are provided at the tele-
phone company business offices from which calls may be put
through with great comfort. If the salesman's firm has pro-
vided him with a telephone identification card under the Bell
System credit plan, his calls may be charged to the account of
the home office of his firm. These plans for facilitating tele-
phone selling by wholesalers and manufacturers were fully de-
scribed in the Bell Telephone Quarterly for January, 1929.

Western Electric Facilities

Of the facilities outside of the telephone service developed by
Bell System engineers and made available through the Western
Electric Company and its subsidiary, Electrical Research Prod-
ucts, Inc., the most famous is the talking motion picture equip-
ment which has revolutionized the movie industry. Another is
the new service for measuring noise which is described else-
where in this issue of the Bell Telephone Quarterly.

The Public Address System enables speakers to address
large audiences indoors or outside without straining their voices.
It is used at race-tracks, stadiums, convention halls, overflow
meetings, newspaper bulletin boards, etc., and for increasing the
audibility of music at amusement parks and ball-rooms. There
is also a Music Reproducer which magnifies the sound of phono-
graph records for use in restaurants and other places of amuse-
ment.

The Western Electric Hard-of-Hearing System is a device
with headsets installed in movie houses, churches and other
auditoriums to enable those with defective hearing to enjoy the

161

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

talkies, church services, speeches, music, etc. The volume of
sound delivered is controlled individually by each user.

There is also an Electrical Stethoscope which magnifies the
sound of heart-beats, thereby facilitating diagnosis in cases of
heart-disease.

More directly related to telephone communication are the
two-way radio telephone systems which the Western Electric
Company manufactures for use between ship and shore and be-
tween aircraft in flight and ground stations. The Marine
Radio Telephone Equipment is particularly useful for harbor
craft such as tug-boats, ferry-boats, lighters, municipal fire-
boats and pilot-boats. It is also of value for fishing-craft.

The Aviation Communication Equipment is of two types : a
low frequency system for receiving radio beacon signals and
weather reports, and a two-way high frequency radio telephone
system which permits the plane to keep in constant touch with
other planes and with ground stations. It is an invaluable aid
to safe flying, as landing instructions and weather reports can
be received en route.

The Western Electric Company manufactures a wide range
of radio telephone equipment and has provided a majority of
the large broadcasting stations in the United States.

It has likewise applied its telephone developments in the
field of electrical recording to the making of electrical transcrip-
tions for radio use, and it supplies broadcasting stations with
the equipment to put on these so-called " spot broadcasting "
programs, which are used by advertisers who desire to reach the
territory covered by an individual station or a group of such
stations.

The Western Electric Company also manufactures for the
use of railroads, oil companies, mines and others, switchboard
and other telephone apparatus and communication equipment.
In addition, it provides the high speed submarine telegraph
cables used in trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific wire communi-
cation.

162

AUXILIARY SERVICES OF THE BELL SYSTEM

A Unifying Objective

All these various services and devices that the Bell System
has developed, whether they are directly a part of the telephone
service or by-products of it, have been worked out by Bell en-
gineers for the service of the public. They are the products of
the large numbers of highly trained specialists who are con-
stantly planning how to make the telephone service more use-
ful, and how to develop new phases of service. Diverse as are
the results of this research it has a unifying objective: to in-
crease human knowledge of electrical communication and to
turn the forces of nature to the service of mankind. Much has
been achieved and more will certainly be accomplished in the
future. Nothing has been said, for example, of Television be-
cause it is still in the experimental stage and Bell System engi-
neers are unwilling to predict what its future sphere of service
may be.

Richard Storrs Coe

163

The Development of the Microphone

{Presented at fifth meeting of the Acoustical Society of Amer-
ica, Camden, N. J., May 5th, 1931, as part of a symposium on

microphones.)

"T^ HE invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell
^ accomplished a result which has revolutionized our means
of communication. Like most similarly broad and funda-
mental inventions, it was based on a clear and thorough under-
standing of scientific work which had preceded it. Viewed
after the lapse of 55 years it is clear that the development of
human knowledge was very definitely leading up to this great
invention for a period extending over several decades. It is of
interest to note a few of the more outstanding steps. In 1837
in Salem, Mass., Dr. Page observed that sounds were emitted
by a magnet if its magnetism was suddenly changed. He
studied the effect and developed several different means of pro-
ducing these sounds; for example, rapidly rotating a horseshoe
magnet in a strong magnetic field. In this way he obtained
musical tones and termed the effect "galvanic music." The
results were published^ and broadly known among scientific
workers. In 1845, Sullivan observed that currents of elec-
tricity were generated by the vibration of a wire composed
partly of one metal and partly of another.^ Bourseuil ^ in 1854
described as a " telephone " a device " using a make and break "
transmitter. In his written description he apparently con-
sidered the smooth or continuous modulation or variation of
current unnecessary for the transmission of sounds. Satisfied
with the written description he seems to have made no great
effort to reduce his ideas to practical operation.

iSilliman's Journal, 1837, page 396.
2PhU. Mag., 1845, page 261.

3 The Didaskalia, Frankfort/M, Sept. 28, 1854; Du Moncel, Applications de
I'Electricite, 1854; U. S. Supreme Court Reports, Vol. 126 (1887).

164

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

Philip Reis/ a teacher of Physics in Garnier's Institute at
Friedrichsdorf, Germany, in 1861 constructed models based on
much the same fundamental ideas as those disclosed by Page
and Bourseuil and produced what he called a " telephone."
The receiver was operated on the magneto-striction principle
and consisted of a knitting needle surrounded by a coil of wire.
It was mounted on a sounding board. The transmitter was a
platinum make-and-break contact operated by a membrane
(Fig. 1). This transmitter was apparently quite sharply reso-
nant and was operative only for rather continuous tones.
Tones of different frequencies were transmitted, however, and
it is reported that several tones were transmitted simultane-
ously. Reis never succeeded in transmitting articulate speech.
With one of his transmitter models which was open on both
sides of the diaphragm he used a baffle about 20 inches in
diameter " to prevent interference between the front and back."

In 1863 Helmholtz published his classic work on acoustics."
This greatly extended the basic understanding on which subse-
quent developments proceeded.

In 1870 Varley discovered that sound may be emitted by a
condenser.^

In 1874 Alexander Graham Bell, Professor of Vocal Physi-
ology at Boston University, was busily engaged in the study of
speech, hearing and telegraphy. He was interested in obtain-
ing graphic records of sounds, and in discussing the problem
with a friend, Dr. Clarence Blake, the suggestion was offered
that a model consisting of an actual human ear might suffice.
Dr. Blake prepared such a model which operated successfully
and seems to have been of great aid to Dr. Bell. Telling of
these experiments three years later he stated ^ " The stapes was
removed and a stylus of hay about an inch in length was at-

^Prescott, The Electric Telephone p. 9 (Appleton & Co., 1879-'84-'90).
= Die Lehre von dem Tonempfindungen, 1st G. ed., 1863. Translation by Ellis, 1st
English trans., 1875.

<5 Pierard, La Telephonie, p. 20 (Desoer, Liege, 1894) .
■^Journal Society Telegraph Engineers, Oct. 1, 1877, p. 403.

165

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

tached to the end of the incus. Upon moistening the mem-
brana tympani and the ossiculse with a mixture of glycerine and
water, the necessary mobihty of the parts was obtained, and
upon singing into the experimental artificial ear, the stylus of
hay was thrown into vibration and tracings were obtained upon
a surface of smoked glass passed rapidly underneath. While
engaged in these experiments, I was struck with the remark-
able disproportion in weight between the membrane and the
bones that were vibrated by it. It occurred to me that if a
membrane as thin as tissue paper could control the vibration
of bones that were, compared to it, of immense size and weight,
why should not a larger and thicker membrane be built to vi-
brate a piece of iron in front of an electromagnet." It seems
certain that Professor Bell was possessed of a very clear under-
standing of his problem. There are numerous evidences of his
broad and complete familiarity with the work of other scientific
investigators and it appears that having developed new ideas
on the characteristics of speech and what is needed to transmit
and reproduce it electrically, he then proceeded with energy
and enthusiasm to overcome the difficulties of reducing these
ideas to practical operation. The conception of a " membrane
speaking telephone " appears to have become complete in Bell's
mind in substantially the form shown as figure 7 of his later
patent,® in the summer of 1874 (Fig. 2).

On June 2, 1875, Bell heard a tuned reed receiver, with which
he was experimenting in connection with his harmonic telegraph
system, vibrate in response to the plucking of a somewhat simi-
lar tuned reed transmitter at the other end of the line (Fig. 3).
The simple observation appears hardly more significant than
similar observations of men who preceded Bell a number of
years. Yet the phenomenon in his mind took on the greatest
meaning. He immediately gave his assistant Watson instruc-
tions for the design of a structure which mounted a small drum-
head of gold beater's skin over one of the vibrating reeds, joined

8 Rhodes, Beginnings of Telephony (Harper & Bros., 1929).

166

V\c.. 1. Reis microphone. A make-and-

brenk pkitinum contact microphone with

which musiral sounds but not speech were

transmitted in 1S61.

Fic. 2. Bell's conception of the telephone resulted in
this sketch which was used in his first patent application

of 1876.

Fig. 3. Reed transmitter of June 2, 1S75. With the device on the right Hell heard the sound of Watson
plucking the reed of the device on the left with his finger.

Fig. 4. " Gallows frame " transmitter. This
is the instrument by which Bell transmitted
the sound of his voice to Watson, June 3, 1875.

Fig. S. Liquid transmitter. With this transmitter

in March, 1877, Bell said " Mr. W^atson come

here, I want you."

Fig. 7. This carbon to carbon single contact
Berliner transmitter was brought out in 1879.

Fig. 6.

Berliner invented this single contact micro-
phone in 1877.

Fig. 8. The Edison trans-
mitter used a solid disk of
carbon as the variable resist-
ance element.

Fig.

11. This Ader transmitter used 10 carbon pencils
connected 5 in parallel, 2 in series.

.<^

Fig. 9. Hughes nail micro-
phone. Prof. Hughes in
1878 demonstrated the ef-
fects obtained with this
simple but sensitive inertia
type microphone.

Fig. 10. Pencil Type
microphone of carbon
mounted on a sounding
board. Demonstrated
by Hughes in 1878.

I If III! the
I'aris opera was picked up
by a series of Ader multi-
ple carbon pencil micro-
phones mounted in front
of the foot lights.

Fig. ]j. Reception of music frtuii the Paris opera
bv binaural svstem in ISSl.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

the center of the drumhead to the free end of the receiver spring
or reed and arranged a mouthpiece over the drumhead to talk
into. This model (Fig. 4) was prepared in record time by the
enthusiastic Watson and was tested on the succeeding day,
June 3. Watson reports distinctly hearing the tones of Bell's
voice. He, however, reports with some sadness that his own
voice was not as strong as Professor Bell's and therefore he
could not make it heard. The principle, however, had been
proven beyond doubt in Bell's mind and advance was sure.
The difficulty was to devise more efficient or sensitive means.

Measurements have been made of the response of these early
instruments. They show quite definitely that the first sounds
transmitted must have been barely audible. Had the inventor
not understood very clearly for what he was searching and what
he expected to hear, these extremely faint sounds could hardly
have attracted his attention.

Until recently the great demand has been for greater and
greater transmitter output. Improvements in receiver effi-
ciency raise the noise level with the level of speech whereas in-
creased transmitter output means overriding the noise. As
long as the transmitter merely converts the power of the voice
itself, from acoustic to electrical form its output is, of course,
necessarily very limited. The natural course has been to uti-
lize in the design of a transmitter some principle or device in
which the vibrations of the voice serve merely to control or
modulate power supplied by some independent source, such as
a battery; that is, the sound waves must be made to modulate a
resistance through which a current is flowing in such a manner
that the resultant current changes are a sufficiently accurate
counterpart of the pressure changes in the air. Such a device
should not and need not impose restrictions on the motion of
the diaphragm used to pick up the motion from the air. It
was to such a device that Bell turned in his next experiments.
To a drum head of gold beater's skin in a horizontal position he
attached a small platinum wire (Fig. 5). This barely made

167

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

contact with the surface of a small quantity of acidulated water
in a conducting cup. Vibration of the diaphragm varied the
depth and area of contact between the wire and the surface of
the water and therefore the resistance between them. Such a
model was constructed and successfully tested March 10, 1876.
This was the first transmitter to transmit successfully a com-
plete sentence " Mr. Watson, come here — I want you."

Bell's patent application was filed February 14, 1876, and
granted March 7, 1876. Later in the same day (February
14th) Elisha Gray filed a caveat, or statement of intention to
later file patent application, claiming the art of transmitting
speech electrically. The claims of Bell to inventorship of the
telephone were widely contested in the -courts, during the
twenty years following, Reis, Dolbear, Blake, Gray, Draw-
baugh and others having been claimed to be the inventors.
The ensuing litigation was most extensive and continued until
1896. During this time Bell's claims were exhaustively in-
vestigated and were finally validated by the United States
Supreme Court.^

Following his first successful transmission of a complete sen-
tence in 1876, Bell promptly described his invention in numer-
ous public lectures and demonstrations in both the United
States and England; on May 10, 1876, before the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston,^" at the Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia," June, 1876, before the Society of
Telegraph Engineers in London,'^ October, 1877, etc. As a re-
sult, numerous inventors appreciating the fundamental impor-
tance of the new discovery promptly attacked the problem.
During the five succeeding years almost every conceivable
means of converting sound into electricity was tried. In fact,
the situation was well described by Preece in 1882: '" " There

»U. S. Supreme Court Reports, Vol. 126, Oct. term, 1887.

10 Proc. Am. Acad, of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 12 (new series, No. 4), May, 1876-
May, 1877, pp. 1-10.

11 Casson, " History of the Telephone," p. 35 (McClurg & Co., 1913).
'' Loc. cit.

12 Prescott, loc. cit., p. 361 (1890).

168

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

is nothing more marvellous than the wonderful versatility of
this power which electricity possesses of making everything
produce speech. Now that we know what electricity can do,
the difficulty appears to be not so much how to make the appa-
ratus talk, but how to prevent it from speaking."

In 1877, Emile Berliner in Washington observed that the re-
sistance of a loose contact varied with pressure, and constructed
successful working models utilizing this principle." The Ber-
liner device was much like one used by Du Moncel in 1856.^*
The difference apparently was almost wholly one of under-
standing and resultant application and development. His first
models used metallic contacts (Fig. 6) but these were later re-
placed by carbon (Fig. 7). Berliner's models were much more
efficient than previous designs but their performance was ex-
tremely erratic, they could not be used in various positions,
would carry but little direct current and would not maintain
their adjustment. They were, nevertheless, developed to such
a point that they were in considerable practical use.

In 1877, Edison'^ patented a transmitter of a variable re-
sistance amplifying type in which the resistance element was a
"button" of solid carbon or plumbago. This device (Fig. 8)
gave quite good quality and was somewhat less erratic than
previous designs. It was however relatively insensitive. He
experimented with a wide variety of materials including " hy-
peroxide of lead, iodide of copper, black oxide of manganese,
graphite, gas carbon, platinum black, finely divided metals in-
cluding osmium, ruthenium, silicon, boron, iridium and plati-
num, in fact all the conducting oxides, sulphides, iodides, fibre
coated with metals by chemical means and pressed into buttons,
liquids in porous buttons of finely divided non-conducting ma-
terial," but better than any of these he found was a button of
lamp-black compressed into a solid disc by the application of

13 Caveat filed in U. S. Patent Office, Apr. 14, 1877.
1* Expose des Applications de I'Electricite (1857).

15 British Patent No. 2909, July 30, 1877; U. S. Patent No. 474,230, May 3, 1892
(Application filed Apr. 27, 1877).

169

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

several thousand pounds' pressure/® Due to the need of
greater output and in order to transmit currents over greater
distances, he devised and patented a combination of a telephone
receiver and such a button, thus providing an amplifier or re-
peater. In some of Edison's transmitter models he interposed
soft rubber between the diaphragm and the button in order, as
he explained, " to damp the natural motion of the diaphragm.
Interference with articulation which the prolonged vibration of
the metal tends to produce in consequence of its elasticity is
thus prevented and the sound comes out clear and distinct."
This use of rubber undoubtedly added some damping. It prob-
ably also served to couple the diaphragm and its relatively low
mechanical impedance and large amplitude to the high im-
pedance, low amplitude or high pressure carbon button and
very likely increased the efficiency and decreased the non-
linear distortion by keeping the vibrations at the carbon within
the narrow amplitude range within which its resistance change
is substantially proportional to the displacement of the elec-
trode. In other words, it served to couple an "amphtude"
system to a " pressure " system. Edison later concluded that
the carbon responded to changes in " pressure " only and not
to " amplitude."

The Edison microphone was rugged, would operate in any
position and gave rather better quality than its predecessors.
It was however quite insensitive. The resistance was about 4
ohms, and it was operated from a low voltage source of ap-
proximately 1^ volts.

In May, 1878, Hughes in London published ^^ an account of
experiments with loose contacts between different materials.
He described how a microphone may be made of three nails
(Fig. 9), one resting on the other two, the loose contacts being
highly sensitive to any vibrations either of their support or of
the air. Following these ideas, models of sharpened pencils of

16 Prescott, loc. cit., p. 124.

i^Proc. Royal Soc, XXVII, 366; Phil. Mag., Sth series, Vol. VI, p. 44.

170

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

carbon mounted on a vibrating support were developed (Fig.
10). These inertia transmitters were extremely sensitive and
were termed " microphones." The forces at the contacts were
due to the mass reactance of the loose element.

The term " microphone " was revived by Hughes at this time.
The term was apparently coined and first used by Wheatstone
in 1827^^ for a purely acoustic device which he developed to
amplify weak sounds. The term was for years used only to
refer to sensitive loose contacts of the type used by Hughes and
was not applied to telephone transmitters generally. More re-
cently, the term " microphone " has been used, particularly in
radio broadcast, public address and sound picture work, for any
device which converts from sound to corresponding electric cur-
rents. In view of this usage the term microphone will be used
here as synonymous with transmitter, particularly for applica-
tions other than those in the usual telephone system.

The Hughes microphone consisting of a carbon pencil sharp-
ened at both ends and resting loosely in carbon supports re-
ceived considerable development and commercial use in Europe,
particularly in France where Ader and several contemporaries
developed the multiple carbon pencil microphone (Fig. 11).
This usually consisted of 6 to 12 such pencils connected electri-
cally in series multiple. They were usually mounted on a rec-
tangular sounding board of thin well-seasoned pine or spruce.
These devices were quite successful and were to be found in
commercial telephone systems until quite recently. The
Hughes and later the Ader microphones were very sensitive but
also quite erratic in their behavior. They were very sensitive
to mechanical vibrations.

The Ader microphone was used at an early date for picking
up musical programs. Considering recent developments in
woik of this type, it is of interest to quote an account published
by Prescott in 1884:

" One of the most popular attractions at the Paris Electrical

18 Wheatstone, "Scientific Papers," p. 32.

171

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Exhibition of 1881 was the demonstration of the marvellous
powers of the Bell telephone, by its transmission of the singing
on the stage and the music in the orchestra of the Grand Opera.
This demonstration was given nightly, . . . eighty telephones
were constantly at work at the same time, the communication
being shifted at short intervals to another set of eighty similar
instruments in two other rooms."

" The transmitters were microphones of the Ader system,
placed in front of the opera stage, close to the footlights and
behind them." (Fig. 12.)

" A new acoustic effect was discovered by Mr. Ader, and ap-
plied for the first time in the telephonic transmission at the
Electrical Exhibition. In listening with both ears at the two
telephones, the sound took on a special character of relief and
localization which a single receiver could not produce. It is a
common experience that, in listening at a telephone, it is practi-
cally impossible to have even a vague idea of the distance at
which the person at the other end of the line appears to be. In
this case there was nothing of the kind. As soon as the experi-
ment commenced the singers placed themselves, in the mind of
the listener, at a fixed distance, some to the right and others to
the left. It was easy to follow their movements, and to indi-
cate exactly, each time that they changed their position, the
imaginary distance at which they appeared to be."

Each person was provided with two telephone receivers (Fig.
13) which received their impressions from two distinct micro-
phones placed a certain distance apart. Prescott explained the
effect purely on a relative loudness basis not as being in any
way related to phase differences.

In 1878, Francis Blake " in this country designed a telephone
transmitter in which a block of hard carbon was supported on a
rather stiff spring (Fig. 14). Between this and the vibrating
diaphragm was interposed a small bead of platinum on a light

19 U. S. Patents Nos. 250,126 to 250,129, Nov. 29, 1881; British Patent No. 229,
Jan. 20, 1879.

Rhodes, loc. at., p. 79.

172

Kic. 15. The " lori),' distanrc " transmitter of 1886, a development

if Hiiiininj,'s' transniitler, used Kdison granular carbon in a horizontal

cell.

14. 'I'liis cross-section of an early
Blake transmitter shows it to be of the
inertia tvne.

I'lc. 16. Commercial models of the Runnings transmitter

were used in a horizontal position with the carbon resting on

the diaphragm. The fixed electrode projected well into the

granular mass.

Ftg. 17. The Blake type

transmitter was later developed

to this form using a button

containing granular carbon.

Fig. 18. The solid back
transmitter invented by
White in 1890 was of "a
general type of which mil-
lions have given good service.

Fig. 19. One of the first condenser transmitters was devised
by Prof. Dolbear of Tufts College.

AIR GAP
DIAPHRAGM (2.20 X lO'^CM)

(area =15 SO. CM.)

Fig. 21. The Wenle condenser microphone of 1917 gave faithful response
over a very broad frequency range.

Fig. 20. Carbon granules average
0.011 inrh in size. When magnified
they look much like chunks of ordi-
nary hard coal. They are hard, clean
and free from dust.

Fig. 22. The condenser microphone was modified by Crandall in 1918

to have a slotted damping plate. This increased the efficiency and

also the damping, thus greatly increasing its practical usefulness.

Fig. 23. The centrally
damped solid back trans-
mitter became standard in
the Bell System in 1917.

INITIAL
STRETCHING -
RINr,

FINAL

STRETCHING

RING

Fig. 24. Two carbon buttons are used in the Western Electric carbon
microphone for broadcasting and public address systems.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

spring. This instrument as developed for commercial use
was more sensitive than the Edison and more rugged, reliable
and permanent than the Berliner or Hughes. It rapidly re-
placed the Edison and Berliner types and was extensively used
for many years by the Bell System. Its resistance was about
five ohms, and the safe current was about %. ampere at 1^
volts.

On September 16, 1878, an English clergyman, Hunnings,^°
received a British patent on a telephone transmitter using a
button partially filled with "pulverized engine coke," a light
porous form of carbon. American rights to this invention
were later purchased by the American Bell Telephone Com-
pany and the device was developed into a form suitable for
commercial use (Fig. 15-Fig. 16). Like the Blake it was more
sensitive than the Edison transmitter and more stable than the
Hughes microphone. It could however carry larger currents
than the Blake. One of its outstanding difficulties was that the
carbon tended to pack into an insensitive condition. It was the
type destined to be developed into the most broadly used com-
mercial form.

On July 8, 1879, Gilliland"' made application for a patent
on a combination of a Bell receiver and Blake Transmitter with
a common diaphragm. This again shows the early recognition
of the need of an amplifier.

The mechanical features of the original Blake t3^e single
contact telephone transmitter were retained and the single con-
tacts replaced by a carbon containing chamber much like that
of present day deskstand transmitters. These granular carbon
designs first went into use in 1885 and were somewhat modified
in 1888. Several hundred thousand of them were used in the
Bell System during the years following. Like the Hughes and
the Blake single contact, these were inertia transmitters.

In 1886, Edison applied for a patent on a transmitter filled

20 British Patent No. 3647, Sept. 16, 1878; U. S. Patent No. 246,512, Aug. 30, 1881.

21 U. S. Patent No. 247,631, Sept. 27, 1881 ; Jl. Inst. Elec. Engs., XLI, p. 53S.

173

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

with granules of carbonized hard coal." Although great prog-
ress has been made in refining and controlling the methods of
preparation, selected anthracite coal is still used as the raw
material from which most microphone carbon is made.

In 1890 Anthony White invented the so-called solid back
transmitter (Fig. 18).^^ In this design a solid bridge or button
support much like that of the Edison design replaced the spring
support of the Blake granular carbon type and the button was
attached to the diaphragm. Other mechanical improvements
added to the ruggedness and reliability of this design. It was
so satisfactory commercially that the general principle is still
used extensively. There are at present about twenty million
telephone transmitters of this general type of construction in
service.

Continental European telephone practice, particularly in
Germany and France, has followed the use of the " insert " or
" capsule " transmitter. This usually uses a thin carbon dia-
phragm and a few granules or pellets of carbon supported in a
carbon or insulated metal chamber on the back of the dia-
phragm and provided with a rear carbon electrode. In some of
these the carbon chamber has consisted of a felt annulus glued
to the diaphragm. The rear carbon electrode was pressed or
cemented on the back of the felt.

Having traced the important early steps in the development
of the telephone transmitter it is seen that other types gave
place to the variable resistance carbon amplifying type. Par-
ticularly in view of the fact that this is still the type most
broadly used, it is of interest to note briefly the range of phys-
ical principles which broad general interest in the problem has
utilized in the search for the best.

Microphones may operate on the principle of temperature
change due to the sound waves. These are of two types. In
one the motion of the air serves to fan and cool a fine wire

22 U. S. Patent No. 406,567, July 19, 1889.
2=» U. S. Patent No. 485,311, Nov. 1, 1892.
Rhodes, loc. cit., p. 82.

174

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

carrying and heated by a direct current. Such a wire is usu-
ally mounted in the mouth of a resonator. Such a structure
was used by Forbes"* in 1887. A microphone of this type was
used by Tucker during the war in the detection of large guns.'"
A similar device has substituted a series of fine themocouples
for the fine resistance wire. In the second type a fine wire or
thermocouple structure is placed close to a sound reflecting
surface. In this case there is negligible motion of the air and
the structure is alternately heated and cooled by the tempera-
ture changes associated with the sound.

The resistance of an electric arc has been caused to vary by
the sound. Such a device was experimented with by Dolbear,
Blyth, Simon, Hayes and many others.

The resistance of the glow discharge in open air has been
caused to vary. A description and demonstration of such a
device was given by Thomas before the A. I. E. E. in 1923.^^

Liquid devices of many types have been devised since the
first model by Bell. Elisha Gray devised one of the first liquid
transmitters. Edison placed a small drop of liquid between
contacts, the contact surface, cross-section and length of the
liquid path being varied. Liquid jets have been used in vari-
ous ways. The jet has been deflected on and off a conducting
electrode. The electrode has been vibrated in and out of the
jet, etc.

Pressure has been used to modify a flame, the conduction
through the flame, the heat transmitted by the flame, etc.,
being used to control electrical effects.

Sound has been caused to deflect a beam of light on and off
a photo-electric cell by means of a diaphragm and vibrating re-
flector." The diffraction of light across a beam of sound has
also been used to cause varying amounts of light to fall on a
photo-electric cell.

2*Proc. Royal Soc. Lond., Vol. 42, p. 141, Feb. 24, 1887; El. 'Wad., Vol. 9, p. 189,
Apr. 16, 1887.

26 U. S. Engr. School, Occasional Papers No. 63, Washington Govt. 1920.

26 p. Thomas, Proc. A. I. E. E., Vol. 42, pp. 219-222.

27 Photophone, Bell & Tainter, Prescott, loc. cit.

175

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

A magnet has been made to vibrate outside a vacuum tube
and thus vary the flow of electrons. By a mechanical connec-
tion through the wall of a vacuum tube a grid has been made
to vibrate, thus making the conversion from acoustic to electri-
cal effects.

A bismuth resistance element has been vibrated in and out of
a strong magnetic field. As the resistance of bismuth varies
with the strength of the field, this provides a possible micro-
phone.

Condenser type microphones were devised by DuMoncel,
Dolbear (Fig. 19)/^ Varley and many others since. A recent
novel manner of using a condenser microphone has involved
the modulation of a high frequency oscillating current instead
of the usual direct current in such a manner as to give a rather
efficient device.^®

Piezo electric crystals have been vibrated to generate corre-
sponding electric currents.^"

Of the magnetic microphones, devices have been made in
which the sound mechanically strained a magnetic core of nickel
and thus varied its permeability and generated a current. The
best known magnetic type microphones are those in which the
sound changes an air-gap, in a magnetic circuit, thus changing
the number of magnetic interlinkages. The magnetic type in
which a coil or conductor has been vibrated in a magnetic field
is also well known and dates back within a year of Bell's first
publication."

The dimensions of solid conductors, both cross-section and
length, have been varied by the sound to cause changes in re-
sistance. The most effective device found has been of this
type in which the dimensions of contact points of specially
prepared carbon are changed. In fact, it would seem that

28 A. E. Dolbear, A New System of Telephony, Sci. Amer., June 18, 1881, p. 388.

39 A. H. Reeves, A Solution of the Problem of the Broadcasting Microphone,
Electrical Communication, Vol. VII, p. 258.

30 A. M. Nicolson, Proc. A. I. E. E., Nov., 1919, pp. 1315-1333.

"Siemens and Halske, German Pat. No. 2355, Dec. 14, 1877; British Pat. No. 4685,
Feb. 1, 1878.

176

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

every known characteristic of matter by which temperature
change, pressure change or motion may generate an electro-
motive force, has been used in the design of microphones.

Until recent years, and then only for special uses where
amplifiers are available, other than carbon microphones have
been of little more than academic interest. In view of this, it
is worth while to consider some of the characteristics of the
carbon instrument in greater detail.

Carbon microphones have presented a number of difficulties
which for a time limited their usefulness. These have been
investigated chiefly in connection with studies of the telephone
transmitter. Most of these difficulties have been largely over-
come in recent years. One of the earliest recognized is known
as " packing." The instrument gradually becomes less and less
sensitive. Its sensitivity may be revived by shaking or rap-
ping. Packing is of two types, electrical and mechanical.
Electrical packing or cohering occurs if the carbon element is
subjected to a voltage such that more than approximately 1>2
volts per contact is applied. After an application of such volt-
age, the transmitter sensitivity is apt to be reduced to the order
of 1 per cent of normal sensitivity and very vigorous shaking
may be required to revive the instrument. This effect is largely
independent of the amount of power dissipated or the time for
whidi the voltage is applied. For example, a carbon button
or cell may ordinarily be packed almost as effectively by apply-
ing a voltage of 20 to 100 volts to 0.001 mf. and discharging it
through the button as by a similar discharge from a very large
condenser or by the application of the same voltage from a bat-
tery. In fact, if the amounts of power dissipated are large,
subsequent heating effects may occur such as to free the carbon
and decrease the effect.

Mechanical packing is due to a settling and compressing of
the carbon mechanically. In this condition its resistance and
sensitivity are low. It is often closely associated with " breath-
ing." Many carbon microphones in certain circuits will, if left

177

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

undisturbed, either increase or decrease, depending on design
or circuit conditions, or may pass through cycles of resistance
and sensitivity requiring anywhere from a few seconds to many
minutes per cycle. These effects have been investigated and
are known to be associated with mechanical expansions and
contractions of the containing chamber plus those of the carbon
itself. They are closely related to the type of circuit, the ac-
tion often being quite different if supplied with constant voltage
than if supplied with approximately constant current. The
containing chambers may be so designed as to eliminate these
effects almost completely, in which case the button will usually
not pack. We might illustrate packing by an example: if, on
passing a current through a carbon microphone in series with a
considerably larger resistance, the resultant heat causes the
carbon containing chamber to expand and the electrodes to
move farther apart, the resistance will, at first, rise, due to this
greater separation of the electrodes. This will increase the
heat generated and cause further separation and resistance rise.
This may continue, the sensitivity becoming very great, until
the separation is such that the granular mass becomes me-
chanically unstable. The granular mass may then suddenly
settle, particularly if jarred or spoken into at this moment.
This lowers the resistance and hence the power dissipated in
the button so that it then begins to cool, allowing the parts to
draw together and compress the carbon into a highly insensi-
tive state. In general, carbon microphones are more stable
when supplied with direct current through a resistance as large
or larger than the resistance of the button itself.

The resistance of a granular carbon button decreases with
increased current. In certain systems this may be advantage-
ous for transmission as, for instance, in a common battery tele-
phone system where high transmitter resistance occurs on the
long subscribers' loops where the series resistance is large.
This increases the power dissipated in the button over what it
would otherwise be, increasing the output. As the loop is

178

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

shortened, the lowering in resistance tends to protect the button
from excessive power and voltage and excessive heating.

Granular carbon microphones always deliver a certain
amount of noise. In modern telephone transmitter designs,
however, this noise may be negligibly small. It resembles in
character the swishing of leaves. It has been termed " micro-
phonic noise." It might perhaps well be called the inherent or
minimum loose contact noise. In amount it is from 15 to 20
db below the output of a carbon broadcast microphone when
speaking at normal loudness at a distance of three feet. This
noise is undoubtedly due to heating effects at the points of con-
tact between granules. It is not due to mechanical or tem-
perature effects of the containing chamber. No type of carbon
appears to be free from this effect and different types differ
surprisingly little. It increases about in proportion to the
power dissipated in the microphone until the direct current as-
sumes fairly large values; i.e., 0.1 to 0.2 amps, for most tele-
phone transmitter types. When the current is increased fur-
ther, the noise begins to increase much more rapidly and to de-
part from its steady, smooth character and become erratic.
Sounds like miniature explosions or sometimes continuous
oscillations may occur. From its likeness to the sound of fry-
ing fat, it is sometimes called " frying." Most commonly,
however, this noise has been called " burning." Viewed under
a glass minute points of incandescence may be seen at the con-
tacts. This noise limits the use of the carbon microphone in
modern practice, where amplifiers are involved, to work where
the sounds to be transmitted are sufficiently loud to mask this
noise as in usual telephone use.

Carbon may show considerable agin^ from the condition
when it is first prepared by roasting. It may age either as a
result of mechanical acritation or burning. As it ages, its re-
sistance increases, the increase often amounting to several
hundred per cent.

Considerable work has been done in the investigation of the

179

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

pressure-resistance characteristic of carbon cells. This ap-
proximates an hyperbola over quite a broad range of pressure
and resistance although the exact characteristic departs from
this curve and depends on a number of factors beyond the scope
of this discussion.*^ Based on this characteristic, the character
of the current resulting from a sinusoidal variation of pressure
has been studied.*^ The effects are complicated. For many
purposes, the distortion due to a failure of the current to vary
in exactly the same manner as the resistance is not important,
provided the resistance in the circuit external to the micro-
phone approximates or exceeds that of the microphone itself.
Such effects are often minimized by the use of two carefully
matched buttons operated push-pull.

The mechanism of electrical conduction through a mass of
granular carbon has been subjected to much study and many
theories have been advanced to explain the phenomena ob-
served. It has now been quite well established, however, that
the current crosses the contacts through minute sub-micro-
scopic irregularities in the surface in actual contact. As the
pressure is increased, these protuberances are deformed so that
the areas in contact and the number of contacts are increased
and hence the electrical resistance is decreased. The gas
which adheres to the surface of the carbon tends to restrict
these points of contact and behaves like an elastic layer between
grains.

Of the many substances which have been tried for use in a
loose contact microphone, granular carbon appears to be much
the best (Fig. 20). The combination of the strength, elas-
ticity, the character of the surface as regards its roughness, the
manner in which gas adheres to the surface, the heat conduc-
tivity, electrical conductivity, its infusibility, the fact that the
oxides are gases, the value of the specific heat and the fact that,
if properly prepared, the gases adhering to the surface are not

32 Goucher, Science, Nov. 7, 1930, pp. 467-470.

83 L. S. Grandy, A. I. E. E., Jour. (46), pp. 426-430, 1927.

180

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

given up except at high temperatures, make carbon much the
most satisfactory microphonic material known. Microphone
carbon is extremely hard, being nearly as hard as diamond. It
remains hard at high temperatures. Its ratio of thermal to
electrical conductivity is very high compared with other ma-
terials. This results practically in much less heating at the
minute points of contact. Due to the combination of the char-
acteristics mentioned, there is what might be loosely termed a
critical voltage for most contacts. This is the voltage beyond
which we cannot go without welding or cohering the contacts.
For metals this is low. The fact that it is low was used in the
iron-filing detector of early radio days. Such a detector was
simply a cell of loose contact material which was very easily
packed electrically or cohered. This "critical voltage" of
most metals is of the order of 0.1 volt. For carbon it is about
lYi volts. While other materials have been found with higher
values of " critical voltage," they are of such high resistance or
have other characteristics which are so objectionable, that they
are not at all adaptable for use in a microphone. In the light
of present day knowledge, it appears probable that carbon will
continue to be used as the loose contact material for micro-
phone buttons wherever the conditions of use are such as to de-
mand a microphone which is an amplifier. Due to the large
amplification (about 30 db) obtainable with a carbon button,
it seems unlikely that amplifying transmitters will be replaced
in the near future for at least the great bulk of telephone work.
In most of the earlier carbon transmitters, the granular car-
bon was placed between two parallel disc electrodes separated
from 0.05" to 0.15". One of these discs was vibrated by the
diaphragm or composed the diaphragm itself so that the maxi-
mum agitation and hence aging occurred at this part of the
electrical path, the agitation decreasing with increasing dis-
tance from the front electrode. Recently, this " direct action "
type of carbon cell has in several designs been replaced by a
button in which two ring electrodes are separated by an insulat-

181

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

ing barrier, the agitation being conducted to the granular mass
by an electrically insulated element. In this type, known as
the " barrier " button, the maximum agitation occurs at some-
where near the middle of the path through the granules. The
aging effects are not localized at the electrodes. This type has
shown low burning and long life. The earlier type buttons
were usually filled only about two- thirds full. In certain re-
cent types in which improvements in design have greatly re-
duced the slow expansions and contractions of the cell caused
by heat, there is little or no breathing and the chamber is al-
most completely filled with granular carbon.

The carbon granules are of such size that there are about
50,000 granules per cubic centimeter. Buttons usually con-
tain anywhere from 3,000 to 50,000 granules, depending on the
particular design.

The telephone handset which has come into broad use by the
Bell System during the last few years placed extremely severe
requirements upon its transmitter. It must operate in any
position and all of its performance characteristics must remain
reasonably constant throughout all the various positions and
with all the motion to which it is subjected. Moreover, it must
maintain its good characteristics over a long life in spite of
being subjected to very severe mechanical shock each time it is
used. Only recently has it become possible to meet these re-
quirements.

The Bell System handset transmitter uses a diaphragm which
is very light, stiff and well damped. The electrical output is
maintained partly by the use of a resilient method of support-
ing the diaphragm which is not clamped. The carbon cham-
ber is practically non-breathing, is in front of the diaphragm
and is filled practically full. It is of the barrier type.

The carbon microphone has presented great difficulties in
experimental study and analysis as a vibrating structure. This
is due to the variable character of the carbon cell, both me-
chanically and electrically. For this reason most progress has

182

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

been made in both the theoretical and experimental studies of
such structures by the use of receivers or electromagnetic micro-
phones. Contributions to the theoretical and also the experi-
mental technique have been made by Poincare/' Kennelley,''
Wegel/*^ Wente/' Crandall,'' Gerlach/" Mallett and Button,**^
Kellogg," Maxfield/' Harrison/' Moore/' Jones/' and many
others.

About 1915, the vacuum tube amplifier became a potent in-
fluence on the development of microphones for certain applica-
tions, particularly where cost was not important. It did two
things: it made it feasible to use, in these applications, a micro-
phone of low sensitivity or efficiency and it created fields of
usefulness for instruments of this type. It shifted the em-
phasis, at least in places where low cost was not a controlling
element, from a magnitude of output basis to quality or faith-
fulness of reproduction, uniformity and reliability. In addi-
tion, it offered possibilities of exact measurements of acoustic
effects if used with a suitable microphone. This influence was
almost immediately reflected in the development of a very high
quality condenser microphone by Wente (Fig. 21). This in-
strument was developed for use in such acoustic researches and
its commercial applications were developed later. The faith-
fulness with which it reproduced sounds over a very broad
range both of frequency and intensity represented a vast im-
provement over the previous microphones. It was later im-
proved by Crandall (Fig. 22)/' has received much commercial

8* Eel. E'lectr. SO, pp. 221-234, Feb. 16; 257-262, Feb. 23; 329-338, Mar. 9; 365-
372, Mar. 16, and pp. 401-404, Mar. 23, 1907.

35 Electrical Vibration Instruments (MacMillan).

36 A. I. E. E., Jour., Oct., 1921, pp. 791-802.

37 Phys. Rev., May, 1922, pp. 498-503.

38 Theory of Vibratory Systems and Sound (Van Nostrand).

39 Phys. Zeit., Vol. 25 (1924), p. 672 and 675.

*o I. E. E., Jour., May, 1925, pp. 502-516; I. E. E., Jour., Oct., 1923, pp. 1134-1138;
Proc. Phys. Soc, Feb., 1921, pp. 139-141.

41 A. I. E. E., Jour., Sept., 1925, pp. 1015-1020.

42 Bell System Tech. Jour., 1926, pp. 146-147.
*3 BeU System Tech. Jour., 1927, pp. 230-247.

*4Soc. Motion Picture Eng., Jan., 1931; BeU System Tech. Jour., pp. 46-62.
<B Phys. Rev., June, 1918, pp. 449-460.

183

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

application and is used as the transmitter of the International
Reference Standard with which the volume efficiencies of all
commercial telephone transmitters are compared/^

Acoustic researches require as the most important tool for the
use of the investigator a microphone whose calibration can be
definitely determined and which will remain fixed. Carbon
microphones do not meet this requirement satisfactorily. Such
an instrument should operate over a broad range of frequencies
and intensities. These requirements are very admirably met
by the condenser microphone and its development has greatly
stimulated and facilitated precise acoustic measurements.
Such measurements would be further facilitated in the higher
frequency ranges were the dimensions of the microphone such
that its interposition in a sound field caused no distortion there-
of. The character and extent of this field distortion has, how-
ever, been studied and methods and data developed by which
such effects can either be controlled *^ or proper corrections be
introduced."® The high mechanical impedance of its dia-
phragm adapts it well for investigations of sound in tubes or
closed spaces.

If we wish to summarize the facts recounted above we see
that during the period immediately following 1875 almost every
conceivable type of microphone was tried. With the available
technique, however, it was not possible to submit the different
tjrpes to detailed quantitative study or analysis. They were
used chiefly as telephone transmitters. The magnitude of the
electrical output tended to exceed extreme faithfulness of re-
production in its practical importance. The granular carbon
type rapidly outdistanced all competitors. Intensive work on
this type of transmitter led to successive improvement in both
these factors and also in the reliability of the instrument, the
uniformity of commercial product and the uniformity of per-
formance during its life (Fig. 23).

*« Martin and Gray, Bell System Tech. Jour., 1929, pp. 536-559.
*T Ballantine, Phys. Rev., Dec, 1928, pp. 988-992.
*8 Aldrich, P. 0. E. E., Jour., Oct., 1928, pp. 223-225.

184

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROPHONE

Since the publication in 1917 of Wente's work on the con-
denser microphone, there has been an increased demand for
microphones which will reproduce sounds of widely varying
character with extreme fidelity. Various lines have been fol-
lowed in the development of different types. The condenser
microphone has, as stated, been used quite broadly. The mag-
netic type with moving strip conductor actuated directly by
the sound has been used abroad " and is coming into use in this
country.'" The stretched diaphragm air-damped carbon micro-
phone (Fig. 24) has seen considerable use in this country, and

Fig. 25. The Reisz marble block carbon microphone has been used for European
broadcasts during the last few years.

in Europe the Reisz," transverse button microphone placed in
a heavy marble block has seen considerable use (Fig. 25). The
electrical output of such instruments is usually much lower than
that of commercial telephone transmitters, the sacrifice being
quite justifiable since, in their application, these microphones
are usually associated with a suitable vacuum tube amplifier.
Where the source of sound is somewhat remote from the micro-
phone, so that the actual sound power available is very low, and

« Gerlach and Schottky, Phys. Zeit., Vol. 25 (1924), p. 672 and p. 675.

50 Electronics, Feb., 1931, p. 492.

51 U. S. Pat. 1,634,210, June 28, 1927.

185

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

where quietness of operation is essential, loose contact noise
bars the use of the carbon microphone, and the magnetic, or
condenser instrument is to be preferred.

Microphones have been in demand in recent years for a wide
and growing variety of uses. "Anti-noise" transmitters are
demanded in airplanes and other noisy places. Although vari-
ous principles have been suggested and used, it appears that
most of the obtainable improvement in this direction can be
realized merely by the use of a highly damped instrument.
Beyond this, further improvement seems to rest chiefly on the
exclusion of the noise. That this must be true and that the
transmitter cannot be made to discriminate among the sounds
reaching it seems obvious. An instrument cannot transmit
efficiently all of the sounds of the voice over its broad fre-
quency and intensity range and, at the same time, discriminate
against sounds reaching it from other sources within these same
ranges. If the voice is to be transmitted and other sounds ex-
cluded, it appears necessary to use a mouthpiece which care-
fully seals the transmitter to the face and, at the same time,
provides an opportunity for the escape of the breath necessary
in speech. This last requirement has been met by the use of a
low-pass acoustic filter.

A frequency response curve has been taken using one of the
earlier Blake single contact transmitters, of the type designed
in 1878. This is shown in comparison with a similar curve for
a Western Electric condenser microphone. Both curves are
for constant sound pressure (Fig. 26 and Fig. 27). The con-
trast between these two curves needs no comment. It shows
the great advance which has been made in fidelity of reproduc-
tion and it also shows at what sacrifice in magnitude of output.

If it were possible to state the requirements of future micro-
phones in a single specification, it might be possible to make
some predictions as to the type and range of future improve-
ment. This, however, is not possible because designs will be
needed for a wide variety of conditions of use. Some will be

186

35
30

PLOTTED RELATIVE TO AVERAGE

LEVEL OF A MODERN TELE-

PHONE TRANSMITTER

5
0

-5
-10
-15

/ \

\«

-20

1 \

^ — .

(

-25

J ^

-30

100

•60

-65

(f) ~'0

UJ '->

500 1000

FREQUENCY IN CYCLES PER SECOND

5000

10,000-

Fig. 26. Response frequency characteristic — Blake single contact
transmitter of 1878.

PLOTTED RELATIVE TO AVERAGE LEVEL OF A
MODERN TELEPHONE TRANSMITTER

100

500 1000

FREQUENCY IN CYCLES PER SECOND

10,000

Fig. 27. Response frequency characteristic — condenser microphone.

187

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

used for comparatively close talking in which a moderately-
high level of output is needed and in which the battery supply
is limited. Others will be needed for use in noisy locations,
others for picking up mechanical vibrations such as detectors
to be mounted on bank vaults, others for the picking up of
sounds in water as in submarine detection and signalling, others
for picking up weak sounds in the open air where sounds com-
ing in all directions are of interest and still others for similar
open air work where it is desirable that the instrument be
highly directive. This list might be extended almost indefi-
nitely. Obviously, many different types of microphones will
be used in the future, and designs will be developed to meet an
increasing variety of needs.

H. A. Frederick

188

The Measurement of Noise ; a New Service
of Electrical Research Products, Inc.

THE widespread use of machinery and the growth of con-
gested municipalities have created noise problems which
have become acute. Although noise has long been recognized
as undesirable, it has only been comparatively recently that the
full gravity of its harm was realized. Leading psychologists
and physiologists have undertaken costly experiments to meas-
ure the effect of noise upon the human physical organism.
Efficiency experts have endeavored to determine the economic
waste caused by noise.

The findings from these various investigations have sug-
gested many benefits that would result from successful efforts
to abate noise and have resulted in a demand for such abate-
ment. To achieve proper economic and satisfactory control of
noise, a scientific analysis must be made and each contributing
source independently studied. Only then can recommenda-
tions be prepared which will assure adequate isolation or elimi-
nation. Since the Bell Telephone Laboratories had already
developed instruments and techniques capable of solving prob-
lems such as these, their aid was naturally enlisted.

The need for similar engineering advice in the field of archi-
tectural acoustics has also become urgent. The necessity for
satisfactory acoustics was recognized centuries ago with the
construction of cathedrals, opera houses, and concert halls, but
lack of a sufficient understanding of acoustic phenomena and
of the characteristics of building materials made it impossible
to effect desired conditions. An auditorium, proving acousti-
cally acceptable, was hailed as a great achievement. What ap-
peared to be an exact reproduction would often prove most un-
satisfactory. Fortunately, the public was cognizant of the

189

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

difficulties encountered and was tolerant. Until recent times,
this toleration persisted, but with the ever increasing number of
available auditoriums, the public has become selective.

With the introduction of sound amplifying and reproducing
devices in theatres, satisfactory acoustic conditions became an
important economic necessity. No matter how ingenious their
conception, or how perfect their manufacture, these devices
could hardly justify their inclusion where abominable " listen-
ing conditions " existed. A demand for engineering advice on
acoustic conditions was thus created. The Bell Telephone
Laboratories had long investigated acoustic phenomena, and
through their own and other kindred researches, an exact sci-
ence had been established. Here again, it was only natural
that their aid should be sought.

Some two years ago Electrical Research Products, Inc.
established a department for disseminating acoustic informa-
tion to their licensees in the talking motion picture field.
Functioning as a noncommercial unit, this department acousti-
cally analyzed over five thousand theatres and prepared rec-
ommendations for their correction. During these studies, con-
siderable practical experience was gained, as nearly every type
of architectural acoustic problem was encountered. Publicity,
attendant upon each successful achievement, created a more
general demand for this acoustic consultation and architects
began seeking advice on other types of auditoriums. With the
realization that a thorough study of auditorium acoustics neces-
sitated knowledge of all catacoustic and diacoustic phenomena,
a new demand became apparent, and aid was sought on all
tjq^es of structures.

To meet the growing general demand for noise abatement
and acoustic control, the services of the department were com-
mercialized, thereby effecting a new application of telephone
research. Instruments, experimental facilities, techniques, and
practical experience were available. It was essential that this
organization function purely as engineering consultants, with-

190

(Lrfl) ViKW IN Sound
Transmission Labora-
tory ; samples of materials
arc tested here.

(Right) Part of Apparatus
Used in Testing Materials; the
ear is replaced by electrical instru-
ments.

(Left) The Rapid Record
Oscillograph — an extremei-y
valuable instrument in acous-
tic research.

(Left) A
Spark-
Chronograph

Type of
Reverberation

Meter
Employed in
Auditorium
Measure-
ments.

These Two Pictures Rep-
resent One Model of a
Complete Portable Set for
Measuring Noise. The bat-
tery box provides space for
carrying the microphone and
cords; it also houses a field
calibrating device.

MEASUREMENT OF NOISE

out interest in the manufacture, distribution or sale of any
acoustic or noise isolating materials or devices. Only in this
way could economical, practical and unbiased acoustic advice
be disseminated.

Since the inauguration of this new Acoustic Consulting Serv-
ice in January of this year, the scope of its activity has been
extraordinarily wide, and valuable experience has been gained
with the solution of each new problem. Acoustic analyses have
been made, and specifications for correction prepared on all
classes of architectural construction, from auditoriums seating
over twenty thousand people to the private office of an execu-
tive, from recording and broadcasting studios to band shells,
and from cafeterias to libraries. In fact, a practical solution
of acoustic problems occurring throughout the architectural
range has been effected. The instruments and theories de-
veloped in the Bell Telephone Laboratories have proven most
adequate.

Noise analysis and the preparation of specifications for its
control has offered a widely diversified field; and nearly every
problem has necessitated a different application of engineering
principles. Noises created in tunnels and subways, and by
elevated railways, automobiles and airplanes, have been stud-
ied; and means of reducing or eliminating them have been
recommended. Of equal importance, though not quite so
formidable, have been investigations of noise emanating from
office machinery, ventilating fans, and other extraneous sources.
Instruments are used in this work, as it is only after a measure-
ment of each contributing component that an individual noise
may be thoroughly analyzed. By redesigning machine parts
or introducing isolating materials or devices, a desired amount
of reduction may be assured. Since effective solutions have
been achieved for the above types of problems, new demand
has become apparent. Inquiries have been received for the
design of special acoustic instruments for mechanical inspection
of noisy machine parts. Information also has been requested

191

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

on the construction of acoustic signal devices which may be
distinguished from surrounding noise. As each new noise prob-
lem is created, a new field for this service is established.

Although noise abatement and acoustic control predominate
in the field, there is yet another branch of allied activity that is
worthy of mention. The testing of materials, structures, or
devices to determine their acoustic characteristics has become
an important part of this new work. Laboratories have been
established in New York and Los Angeles, equipped to meas-
ure accurately the absorbing, transmitting, and reflecting
qualities of materials, and for conducting comparative noise
tests. This latter function permits the design of quieting de-
vices and the conduct of experiments on the effectiveness of
acoustic signalling systems.

Certain specific commercial aspects of this new consulting
service have been discussed above, but it must be borne in
mind that other types of acoustic or noise problems may be
solved with equal facility. Fundamentally all problems in
sound and vibration are the same, so when particularly com-
plex obstacles are encountered, their analysis may be achieved
by recognizing basic similarities. From this point, special
apparatus or new instruments may be developed which will
adequately solve the problem. Through the establishment of
this Acoustic Consulting Service, a highly specialized engineer-
ing field has been developed, and new commercial applications
have been found for experimental discoveries made during tele-
phone research. And, thus, another service has been rendered
the public.

S. K. Wolf

192

The Primary Production of the World

THE severe decline in prices on the stock market in October,
1929, marked the termination of a period of five years of
practically uninterrupted prosperity in the United States.
Never before in a period of equal length had American crops
been.so bountiful ; never before had we extracted from the earth
such large quantities of minerals and metallic ores. Concur-
rently, our forests were yielding a volume of timber products
sufficient to support a tremendous building boom. In fact, so
abundant was the production of basic raw materials and food-
stuffs which accompanied our national prosperity that it has
sometimes been claimed that this country was primarily re-
sponsible for the maladjustments and disequilibrium which
have latterly disrupted the crude material markets of the world.

What are the facts? Is it true that during prosperity the
United States increased its production more rapidly than did
other nations? To answer this moot question it is necessary to
know what the world in general has accomplished in the field of
primary production. Fortunately there is available an index
of the world's production of crude foodstuffs and raw materials,
compiled by the Economic and Financial Section of the League
of Nations.^ (It is to be regretted that data on the output of
manufacturing industries are not available, except in the case
of a very few countries. Concern over the lack of such infor-
mation, however, is tempered by the fact that the production
of raw materials — primarily for purposes of fabrication — is a
process only once removed from manufacture itself.)

The accompanying chart shows the League of Nations' index,
both for the world and for continental groups. The chart is on
a logarithmic vertical scale, equal vertical distances measured

1 Memorandum on Production and Trade, 1923 to 1928/29. League of Nations,
Geneva, June, 1930.

193

World Production of Raw Materials & Foodstuffs

loor

50"

10:

(n Billions of Dollars
1926 Prices

Asia

World

Norfh America

South America

Africa

.61 I I I I

Europe (Ex. Russia)

Russia

Oceania

100

-50

J ^.6

1913 '16 '19 '22 '25 *28 1931

194

PRIMARY PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD

upward representing equal percentage increases, and equal
vertical distances measured downward representing equal per-
centage declines. The North American group includes the
United States, Canada, Labrador, Newfoundland and Alaska.
The Caribbean group includes the West Indies, and the conti-
nental states from Mexico to Panama. Since the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics has abandoned the old distinction be-
tween European and Asiatic Russia, it is more convenient to
show the U. S. S. R. as one continental group. Accordingly,
the separate indexes for Asia and for Europe are exclusive of
Russia. The world index and the separate component indexes
are available for the year 1913 and for the years from 1923 to
1928 or 1929. In the chart the years from 1913 to 1923 are
bridged by a straight dotted line.

It may be wondered why, if this chart measures physical
production, the scale is " in billions of dollars." Obviously, to
add together commodities so varied as wheat, pig iron, rubber,
etc., it is necessary first to express them in terms of a common
denominator. The common denominator used is value. A
representative world price is chosen for each commodity and
the physical quantity of the commodity produced in each year
is multiplied by this price. The prices selected are averages
for the year 1926, and are used as constant weights throughout
the period of the index. The index itself is based upon data
representing the production of 62 crude foodstuffs and raw ma-
terials, except that the production of foodstuffs in China is ex-
cluded since no data are available. The fact that the latest
point on the world index is an estimate for 1929, while the lat-
est points on the individual components are for 1928, is of no
consequence for purposes of this discussion.

The chart indicates clearly, by comparison of 1923 with
1913, the losses in European and Russian production which oc-
curred as a result of the war and the Russian Revolution.
While 19 per cent below European output in 1913, North
American production in 1923 exceeded that of Europe by an

195

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

equal relative amount. Russian production declined twice as
sharply as European production. Aside from European pro-
duction, all of the other indexes on the chart rose in the decade
1913 to 1923. The extremely sharp rise in Caribbean output
for the most part reflects the rapid development of the pe-
troleum industry in Mexico. The accompanying table shows
the changes from 1913 to 1923, both in dollar value aggregates
and in percentages.

World Primary Production — 1913 to 1923
Aggregates in Millions at 1926 Prices

1913

1923

Net Change

Amount

Europe (excl. U. S. S. R.)

U. S. S. R. .

North America

116,647

4,576

13,471

785

2,385

1,115

9,692

901

$14,532
3,399

17,326
1,273
3,070
1,372

10,698
1,001

-$2,115
- 1,177
+ 3,855
+ 488
+ 685
+ 257
+ 1,006
+ 100

-13
-26

+29

Caribbean

+62

South America

+29

Africa

+23

Asia

+ 10

Oceania

+ 11

World

$49,572

$52,671

+$3,099

+6.3

First of all, therefore, the chart shows that by 1923 North
America had become the leading producing area in the world.
This leadership was, of course, associated with the considerable
expansion which had taken place in American export trade ac-
companying the transition of the United States from the status
of a debtor nation to that of a creditor nation.

But what has taken place during the period from 1923 to
1929 which was characterized by substantial economic recovery
in Russia and in Europe and by widely diffused prosperity
throughout most of the rest of the world? On this question the
chart brings out the highly interesting and pertinent fact that
North American output from 1923 to 1928 increased at a dis-
tinctly less rapid rate than output in any other continental
group except the Caribbean. Just as the Caribbean area made

196

PRIMARY PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD

the most rapid percentage gain between 1913 and 1923, due to
the development of the petroleum industry in Mexico, so its
negligible net increase from 1923 to 1928 largely reflected the
declining relative importance of that industry. The table gives
the story in numerical terms.

World Primary Production— 1923 to 1928

Aggregates in Millions at 1926 Prices

Europe (excl. U,

U. S. S. R

North America.

Caribbean

South America .

Africa

Asia

Oceania

S. S. R.).

1923

$14,532
3,399
17,326
1,273
3,070
1,372
10,698
1,001

1928

$18,544
5,195

18,482
1,288
3,814
1,670

12,565
1,219

Net Change

Amount

+ $4,012
+ 1,796
+ 1,156
15
744
298

+
+
+

World $52,671

$62,777

+ 1,867

+ 218

+28
+ 53
+6.7
+ 1.2
+24
+22
+ 17
+22

+$10,106

+ 19

From these figures it appears that the truth of the matter is
that dominating the whole period was the rapid increase in
European output, which absorbed no less than 40 per cent of
the total world increase of 10 billion dollars between 1923 and
1928. North American output, which in 1923 was 19 per cent
higher than that of Europe, had been outstripped by Europe in
1927, and in 1928 was a fraction of 1 per cent lower than Euro-
pean output. Russia, accounting for only 6 per cent of total
world primary production in 1923, as compared with ZZ per cent
for North America, actually increased her production between
1923 and 1928 by a greater physical volume than the United
States. In 1928, Russia accounted for 8 per cent of the world's
output as compared to 29 per cent for North America.

If these figures are trustworthy, therefore. North America
has been far from being the sole, or even the prime, contributor
to the creation of those plentiful supplies of raw materials
which have recently been a powerful factor in depressing the
world's markets.

197

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

The data underlying these indexes reveal tendencies too nu-
merous to mention in the direction of a geographical redistribu-
tion of the total production of basic commodities. For in-
stance, the increase in per capita meat consumption in Europe,
as opposed to a decline in this country, is reflected by a rapid

Production of Raw Rubber

In Millions of Dollars

1000

I 1 1

1 r^

1 1

1 :

iOOO

Won
...-••■

■^

■'"Asia

100

~ j,y

■•••.

South America

^••^

.. /

^••^

■"-..

/^>^

*•-.

/ ^

Africa

At 1926 Prk
1 1 1 1 1

'''s 1

L_ 1

J J _

13 '16 '19 '22 '25 '28

rise in European production and a slowing down in American
output of the products involved. Another example is provided
by the geographical changes in the production of crude rubber.
As shown by the data on the accompanying chart, Asia pro-
duced only 45 per cent of the world's rubber in 1913. Of the
remaining output, 39 per cent was produced in South America
and 16 per cent in Africa. Fifteen years later, however, in

198

PRIMARY PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD

1928, 95 per cent of the rubber came from Asia, 4 per cent from
South America, and only 1 per cent from Africa. Incidentally,
the case of rubber brings out a weakness in any index of this
sort. It was pointed out that the production series were com-
bined on the basis of 1926 values. Between 1926 and 1928,
the price of rubber declined about 54 per cent, while the prices
of wholesale commodities in general declined only 2 per cent.
Obviously, by continuing rubber in the index with 1926 prices
there is a marked tendency to overstate its importance.

So far, this discussion of the League of Nations' index of the
production of crude foodstuffs and raw materials has concerned
itself with the matter of territorial distribution of output.
Something might well be said, however, regarding the individual
commodities included in the index, although the number of
them — 62 in all — makes impossible a detailed description of
the changes which have taken place in their production. Tak-
ing production in 1913 as 100 for each of the 62 commodities,
the 1928 points ranged from 71.0 in the case of rape-seed to
1,036 in the case of artificial silk. One method of examining
these 1928 points for the individual commodities is to array
them in order of magnitude and to find the points at which the
list of commodities may be divided into four equal parts. Such
points are called quartiles. The results of such a procedure
are as follows:

Highest point 1,036.0

Upper Quartile 190.5

Median 137.0

Lower Quartile 1140

Lowest point ^1 0

That is, during the period from 1913 to 1928 the output of
half of the commodities increased between 14 per cent and 90.5
per cent, the other half showing changes outside these limits.
The median shows the increase above and below which fall
exactly half of the items; its value in this case is 137 per cent of
the 1913 output. Interestingly enough, the composite world
index itself in 1928, stands at 126.6 per cent of the 1913 level.

199

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

The reason for this difference between the median increase and
the composite index lies in the fact that increases have been
smaller in the case of foodstuffs than in the case of raw ma-
terials and the former class of products are more important in
the index than the latter.

The increase in world population between 1913 and 1928, as
estimated by the League of Nations, was 10 per cent, or less
than half the increase in the world index of primary produc-
tion. However, if we split the production index into two
groups, crude foodstuffs and raw materials, we find an increase
between 1913 and 1928 in foodstuffs output of only 17.5 per
cent, as compared with one of 40.0 per cent in raw materials.
That is, the production of crude foodstuffs was not greatly out
of line with population growth, but the percentage increase in
the production of raw materials was four times as great as that
in population. This disparity is a natural development. The
world in the past decade has been improving its standard of liv-
ing. The demands made on production have not been so much
for foodstuffs as for fabricated articles.

In view of the exceptionally high percentage gain in Russian
output since 1923 and because of the general interest in the ac-
complishments of the Soviet Republics, the indexes compiled
by the League of Nations on the production of important com-
modities entering into the overall index for U. S. S. R. shown
in the first chart are presented graphically in the chart which
follows. This chart shows the high degree to which primary
production in Russia has thus far been confined to foodstuffs.
It will be noted, indeed, that the composite index is a close
replica of the index of cereal production; in 1928 cereal pro-
duction constituted 52 per cent of all output reflected in the
composite index. At the same time the largest percentage in-
creases have been in those products which are characteristic of
a growing industrial nation, such as fuels, metals, cement, etc.
Such apprehension of the consequences of the increases in Rus-
sian production as exists, however, does not arise from the fact

200

Russian Production or Raw Materials & Foodstuffs

In Millions of Dollars
1926 Prices

1 r

...C hemic

1913 16

•|9

'22

•25 '28

10000
5000

1000
500

100
50

I I.I

1931

Note: "Colonial Produce" in the League of Nations' index includes
coffee, cocoa, tea, hops and tobacco.

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

that U. S. S. R. is becoming an increasing contributor to world
production so much as from the fact that, under the political-
economic organization of Russian industry, costs of production
are fictitious or unknown and products are being offered on
world markets at arbitrary prices bearing no relation to cost
factors.

Consideration of the foregoing figures on primary production
leads to a conclusion that the future rate of increase, besides its
dependence on population growth, will be determined in part
by changes in the standards of living throughout the world.
The industrialization of Russia now under way and rising
standards in other countries will be factors tending to maintain
and even to increase the world's rate of output. However,
political strife or non-economic measures of governments
would inevitably curb this growth. On the whole, with the
productive facilities at hand, the effective demand for products
may be expected to advance appreciably and persistently.
American achievements will continue, as in the recent past, to
add vigor to the aspirations of other peoples.

Wm. Hodgkinson, Jr.

202

Notes on Recent Occurrences

NOW TALK TO ALL ITALY AND SICILY

ON April 6 the transatlantic telephone service was extended
to include all of Italy and Sicily, instead of only North-
ern Italy, Rome and Vatican City.

TALK TO U. S. POINTS FROM CRUISE SHIPS
IN DISTANT OCEANS

SEVERAL recent telephone calls from ships at sea to various
points ashore have demonstrated afresh the practicability
of this new service of communication.

During the past winter and spring, two liners equipped for
regular ship-to-shore telephone service made cruises, taking
them far out of their ordinary lanes of travel. While these
ships, the Homeric and the Belgenland, were on cruise, ship-to-
shore service was maintained whenever possible in an effort to
determine the stability of the service when the vessels are far
off the beaten track.

From the S. S. Homeric, off Alexandria, Egypt, a passenger
talked directly with an acquaintance in New York. The call
was transmitted by the wireless telephone equipment aboard
ship, intercepted at the Forked River, N. J., receiving station
and switched over land lines to New York. Traveling from
New York by wire, the answering voice was launched into space
through the Oceangate, N. J., transmitting station. The dis-
tance between the two speakers was about 5,100 miles.

The cruise of the Red Star liner Belgenland, which ended on
April 28, marked the first occasion on which passengers on a
ship circling the globe had been in touch by telephone with per-
sons on shore. From points in the Pacific, off Bombay and in

203

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

the Red Sea, passengers on the ship conversed by telephone
with friends and relatives in various parts of North America.
In the miles of wire and radio circuits involved, these calls
broke all records in voice contact between shore telephones and
ships at sea.

The service furnished the Belgenland was in the nature of an
experiment. The American Telephone and Telegraph Com-
pany has for more than a year maintained regular service with
several liners on the transatlantic run and the directional an-
tenna arrays employed are designed primarily for such use. In
view of this the frequency with which contact was established
with the Belgenland, and the exceptional quality of transmis-
sion on several occasions over circuits thousands of miles long
are considered gratifying results.

Contact with the ship was maintained through the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company stations on the New Jersey
coast. The equipment on the ship is owned and operated by
the International Marine Radio Company, Ltd., a subsidiary of
the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation.

While the ship was in the Pacific off Central America Dr.
Albert Einstein, a passenger, talked over the National Broad-
casting network via the Bell System shore stations. With the
ship a day's sail west of Hawaii, Douglas Fairbanks, also a pas-
senger, telephoned his wife in New York, and a few minutes
later talked over a wire and radio circuit some 9,000 miles long
to a friend in San Francisco.

Off the coast of China a conversation was held with London
through the British stations near that city. Off Bombay, India,
the ship conversed with New York over a radio circuit about
8,000 miles long, the longest all radio ship-to-shore conversa-
tion as yet established. Off Ceylon, one of the passengers
talked to his family and friends in Cleveland over a " line " con-
sisting of a radio circuit to London, switched there to one of the
regular transatlantic radio channels, thence over wires from
New York to Cleveland.

204

NOTES ON RECENT OCCURRENCES

When the ship was in the Red Sea one of the women pas-
sengers called her daughter in New York and later on, off Alex-
andria, another passenger talked to Piedmont, California.
Other calls completed during the voyage went to cities in New
York, Wisconsin, Florida, California, Oregon and several other
states.

1931 OPERATING CONFERENCE

THE ninth Operating Conference of the Bell System was
held at the Seaview Golf Club at Absecon, New Jersey,
from April 30 to May 6. It was attended by the Operating
Vice Presidents and General Managers of the Bell Companies,
and representatives of the staff of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company, the Western Electric Company and the
Bell Telephone Laboratories.

President Walter S. Gifford of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company spoke about the general business situation
and some of the more important problems of the System. He
also expressed appreciation of the results accomplished by the
managements of the companies during the difficult situation
which has been experienced during the past year. Vice Presi-
dent Gherardi discussed the general results of operations and
referred to the need for a carefully considered construction pro-
gram and the importance of maintaining reasonable construc-
tion and manufacturing programs under conditions like the
present. He pointed out that future benefits might be ex-
pected from the opportunities for savings in expense which the
present situation has brought to light. Emphasis was laid on
the importance of maintaining service at a high grade and
of still further improving public relations. Vice Presidents
Cooper, Page, Carter and Wilson outlined important matters
bearing on operations, relations with the public and with Con-
necting Companies and personnel work.

Reviews of the more important problems in departmental op-
erations were presented by W. H. Harrison, Plant Engineer,

205

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

M. B. French, Traffic Engineer, R. H. Burcher, Plant Opera-
tion Engineer, and K. S. McHugh, Commercial Engineer, all of
the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

The activities and the problems of the Western Electric Com-
pany were outlined by President E. S. Bloom and Vice Presi-
dent C. G. Stoll, of that company.

Special sessions of the conference were devoted to sales and
to employment conditions. Representatives of the various
companies outlined the situation in their territories and their
activities with respect to these matters. Other subjects dis-
cussed were budgets and estimating, special services and the
development of administrative personnel.

BELL LABORATORIES MEN AWARDED HONORS
FOR SCIENTIFIC WORK

ELLIOTT CRESSON MEDALS have been awarded by the
Franklin Institute to Clinton Joseph Davisson and Lester
Holbert Germer, both of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, " in
consideration of pioneer work in the scattering and diffraction
of electrons by crystals, and of its direct bearing on our theory
of the constitution of matter." Among other holders of these
medals are Henry Ford, Elmer A. Sperry, Dayton C. Miller,
and Gustaf W. Elmen. The presentation of the medals was
made on the occasion of the Institute's annual Medal Day exer-
cises on May 20.

The Franklin Institute has also awarded the John Price
Wetherill medal to Edward C. Wente, Acoustical Research En-
gineer of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, for his development
of the condenser transmitter.

On June 9 the honorary degree of Doctor of Science was con-
ferred by Lehigh University upon Francis Ferdinand Lucas in
recognition of his contributions to the science of metallurgy and
technical microscopy and of his inventions.

206

NOTES ON RECENT OCCURRENCES

GENERAL COMMERCIAL MANAGERS' SALES
CONFERENCE

A GENERAL Commercial Managers' Sales Conference,
held at Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania, from June 5
to 9, was attended by the General Commercial Managers and
certain staff representatives of the Associated Companies and
of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Keith
S. McHugh, Commercial Engineer of the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company, presided.

At the beginning of the conference. Vice President Gherardi
of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company reviewed
the results for 1930 and discussed the future prospects of the
telephone business in relation to the general business situation.

The first three days of the conference were devoted princi-
pally to discussions of the experiences of the Associated Com-
panies with various sales projects, led by J. W. Ord, Sales and
Development Engineer, and H. H. Shearer, Directory Engineer,
of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, followed
by papers prepared by Associated Company representatives
from the standpoint of actual experience in their various terri-
tories.

During the latter part of the conference there was a discus-
sion, led by Mr. Ord, of certain aspects of sales management,
including: Personnel and Training, Organization, Sales Pro-
gramming and Results, and Economics of Sales.

Interesting talks bearing on sales activities in the other de-
partments and throughout the System were given by Vice
Presidents Cooper, Page, and Carter, Assistant Vice Presidents
Waterson and Bickelhaupt, Plant Engineer Harrison, Traffic
Engineer French, Plant Operation Engineer Burcher, and Ad-
vertising Manager Cook, all of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company.

207

Bell Telephone
Quarterly

A Medium of Suggestion
and a Record of Progress

CONTENTS FOR OCTOBER 1931

PAGE

An Important New Insulating Process for Cable Conductors — Howard

G. Walker 211

Preliminary Returns of the Distribution Census — Robert L. Tomblen . 216

Some Bell System Services Oflfered to Private Switchboard Users —

Glen L. Whiteman 231

Buried Cable Distribution System — Charles G. Sinclair, Jr. 237

The Beginnings of Long Distance — William Chauncy Langdon .... 244

Talking Pictures in Industry and Education — Frederick L. Devereux . . 253

Notes on Recent Occurrences 263

VOL. X NO. 4

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY FOR THE BELL SYSTEM BY THE AMERICAN

TEJ-EPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY. SUBSCRIPTION, $1.50 PER YEAR,

IN UNITED STATES AND CANADA; SINGLE COPIES, 50 CENTS

Address all communications to

INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY

195 Broadway, New York

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

HOWARD G. WALKER

University of Michigan, B.A., 1908; Engineering Department,
Western Electric Company, 1909-1916; Manufacturing De-
partment, 1916- Mr. Walker is Development Engineer in
Charge of Pulp Insulation.

ROBERT L. TOMBLEN

A brief biographical note regarding Mr. Tomblen appeared in
the list of contributors in the Bell Telephone Quarterly for
October 1930.

GLEN L. WHITEMAN

Southwestern Telephone and Telegraph Company, Houston,
Texas, 1910; Long Lines Department, American Telephone
and Telegraph Company, New York, 1911; New York Tele-
phone Company, Buffalo, 1912, Division Supervisor of Traffic,
1920. Entered Operation and Engineering Department, Amer-
ican Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1922, and is now
specializing on private branch exchange traffic services.

CHARLES G. SINCLAIR, JR.

Following his studies at Columbia University, Mr. Sinclair
entered the New York Telephone Company in 1913 where,
after a period of field work in the Plant Department, he
engaged in outside plant engineering until his transfer in 1921
to the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Since
that time his work has been in connection with cable and
underground conduit matters in the Outside Plant Section of
the Department of Operation and Engineering.

WILLIAM CHAUNCY LANGDON

A brief biographical note regarding Mr. Langdon appeared in
the list of contributors in the Bell Telephone Quarterly for
April 1931.

FREDERICK L. DEVEREUX

Georgetown University, A.B., M.A., LL.B., Ph.D. Traffic
Manager, Chesapeake &. Potomac Telephone Company,
Washington, D. C, 1903; Auditor of Disbursements, Bell
Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1909;
Auditor, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, New
York, 1911; General Auditor, Northwestern Bell Telephone
Company, Omaha, Nebraska, 1919; Sales Manager, Bell
Telephone Securities Company, New York, 1922; Vice Presi-
dent, Bell Telephone Securities Company, New York, 1923;
General Manager of the Department of Educational Talking
Pictures, Electrical Research Products, Inc., New York, 1929-

An Important New Insulating Process
for Cable Conductors

PULP insulation of wire conductors in telephone cables, to
replace the familiar ribbon paper method that has been
standard for 40 years, is one of the important recent accom-
plishments in the improvement of telephone apparatus and
equipment. Its approval for Bell System use puts the pulp
insulated wire process on a commercial production basis and
marks the successful working out of the first phase of an inter-
esting and rather spectacular development that has called for
the closest co-operation between the various cable groups in the
Bell System. Essentially, this development has brought the
paper mill into the cable plant and combined it with the insulat-
ing process so as to eliminate some costly intermediate steps.
The pulp insulating machines are of a new type developed
for the express purpose of applying pulp to wire and are some-
thing of a cross between wire handling and paper making equip-
ment with numerous mechanisms especially designed for the
job in question. Four of these machines are now in operation,
two at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company
and a like number at the Kearny plant with an output of ap-
proximately two hundred million conductor feet per week.
The insulation itself consists of a continuous uniform sleeve of
porous paper surrounding the wire but not adhering too tightly
to it. The cables made from this material are of the new
multiple unit type construction' the development of which
came from the Laboratories at an opportune time to fit in with
the pulp program and make its success more certain. They are
of the same size as the older ribbon cables and possess similar
though not identical physical and electrical characteristics.

1 F. L. Rhodes, Bell TELEPHO^^: Quarterly, January, 1929, pp. 25-29. J. R.
Shea, Bell System Technical Journal, July, 1931, pp. 443-445.

211

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

The operating characteristics of the pulp wire cables, once
they are in service, are for ail practical purposes identical with
those of the older type.

It is interesting to look backward something over a decade
at the background of this development. The whole telephone
cable industry had been built up through some thirty years of
development around high grade manila paper as an insulating
material. Even under normal conditions the old rope market
was feeling the strain put on it by the increasing demands for
cable paper. Then came the War and the consequent restric-
tions on imports and it was only by the closest co-operation
with the suppliers that the quality of cables was kept up dur-
ing this period. In the years of high production immediately
following the War the situation did not improve noticeably and
it appeared to be a foregone conclusion that paper made from
the vast supply of domestic wood pulp would ultimately have
to take an important place as an insulation in American tele-
phone cable practice. Experiments with the strongest wood
pulp papers available at that time indicated that while the
insulation was satisfactory from the standpoint of cable char-
acteristics it was not economical to apply this paper by means
of the insulators which had been developed to handle the tough
manila paper. The problem was still further complicated by
the growing demand for more wires in a standard sized cable.
This condition could only be obtained by decreasing the con-
ductor size and thickness of the insulation. Attempts to use a
thinner paper were at once reflected in insulating troubles and
progress on this problem was practically at a standstill. This
was the situation which confronted the cable engineers of the
System at that period and whenever they got together in their
frequent informal conferences there was sure to be some dis-
cussion as to ways out of the predicament. The need was
probably first clearly stated by F. W. Willard at a Western
Electric Engineering Manufacturing Conference held at Chi-
cago in 1919 when he called attention to the fact that no funda-

212

NEW INSULATING PROCESS FOR CABLE CONDUCTORS

mental advances in the cable making art had been made since
the introduction of lead presses and paper insulation, but that
all progress had been confined to improvements in materials
and equipment, and suggested the need of work along new
lines. Work in the direction of adding refinements to the
equipment for applying paper ribbon to conductors was being
pushed vigorously, but this offered little hope of giving the
final answer since any improvement in this affected the run-
nability of manila and wood pulp paper similarly.

It was during this period of uncertainty that some experi-
ments in the development laboratories of the Western Electric
Company at Hawthorne indicated the possibilities of simply
and cheaply applying a coating of any paper pulp directly to
the wire by a modified paper making process. A crude single
wire machine was improvised and some test cables made up
from hand picked samples. The mechanical and electrical re-
sults obtained from these cables were so promising that the
management without hesitation authorized proceeding with the
development of the equipment and product as rapidly as pos-
sible. At the same time the broad decision was made in joint
conference with the General Staff Engineers that the stakes
were sufficiently high to justify basing the development on the
use of a sulphate wood pulp. Thus, at one stroke, methods,
product, and raw materials were cut loose from all previous ex-
perience and the task of working out a complete, new and revo-
lutionary process was taken up in earnest.

The fundamentals of the process were apparent, but the
combining of them into a single production unit of commercial
size, capable of making a product with the required character-
istics, offered difficulties that required time, money, and the
combined talent of all the cable groups in the System for their
solution. For the sake of brevity the curtain will be drawn
over the following years with their disappointments and thrills
and raised again in the latter part of 1929 when one machine
of the present type was operating at Hawthorne on a 50 wire

213

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

basis with the output going into 51 and 101 pair 24 gauge
cables. The troubles were past, the idiosyncrasies that had
threatened failure were ironed out and under control and the
process was going smoothly twenty-four hours a day for six
days a week. The outstanding developments which had made
this possible were the electrolytic removal of residual drawing
compound from the bare wire before it reached the pulp de-
positing mechanism so as to give a clean surface for contact
with the pulp, the modification of the properties of the suspen-
sion of pulp in water by the addition of a small amount of soap
to give a uniform sheet on the conductor, the ingenious mecha-
nism for forming the sheet into a continuous somewhat loose
sleeve around the conductor, which practically eliminated in-
sulation breaks under normal conditions, and the drying of the
insulation in a red hot furnace so rapidly as to minimize shrink-
age and leave the insulation in a porous and concentric state as
required for best results in cables.

During this development period the engineers of the Bell
Telephone Laboratories and the American Telephone and Tele-
graph Company were struggling with the solution of their own
particular problems in connection with the use of pulp insula-
tion in cables, and it was not always smooth sailing for them,
either, as is easily understood when it is remembered that the
product with which they worked was something entirely new
and still in process of development. However, the accomplish-
ments of these years of struggle and uncertainty are best judged
by a review of the advances shown in the art in 1929. At this
time multiple unit type construction had become a fact in 26
gauge cable and almost a certainty for 24 gauge pulp cable, the
proper sizes of insulated wire had been established, the capaci-
tance was down to a reasonable figure, thanks to both cable
design and improvement in the product, a good splicing technic
had been worked out, certain pulp sources had been determined
to be satisfactory for use in the product, the System was begin-
ning to realize the advantages of the material and the program

214

NEW INSULATING PROCESS FOR CABLE CONDUCTORS

for extending its use to all sizes of finer gauge cables was well
under way.

The extension program has been carried out as planned, and
early this year the standardization of all 24 and 26 gauge ca-
bles for manufacture from pulp wire was completed. This
new type cable is being regularly supplied to the Operating
Companies in large quantities and it compares favorably in all
respects with the older ribbon type. It is a new product, but it
is behaving very satisfactorily, and it can be confidently pre-
dicted that, as a background of experience is built up, further
improvement in quality will be reflected in its performance.

The making of pulp insulation is a new art and a valuable
one. It is not a finished art and it is still too young for all of
its possibilities to be appreciated, but it is now established as a
definite part of telephone cable manufacture, fully paying its
own way and holding out the promise of substantial economies.
It is gradually supplanting the ribbon insulating process for
fine wire cables and, as soon as practicable, its possibilities as to
coarser wire cables will be investigated.

H. G. Walker

215

Preliminary Returns of the Distribution

Census

BRIDGING the gulf between the farm and the factory on
the one hand and the consumer on the other is the func-
tion of one of the largest divisions of American business, called
Distribution. It comprises over a million and a half retail
stores and about 170,000 wholesale establishments, requiring
the services of more workers than any other single field of ac-
tivity except agriculture and manufacturing, and representing
an annual volume of business of over 100 billion dollars. It
also includes the activities of over 17,000 hotels doing an an-
nual business of well over a billion dollars.

In 1930, for the first time, the Bureau of the Census col-
lected comprehensive reliable information regarding the vol-
ume, character and interrelationships of the vast network of
distributive agencies engaged in the transfer of goods from pro-
ducer to consumer. Although the preliminary returns contain
certain imperfections, they provide a sufficiently accurate basis
for the formation of some general conclusions regarding the
quantitative aspects of distribution.

There has been much discussion in recent years regarding the
increasing costs involved in the distributive processes. It is
frequently claimed that the rising expense of distribution has
largely offset the savings resulting from economies in produc-
tion. The census figures have therefore been eagerly awaited
not only by merchants, but also by manufacturers, bankers,
economists and others interested in the problem of distribution,
in the hope that a careful analysis of them will disclose meth-
ods of reducing the spread between the costs of primary pro-
duction and the final selling prices of finished goods in retail
markets. Not until now has it been possible to describe sta-

216

PRELIMINARY RETURNS OF DISTRIBUTION CENSUS

tistically the distributive machinery of the country with any
degree of accuracy.

The telephone industry, too, has a direct interest in the
census figures now becoming available; for these data may well
prove exceedingly helpful in indicating ways whereby the
movement of goods through the various distributive channels
might be accomplished more economically and more efficiently
by a more extensive utilization of existing communication fa-
cilities or even by the development of additional facilities or
new types of service.

There are three fundamental steps in the movement of
merchandise from producer to consumer: (1) manufacturer to
wholesaler, (2) wholesaler to retailer, and (3) retailer to con-
sumer. However, for present purposes, distribution may be
divided into two main classifications — wholesale and retail, and
these two divisions of trade will be discussed separately. The
hotel business will be considered apart from the functions per-
formed by wholesale and retail agencies.

The Wholesale Function

The annual volume of trade in the United States through all
types of wholesale establishments approximates 70 billion dol-
lars. This figure almost equals the gross value of manufac-
tured products, is about six times the gross income from farm
production, and exceeds the volume of retail business by nearly
20 billion dollars. The difference between the volume of
wholesale trade and the volume of retail business is accounted
for by the fact that the former includes exports made by
wholesale establishments, and sales to industrial and dealer
consumers, and also represents a certain amount of duplication
due to the successive handling by several wholesale concerns of
goods moved from producers to retailers and to industrial con-
sumers through somewhat abnormal channels. Further in-
flation of the wholesale figures occurs where a wholesale trans-

217

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

action is later reflected in the cost of a manufactured product,
as in the case of coal used for fuel in industry.

On the other hand, there are several channels of wholesale
distribution which are not covered by the reported figures.
While the volume of business shown in the above total includes
sales by wholesalers to consumers at retail, it does not include
the volume of wholesale business done by certain concerns
which are primarily retailers. Neither does this total include
the more than 1 1 billion dollars of sales made by manufacturers
direct from their plants to retailers, such as to department
stores, or the more than 16 billion dollars of sales made from
manufacturing plants direct to industrial consumers, as when
automobile parts are sold to an assembly plant. Furthermore,
the wholesale figures omit direct transactions from producer to
retailer, such as the farmer's deliveries of his products to the
retail store.

The census figures show that the 170,000 wholesale estab-
lishments of all kinds in the United States have an average
annual volume of business of over $400,000 per outlet. In ad-
dition to wholesale merchants of the usual type, these establish-
ments include a secondary group performing wholesale func-
tions and consisting of such types as brokers, commission mer-
chants, manufacturers' agents and sale branches, importers and
exporters, auction companies, bulk-tank stations, country buy-
ers of farm products, and the like.

The extreme concentration of wholesale trade is convinc-
ingly shown by statistics for the group of 93 cities having over
100,000 population each. Although less than half the total
number of wholesale establishments in the United States are
located in these cities, which contain less than 30 per cent of
the total population, these establishments account for over 70
per cent of the total wholesale business, or a volume practically
equal to the entire retail sales in the whole country. The vol-
ume of wholesale business in these large cities is almost equally
divided between regular wholesalers and all other channels of

218

PRELIMINARY RETURNS OF DISTRIBUTION CENSUS

wholesale distribution, although the former group accounts for
two-thirds both of the establishments and of the employees.

The importance of wholesale trade as a population-building
force can be readily appreciated when it is noted that 35 per
cent of the total number of persons employed in all the dis-
tributive activities in these large cities are engaged in wholesale
functions. In some cities, the employees engaged in wholesale
trade constitute a sizeable proportion of the total number of
gainfully employed, reaching as much as 10 per cent or more in
such cities as St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, and San Fran-
cisco.

The Retail Function
The retailing of merchandise falls into several subdivisions.
Some manufacturers dispose of their entire output solely
through house-to-house salesmen, and mail order business is a
potent factor in merchandising, especially to rural communi-
ties. But the retail store still holds the dominating position
among the agencies serving the ultimate consumer.

From the trading post and general store, storekeeping has
developed in several directions. The country general store is
still an important factor in many of the smaller trading centers
of the country, there being about 90,000 now in existence. In
the larger communities, the department and variety stores
constitute the modern development of this elementary type
and they have increased in number until virtually every good-
sized city contains at least one representative of this type of
institution. The growth of the chain store is a phenomenon
belonging chiefly to the current century; in fact, the most
rapid growth of chain orgranizations has been in the past ten
years. The backbone of our distribution system is, however,
the independent retail store; as a class such stores handle more
than 60 per cent of the total retail business of the country.
Even in this classification, however, there are "voluntary
chains " resulting from the association of several independent
stores for group buying and for common merchandising poli-

219

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

cies, although no census figures are yet available that might
indicate the extent of this development.

The 7,000 retail chains in the United States account for only
156,000 stores, or 10 per cent of the total number. In the food
group of stores, the chains operate about 62,000 units; but this
is only one-eighth of the total number of food stores. The
same proportion applies to the automotive group of stores and
filling stations, of which the chains have 32,000 out of a total
of 253,000. This ratio is exceeded only in the apparel group
where the chains with nearly 18,000 units have 15.7 per cent of
the total number, and in the general merchandise group where
18 per cent of the stores are chain units. It is probably true,
however, that, considering the average sales per store, the
chain units as a whole do a considerably greater individual vol-
ume of business than do the independent stores.

The 1930 Census of Population brings out clearly the in-
creasing concentration of population in urban communities and
in suburban areas adjacent thereto. In fact, more than 40 per
cent of our population is accessible in less than 2 per cent of the
area of the United States. The fundamental changes in the
growth and distribution of population seem to necessitate some
revision in former methods of serving the consumer market.
Furthermore, the influence of the automobile and good roads in
facilitating travel have aided greatly in making the city store
more accessible to the rural population. These factors have
led mail order houses to supplement their regular business with
retail outlets located in strategic positions. Department stores,
through the establishment of branch stores, are utilizing a simi-
lar method of adaptation to changing market conditions.

The total volume of trade through retail stores, amounting
to slightly more than 50 billion dollars per year, does not in-
clude strictly service businesses such as laundries, cleaners,
barber shops, and the like, the total transactions of which are
estimated to be between one and a half and two billion dollars.
It does not include the sale of meals in hotel dining rooms nor

220

PRELIMINARY RETURNS OF DISTRIBUTION CENSUS

does it include a considerable volume of trade in supplies and
equipment sold to business concerns for utilization rather than
for resale, including such merchandise as hotel supphes, indus-
trial and store supplies and equipment, and dentists' and phy-
sicians' supplies. In addition to sales through retail stores,
there are direct sales at retail by planing mills, by milk pro-
ducers, by bakeries, and by other manufacturers. There are
also sales to ultimate consumers by wholesale establishments,
offset in part by sales in wholesale quantities by one retailer to
another retailer for resale. The aggregate volume of business
transacted through all these non-retail channels might easily
add 10 per cent to the total sales through retail stores. Fur-
thermore, from the standpoint of total consumption of com-
modities, the retail figures do not give a complete picture since
they do not cover cases in which the producer consumes his own
product, as on the farm. However, the detailed figures for
sales through retail stores are sufficiently inclusive to justify
careful analysis.

The reported average retail sales per capita are $407.52,
which would indicate retail purchases per family of from $1,600
to $1,700 annually. The annual per capita retail purchases in
the several states vary greatly, ranging from as little as $172
in South CaroUna to $575 in California and New York. The
figures are generally low throughout the South and high in the
Northeastern industrial belt (Illinois to New England) and the
Pacific Coast states, with the farming region of the plains and
Rocky Mountain states occupying an intermediate position.

The per capita sales through retail stores show an interest-
ing relationship when compared with automobile registration,
families with radios, and residence telephones per 100 popula-
tion. It is not surprising to find that these ratios are usually
high in regions where the per capita sales are greatest and corre-
spondingly low in areas where the volume of individual trade is
lowest.

The retail sales figures shown in the table on the next page

221

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Region

Per Capita
Sales

Passenger

Car;

per 100

Population

Families
with Radios

per 100
Population

Residence
Telepl'ones

per 100
Population

New England

$463.31
500.01
452.28
408.46
268.60
220.51
307.92
424.72
549.53

407.52

17.9
16.1
22.0
24.2
13.8
10.8
17.0
22.4
29.7

18.8

12.2*

12.1*

10.8

4.2

2.8

3.4*

7.7

11.8*

7.9

13 4

Middle Atlantic

11 5

East North Central

West North Central

13.6
15 4

South Atlantic

5 2

East South Central

4.7

West South Central

6.7

Mountain

8 6

Pacific

14 4

United States

10 8

* Data unavailable for California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Texas,
t Data unavailable for entire region.

provide only a very rough measure of relative purchasing power,
for the reported retail sales in a state cannot accurately reflect
the economic status of the resident population when outside in-
fluences enter to affect the totals. Among the several factors
operating to distort the comparisons presented by the sales sta-
tistics by states, a few of the more serious ones include the busi-
ness done by mail order houses outside the state of location,
migration of consumers across state lines to reach big depart-
ment stores, purchases by transients in foreign states, and the
consumption by farmers of their own produce.

For the United States as a whole, the average annual sales
per retail store are $32,297, but again there is a great variation
among the several states. South Carolina is low at $19,827
per store, while at the other extreme is Michigan with the high-
est sales per store of $39,715, The census report also shows
that the average population per store for the whole country is
79, or about 19 families, with the extremes ranging from as
many as 124 in Alabama to as few as 66 in Cahfornia, Dela-
ware, Florida, New York, and Oregon. Of these states, how-
ever, only California and New York also show high sales per
store.

222

PRELIMINARY RETURNS OF DISTRIBUTION CENSUS
Geographical Distribution of Retail Stores and Unit Sales

Region

New England

Middle Atlantic. . . ,
East North Central.
West North Central
South Atlantic. ...
East South Central.
West South Central

Mountain

Pacific

United States

Number of
Stores

108,187
386,642
318,814
172,725
169,393

89,528
136,193

44,812
122,874

1,549,168

Sales per
Store

$34,972.25
33,960.60
35,887.13
31,444.66
25,042.96
24,352.12
27,531.13
35,084.58
36,647.76

32,297.24

Sales per
Capita

$463.31
500.01
452.28
408.46
268.60
220.51
307.92
424.72
549.53

407.52

Populatiorx
per Store

75
68
79
77
93
110
89
83
67

From the above table, it would seem that the per capita sales
vary inversely with the population per store, the indicated pur-
chasing power being lowest where the number of persons per
store is greatest, and vice versa. This might appear to be con-
trary to the impression gained from counts made in connection
with telephone surveys that the poorer sections of a community
have relatively more stores than the good sections. However,
an explanation can probably be found in the fact that in the
more prosperous sections a greater proportion of the purchases
belong in the luxury class and to a considerable extent are made,
not in the local neighborhood, but in the downtown section of
the same city, or in other communities.

A corresponding table for cities grouped according to popu-
lation brings out the contrast between the per capita sales, or
amount of retail business, in the cities of the country in com-
parison with the smaller places and the rural districts. In
cities, a large proportion of the consumers' purchases take place
through retail stores, while in the country many supplies are
often obtained direct from the producer in wholesale quan-
tities. Moreover, in large cities the retail stores serve more
than the resident population, especially for purchases other
than food and similar low cost staple commodities, whereas the
rural stores are chiefly patronized only for the day-to-day re-

223

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

quirements, the people going to nearby sizeable cities for their
luxury goods. Thus, it should be emphasized that the so-
called per capita sales figure for a city constitutes a measure of
the attraction of such city as a retail trading center rather than
a measure of the buying power of its inhabitants.

Retail Sales Data for Cities by Population Groups

Number of
Stores

Sales per
Capita

Sales pe
Store

Cities of —

Over 1,000.000

216,553
85.773
114,129
108,105
326.072
698,536

$628.95
645.36
631.34
585.17
545.83
238.80

$43,753
43,369
42,611
40,820
36 851

500,000 to 1,000,000

250,000 to 500,000

100,000 to 250,000

10,000 to 100,000

Balance of the United States

22,028

Total United States

1,549,168

$407.52

$32,297

It is interesting to compare retail expenditures by principal
kinds of business and to see which group predominates in each
division of the country. The table shown below indicates the
relative importance of the principal retail groups for the coun-
try as a whole.

Distribution of Retail Business by Principal Groups

Group

Per Capita
Sales

Per Cent of
Total Sales

Per Cent of
Total Stores

Food

$ 92.12
77.76
58.16
35.15
29.62
18.62
17.08
15 70
63.31

22.60
19.08

14.27
8.62
7.27
4.57
4.19
3.85

15.55

32 13

Automotive

16 35

General Merchandise

4 54

Apparel

7.29

Lumber and Building

5.15

Furniture and Household

2 87

Restaurants and Eating Places

Country General Stores

8.76
5 65

All Other Stores

17 26

Total All Groups

$407.52

100.00

100 00

The differential in per capita sales between the food and
automotive groups is actually greater than appears from the

224

PRELIMINARY RETURNS OF DISTRIBUTION CENSUS

above table. On the one hand, the figure for the food group
is low, since it does not include the products belonging in this
classification sold through other outlets such as hotels, restau-
rants and eating places, general merchandise and country gen-
eral stores. On the other hand, the figure for per capita sales
in the automotive group is high in so far as motor vehicles are
concerned, because sales of new automobiles are probably re-
ported at full list prices without deducting the trade-in values
allowed for used cars. Consequently, a certain amount of
duplication is introduced in the sales figures when the old cars
are resold.

The per capita expenditure for food products varies con-
siderably, being low in food crop states and high in industrial
regions. In some areas, notably farming sections, a large part
of the food consumed does not appear in the retail trade and
this explains why food sales are relatively low in such regions.
For example, the people of the New England states buy a
larger proportion of their retail purchases through food stores
than is the case in any other part of the country. On the other
hand, the proportion of the retail dollar which they spend
through the automotive group is lower than for any other di-
vision of the country, except the Middle Atlantic Division,
which is influenced by the very low automotive sales in New
York City. The Middle Atlantic Division shows the highest
apparel sales, however, of any section of the country, due
largely to the influence of New York City. A further examina-
tion of the table on the next page shows the prominence of the
country general store in certain sections, notably in the South
Atlantic and South Central states. It shows how the country
general store, which is a combination food and general merchan-
dise store, affects the figures of the food group and of the " all
other " group, which includes principally coal, drug, feed, and
farm implement stores.

Although the census returns showing the volume of sales
through stores of different types of operation are not yet com-

225

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

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226

PRELIMINARY RETURNS OF DISTRIBUTION CENSUS

plete for the entire country, sufficient data are available to
indicate the relative importance of the principal channels of re-
tail distribution. A summary of the 957 city reports, covering
all cities in the United States with a population of 10,000 and
over, shows that 62.5 per cent of the retail business of those
cities is done by single store independents, 19.2 per cent by
local multi-units,* 15.3 per cent by sectional and national
chains, and the remaining 3.0 per cent by miscellaneous other
forms of operation. In comparison with this typical city
situation, the preliminary returns for the 22 states west of the
Mississippi River show that 69.5 per cent of the retail business
of those states is done by single store independents, 16.4 per
cent by local multi-units, 11.2 per cent by sectional and na-
tional chains, and the remaining 2.9 per cent by miscellaneous
other forms of operation. These figures may help to dispel
some current illusions regarding chain store systems, which are
popularly credited with a disproportionately large share of the
retail business.

The Hotel Census

The distribution census also includes significant statistics re-
garding the hotels in the United States, their number, geo-
graphical distribution, plan of operation (American or Euro-
pean), type of occupancy (transient or permanent), number of
guest rooms, seating capacity of dining rooms, receipts, em-
ployees, salaries and wages paid, etc.

This hotel information is confined to hotels having 25 or
more guest rooms. The number of hotels which reported is
15,577, of which 13,328 are hotels normally operating the en-
tire year, and 2,249 are hotels of the resort type, operating from
two to eight months of the year. The census did not include
apartment houses, boarding houses, clubs, Y. M. C. A.'s and
Y. W. C. A.'s, nor did it include 1,734 hotels from which it was

*The composite classification called "local multi-units" is made up of the fol-
lowing types of operation: 2 and 3 store independents, local branch systems (mer-
chandised from a parent store), and local chains.

227

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

impossible to secure reports. It should be noted that restau-
rants and eating places not associated with hotels are included
under retail stores, which were discussed in the preceding sec-
tion.

The principal items of interest for all reporting hotels are
given in the following table:

Hotels Normally
Operating
Entire Year

Resort Hotels

Operating

Part of the Year

13,328

2,249

10,907
1,097
1,324

370

1,537

342

4,941

646

1,702

6,685

1,134,957

610,762

$962,801,000

291,259

$257,034,000

324

1,279

158,939

274,571

$76,562,000

$15,814,000

Total Number Reporting.

Plan of Operation.

European

American

Mixed ,

Type of Occupancy*

Transient

Permanent

Mixed

Number of Guest Rooms

Seating Capacity of Dining Rooms.

Total Receipts

Full-Time Employees

Salaries and Wages

* In determining the classification of a hotel as transient or permanent, 75 per
cent of its patronage one way or the other is controlling.

The largest ten states, containing slightly over half the total
population of the country, have 51 per cent of the hotels op-
erating the entire year and account for two-thirds of the total
receipts. However, the geographical distribution of the hotel
business does not hold any uniform relationship to population.
The number of hotels per 100,000 persons ranges from less
than four in Mississippi and South Carolina to 44 in Washing-
ton and 62 in Nevada. These ratios have little significance
though, in view of the fact that the controlling factor affecting
hotel development is the volume of travel requiring hotel ac-
commodation, since the great bulk of the hotel patronage is
transient. However, it is helpful to know something about the

228

PRELIMINARY RETURNS OF DISTRIBUTION CENSUS

distribution of the hotel business, because the volume of gen-
eral business in any city is affected somewhat by the incidental
patronage of hotel guests.

In conclusion, it might be well to mention briefly certain
other features of the distribution census which could not be in-
cluded in the present summary because the returns are not yet
available.

Later census reports will show the number of separate estab-
lishments which are operated by individuals, partnerships, cor-
porations, or co-operative associations. They will indicate the
length of time the establishments have been in business, as the
rate of mortality among business concerns is a matter of real
interest. Data have been collected regarding the number of
employees, salaries and wages, expenses, amount of sales for
cash and proportion of sales on credit, the relation of inventory
to sales volume, the variety of stock carried, and many other
items. Large retail stores have reported the amount of their
returned goods and the part of their credit sales which is made
on the installment plan. All important distributors were also
asked to break down their total sales volume into the chief lines
of goods sold.

Among the important data to be published when the tabula-
tion of the census material is completed is information regard-
ing the utilization of raw and semi-manufactured materials
by the leading industries. Also, data on the sales channels
through which specific types of manufacturers market their
goods will later be available. Furthermore, this census will
give comprehensive information for the first time about the dis-
tribution of so-called industrial goods, which are manufactured
products the buyers of which are other manufacturers rather
than ultimate consumers.

With the rise of nation-wide markets and with the increas-
ing variety of consumer wants which has accompanied the im-
provement in the standards of living of the American people,
distribution has become a highly important as well as highly

229

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

complex element in our economic life. The organization and
methods of our merchandising machinery are already being
studied and are being revamped to meet the changed condi-
tions resulting from recent developments in production, in
transportation, in communication and in living habits. The
appearance of the data accumulated through the census of dis-
tribution should be of real assistance in directing this process
of evolution along sound and efficient lines; for the census in-
formation will enable the substitution of facts for conjecture
in the consideration of many aspects of the subject.

R. L. TOMBLEN

230

Some Bell System Services Offered to
Private Switchboard Users

THERE are approximately 120,000 private branch ex-
changes connected with the Bell System which are oper-
ated by about 135,000 attendants. From these switchboards
are placed nearly one-fifth of the eighty million originating calls
handled each day in the telephone company central offices. In
addition about eight million intercommunicating calls a day are
originated at these branch exchanges. The telephone com-
panies continuously study the many and various service needs
of their private branch exchange customers, paying particular
attention to the provision of adequate equipment designed to
meet individual requirements as to appearance, type and ca-
pacities. The equipment varies all the way from the small
cordless switchboard with three central office lines and seven
stations to the largest dial installations designed to serve 480
central office lines and 9,600 stations. Every possible effort is
made to develop and continuously provide the most satisfac-
tory service at these switchboards both from a maintenance
and operating standpoint.

The activities followed by the traffic departments of the
telephone companies will illustrate some of the forms of serv-
ice given to this large group of telephone users. These depart-
ments have organized small groups of employees in each of the
larger cities whose time is effectively devoted to assisting pri-
vate branch exchange attendants and their managements in
solving their individual telephone service problems applying
particularly to the operation of the switchboards.

It is estimated that private branch exchange operation pro-
vides employment for about 135,000 young women as attend-
ants as compared to the 140,000 central office operators in the

231

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Bell System. Realizing the difficulties encountered by pri-
vate switchboard customers in securing well trained competent
attendants, the private branch exchange departments of the
telephone companies undertake to supply, without charge to
either the customers or attendants, people who have taken a
training course in private branch exchange operating. {See
frontispiece.) Customers are also encouraged to send their
present attendants to the telephone company's private branch
exchange school for retraining when needed. Such services are
popular as is evidenced by the fact that in 1929 the telephone
companies supplied more than 25,000 attendants and in 1930,
when requirements were probably less due to the subnormal
business conditions, more than 1 5,000 attendants were provided.
In addition about 7,000 attendants were retrained each year.

Many unusual requests are made by private branch ex-
change managements for attendants and the telephone com-
panies have been quite successful in providing people who have
special training or abilities. For example, a large bank whose
business is largely with Spain and the South American coun-
tries required an attendant who could speak and write Spanish
and who would also be able to translate Spanish correspondence
into English. While no girls with these qualifications had ap-
plied to the telephone company for positions, an operator in
one of the central offices was found who fully met the cus-
tomer's requirements. Many requests are made for attend-
ants who are able to operate a typewriter or do other office
work and little difficulty is experienced in meeting such requests.

The success of the telephone companies in retraining attend-
ants now employed has encouraged many large telephone users
to take advantage of this service to retrain their entire force of
attendants. In such retraining, the telephone companies give
careful consideration to the personal desires and peculiar needs
of the individual customers, as well as the nature of the work
to be done, in order to make sure that the operating practices
fit their requirements. For example, the New York Police De-

232

SERVICES OFFERED PRIVATE SWITCHBOARD USERS

partment employ about 450 patrolmen and sergeants to op-
erate their switchboards on a 24-hour basis. The Police Com-
missioner made arrangements with the telephone company for
the training of their entire operating force and this work was
completed during 1930. In the Police College which trains
new patrolmen, a course in private branch exchange operating
as suggested by the New York Telephone Company is now one
of the important subjects.

Every effort is made by the telephone companies to keep sub-
scribers, attendants and other employees well informed of the
desirable feature of good telephone service in their establish-
ments and of the large and important part this service performs
in the conduct of their business. The attendants who handle
incoming calls for their patrons speedily and helpfully register
a first impression of the character of the business house which
is of great value in placing the telephone caller in a pleasant
frame of mind and avoids the antagonism which is often cre-
ated through indifferent service. The station-users may fur-
ther establish this impression of a well run business organiza-
tion through promptly answering the telephone and subsequent
courteous treatment of those who call them.

The private branch exchange organization in the traffic de-
partments of the telephone companies is made up largely of
two groups of instructors. One group devotes practically all
of its time to the training of new attendants or the retraining
of existing attendants on the telephone company premises.
The second group consists of visiting representatives who spend
most of their time on the continuous instruction of attendants
on the customer's premises. These instructors, who are care-
fully selected from the central office supervisory forces, are
given such special training in various phases of the telephone
business as is adapted to qualify them to meet the private
switchboard attendants and their employers. The visiting rep-
resentatives of the telephone companies are often of assistance
during times of emergency. For example, one of the visiting

233

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

instructors in a large city was on her way to work one morning
when she noticed an excited crowd pushing its way into a local
bank. Her inquiries brought out that a run on the bank was
in progress. Knowing what was probably involved she called
upon the president of the bank and offered to help with the
telephone service. All that day and the following morning she
relieved the bank operators of the extra heavy load and dealt
with an excited clientele tactfully and efficiently. She kept in
touch with the bank for the next few days in case help should
be needed again. Her good judgment and usefulness is an ex-
ample of the high service ideals instilled in her by the telephone
company.

The larger private switchboards often present equipment and
operating problems which require considerable individual study
to make sure that the telephone service given fully meets the
needs of the establishments. To illustrate, the larger hotels
have a number of operating problems in connection with the
giving of satisfactory telephone service to their guests. As
most of the patrons of these hotels are transients, up-to-date
information records must be available to the attendants. Fur-
thermore, prompt transmittal of local and toll charges must be
made to the cashier so that they will appear on the guest's bill
when he checks out. Calls are often handled by the attendants
which require paging of guests, and this involves special han-
dling due to the delays in completion. Hotel attendants,
therefore, must be particularly well trained, and the telephone
companies have given special assistance in this respect.

The larger department stores with their many departments,
order-taking units and heavy traffic loads due to advertised
sales, offer problems which the telephone companies are con-
tinually studying. These studies are designed to make sure
that the volume of traffic passing through the department store
switchboards is handled with dispatch and without delay due
to either equipment or operating difficulties. Many of these
stores have developed a big telephone order business, not only

234

A One-Position Cord Board Installation.

A Large Hotel Private Branch Exchange.

SERVICES OFFERED PRIVATE SWITCHBOARD USERS

from patrons in the cities in which they are located, but also
from suburban areas. It is often necessary to develop special
toll practices and equipment arrangements to handle the large
amount of traffic involved.

In a number of cases the telephone companies have taken
over the continuous supervision of the work of attendants in
order that special study may be given to the individual tele-
phone service requirements of the establishments and to see
that the attendants are properly trained in the operating meth-
ods found most practical. Gratifying operating improvements
have been promptly made and the private branch exchange
managements have shown appreciation for the improvement in
service which has thus been brought about. A number of
hotels, department stores, banks and other business establish-
ments are now receiving this service.

While the problems encountered in connection with equip-
ment arrangements and operating practices for the larger
switchboards require special attention by the telephone com-
panies, a large amount of time is also devoted to assisting cus-
tomers who operate switchboards of one or two positions in
meeting their telephone service needs. Over 95 per cent of all
private boards are of one and two positions and necessarily
most of the time of the telephone company private branch ex-
change organizations is devoted to the assistance of these tele-
phone users in meeting their problems.

As a large proportion of all toll and long distance business
originates or terminates in private branch exchanges, consider-
able study and aid has been given by the telephone companies
to the development of methods to make this service the most
useful to these telephone users. Extension users are encour-
aged to place their toll and long distance calls directly with the
toll or long distance operator and to remain on the line until
the called station answers or until a report is given by the op-
erator. Where this is not feasible, it is generally suggested
that the call be placed by the private switchboard attendant

235

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

who requests the extension user to wait on the line until the
called party answers or a definite report is received. With this
arrangement, the service has proved to be much faster than
when the extension user hangs up the receiver after giving the
details of the call to the private switchboard attendant. Under
the latter condition delays are often encountered in reaching
the party who put in the call. He may have left the telephone
or have made or received another call in the meantime. This
results in annoyance to the called party, who is brought to his
telephone several times unnecessarily, only to find that the per-
son who placed the call is unable to talk. Delays are also
avoided by encouraging the user or private switchboard attend-
ant to give the called number and, in many cases, where the
volume of long distance traffic warrants it, the telephone com-
panies have found it desirable to supply lists of frequently
called out-of-town numbers. If the amount of such business is
exceptionally great, lines are provided in some cases directly
from the private branch exchange to the long distance switch-
board in order that calls may be routed to the long distance op-
erator without passing through the local system.

There is no doubt that private branch exchange users are
showing increasing appreciation of the important part good
telephone service plays in the conduct of their business and are
consequently giving full co-operation to the telephone com-
pany representatives in effecting improvements. The business
man is generally alert to the fact that a good first impression of
his establishment is of considerable value and that this first im-
pression is often made by the private switchboard attendant
who answers incoming telephone calls.

G. L. Whiteman

236

Buried Cable Distribution System

TAPE armored cable was first installed in the exchange
plant of the Bell System in the latter part of 1929. The
first installations were made on a very limited, experimental
basis, but proved so satisfactory that the use of such cable has
increased at a surprisingly rapid rate. During the year 1930
over two hundred thousand feet of cable of this type was in-
stalled, while judging from the experience to date, it seems
likely that from three to four times that amount will go into
plant during the current year.

Before describing this new cable system and the conditions
under which its application to Bell System needs appears to
warrant such rapidly increasing utilization, it will perhaps be
helpful to review briefly the development of the situation that
has brought this type of plant into being.

One of the very noticeable trends in community life in this
country during recent years has been a growing sense of aes-
thetic values. This has been particularly in evidence in the
case of residential developments where more and more atten-
tion has been given not only to building houses of distinctive
and attractive appearance, but also to the landscaping of the
surrounding grounds, the planting of shade trees along the
highways, the installation of ornamental lighting systems, and
to many other details designed to contribute to more pleasant
living conditions.

This tendency is a natural accompaniment of our country's
progress from the pioneer state where almost all man's energies
were required to gain the bare necessities of life. The indus-
trial era of today, however, brings a greater share of the leisure
time that affords opportunity for appreciation of the beautiful
and encourages our people to develop it. Perhaps, too, the
urban conditions in which a constantly increasing proportion of

237

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

our population finds itself have played their part in that urge
toward pleasanter home surroundings which has found expres-
sion in the attractive suburban residential communities con-
tiguous to practically all the larger cities.

It is peculiarly appropriate that modern industry, having
contributed largely to promoting the desire for the aesthetic,
has supplied in substantial measure the materials and facilities
for its realization. The availability of telephone service has,
of course, been an important factor in rendering suburban resi-
dence convenient and even possible. However, the provision
of plant to furnish this service has in itself created a problem
in that plant of the type that originally seemed economically
most appropriate to such communities did not appear to har-
monize with the general appearance of the surroundings.

Fortunately, fairly early in the period that marked the trend
toward suburban residence, lead covered cable, for economic
reasons, supplanted open wire for exchange distribution, except
where only a very few lines were involved. Such cables, al-
though carried on poles, presented a neater appearance than
plant of the open wire type and, in addition, yielded certain
maintenance advantages, not only in their greater freedom from
sleet storm damage, but in avoiding the impaired insulation to
which open wires were subject where they passed through the
trees that were being planted in ever increasing numbers along
the highways and residential streets.

The use of aerial cable in place of the open wire that had
previously lined the streets was a distinct advance from the
standpoint of appearance. But it was not felt to be com-
pletely satisfactory from this point of view, particularly in
those localities where greater and greater emphasis was being
placed upon the beauty of the surroundings. In some places
the poles were painted green in order that they might har-
monize with the foliage of the shade trees and thus be less
conspicuous. As a further step, underground connections be-
tween poles and houses were made available to those subscrib-

238

BURIED CABLE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

ers who were willing to share the additional cost of this type of
plant.

A very definite advance from the appearance standpoint was
made through use of poles jointly with the electric light and
power companies. This resulted in a reduction by one-half in
the number of poles that had previously been required by the
two utilities.

Despite the adoption of measures to improve the appearance
of the aerial plant along highways, it was recognized that in
communities where matters of civic beauty were being stressed,
the presence of pole lines on the streets would frequently not
continue to be appropriate and the interior block aerial cable
system was accordingly devised. This consisted in transfer-
ring the pole line and its cable to a location along the rear
property line throughout the block. The highways were thus
relieved of unsightly plant, and for a time this seemed a rea-
sonably satisfactory ultimate solution of the problem of re-
conciling the presence of telephone plant of an economical type
with the appearance of the surroundings.

The demands of aestheticism had not been completely satis-
fied, however, and were expressed increasingly in the land-
scaping of the grounds surrounding these suburban residences,
with the result that pole lines in the rear of the residences no
longer seemed altogether appropriate. It became evident that
there could be but one entirely satisfactory alternative, namely,
to place the plant underground. This conception was, of
course, by no means new, as underground plant had, in fact,
been employed for residential distribution in a large number of
instances, but the cost of such plant imposed severe limitations
upon its use. The underground system available consisted of
cables, conduit and manholes and, due to its very much greater
cost than that of aerial plant, could be installed only where the
subscribers directly benefited were willing to assume a sub-
stantial portion of its cost. It was apparent that if, as seemed
desirable to conform to the popular trend, the use of under-

239

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

ground distribution were to be extended, a less expensive type
would have to be found.

As in the case of the toll cable plant, the need of a lower cost
underground system suggested the use of tape armored cable,
buried in the ground without conduit. Such cables have been
used satisfactorily for many years in various European cities,
and while some of the conditions of service in this country are
different, it was considered feasible to design a distribution
system employing tape armored cable that would be adequate
to our needs.

Normally, a tape armored cable is installed to care for the
distribution within a single block, or a succession of blocks, this
cable being fed by underground cable in conduit. To avoid the
expense of a cable splicing operation each time a subscriber's
connection is made, terminals are installed as in the case of
aerial cable. The aerial cable terminal is, however, unsuited
to use underground, and it was therefore necessary to devise a
terminal for such use, a primary requisite being that the ter-
minal be water-tight. This was accomplished by using a cast
iron housing, the cover being equipped with a rubber gasket
and clamped in place by means of wing nuts. Special fittings
were needed to make water-tight the entrances of the small one
and two pair cables employed to serve the individual residences.
As the terminal must be accessible, it is usually installed in a
small concrete box in which is also placed the splice between the
terminal stub and the distribution cable. A removable steel
cover is provided for the concrete box.

Terminals, in addition to providing the connection between
the distribution and subscriber's cables, serve as testing points
in locating cable failures. An underground terminal is not,
therefore, sufficiently accessible in localities where snow and
ice cover the ground throughout a substantial part of the winter
months. To meet this condition, a terminal mounted on a
pedestal has been designed. A metal housing serves to shelter
the terminal and cables, and at the same time affords a sightly

240

UXDERGROUXD TERMINAL — CoVER OpEX.

Pedestal Terminal on Rear pKorEKiv
Line — Housing in Place.

Pedestal Terminal -Door Open.

BURIED CABLE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

appearance. As the housing is only approximately seven inches
square and about two feet high, it is reasonably inconspicuous.
Since the recovery of buried cable is of doubtful economy, it
necessarily follows that such plant should be installed only
where it will care for the requirements of the situation through-
out a long period. Interior block cables can, as a rule, be de-

Plan of Buried Cable Distribution.

signed to care adequately for long period service and, coupled
with the ease of conducting installation activities under lawns,
the location of the cable along rear property lines seems to
offer the most attractive field for the use of buried cable in the
exchange plant. There are, however, other applications of this
new type of plant that have promising possibilities.

In towns where the telephone development is very slow and
where the presence of a heavy growth of trees along highways

241

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

would render the erection of aerial plant both expensive and
undesirable, buried cables are being used for feeder purposes,
such cables being installed either along the edge of the highway
where they are unlikely to be covered by paving or through
alleys, where the latter exist. In some instances the desir-
ability of such construction may result from the necessity of
avoiding conflicts with power lines or from considerations of
economy.

Limited use will doubtless be made of buried cable for dis-
tribution purposes along streets, usually between the roadway
and the sidewalk. This location is in general, however, less
desirable than the rear property line, inasmuch as it is necessary
either to place a cable along each side of the roadway, with the
result that the cable footage is doubled, or to make frequent
crossings of the roadway to reach houses on the side of the
street opposite that on which the distribution cable is located.
This latter alternative involves frequent openings across the
roadway which are in themselves objectionable from the pub-
lic's standpoint and also expensive, particularly where paving
is encountered. In some instances, pipes have been pushed
across the street under the paving, to avoid disturbing the road
surface, but this is an inherently expensive operation. It thus
appears that buried distribution cables can be employed eco-
nomically along the streets only in those situations where
right-of-way difficulties or frequent obstructions, such as ga-
rages, preclude placing the cable along the rear property line.

Compared to cable in conduit, tape armored cable is less ex-
pensive from the standpoints of both materials and installation.
A factor in the latter consists in the possibility of making ab-
rupt deviations in the line of the trench to avoid obstructions
such as boulders and trees, whereas in laying conduit these ir-
regularities in alignment must be limited in order that the
cable can be pulled into the conduit.

Compared to aerial cable with overhead drop wires, the
buried cable system is in general inherently more expensive.

242

BURIED CABLE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

There are, however, exceptions to this rule, particularly where
the soil conditions are favorable to excavating operations. In
some cases residential areas are laid out with winding, tortuous
property lines that render the cost of pole line construction
high, because of the many guys and anchors required. Under
these conditions the cost of the buried distribution cable, in
place, is likely to be less than that of an aerial cable and pole
line.

Efforts are continuing in the direction of effecting further
economies in the manufacture and installation of buried cable,
and it is possible that in time costs can be reduced to a point
where, under average conditions, buried distribution cable
costs will be more closely in line with those of aerial cable and
pole line. It seems questionable, however, whether the buried
one or two pair cables used to make the connections between
the distribution cable and the subscribers' houses, can be
brought down to the cost level of overhead drop wires.

In conclusion it should perhaps be stated that the buried
distribution plant has been adopted to meet new conditions for
which aerial cable does not seem suitable and cable in conduit
is too expensive. It does not contemplate the abandonment of
pole line plant since the latter will, of course, continue to be ap-
propriate under many of the conditions actually encountered.
Rather, the effort is and should be directed to having available
a plant system that, from the appearance standpoint, will be
harmonious with the ideals of the community as evidenced by
the erection of buildings of attractive design and the attention
devoted to beautifying the environs. By effecting further
economies in the buried cable system, it is the hope that the
Bell System may constantly increase its contribution to the aes-
thetic achievement of the community, no matter how modestly
the latter may be carried out, without sacrifice of sound eco-
nomic procedure.

C. G. Sinclair, Jr.

243

The Beginnings of Long Distance

AT the Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company in March, 1931, it
was voted that the corporate existence of the Company " be ex-
tended beyond the time specified in its certificate of incorpora-
tion, so that its duration shall be perpetual."

In the original certificate of incorporation, filed in 1885, the
life of the Company was limited to fifty years. The stated ob-
ject of the Company was to develop nation-wide and interna-
tional telephony, and this was a very imaginative objective con-
sidering the state of the art at that time.

In sharp contrast with the telephone's usefulness today,
which includes radio, telephotography, teletypewriter, and
transoceanic service, are the conditions of those early days
when it was necessary to experiment in order to ascertain the
best methods and the right road to success. The formation of
the American Company in 1885 was the beginning of a new
era in communications, and there was little or nothing at hand
to point the way. Vision and courage were necessary.

When the commercial work of the telephone began in May,
1877, the " subscriber " simply rented two instruments. He lo-
cated them where he pleased and he connected them with an
iron wire himself. But so much trouble resulted from improper
installing that both parties welcomed the amendment when
provision was made in the contracts that the line should be fur-
nished by the Telephone Company. Local commercial devel-
opment was initiated and superintended by agents licensed by
the Bell Telephone Company in Boston. These agents raised
the necessary money locally. This was the first, the Private
Line period of telephone history. It drew to a close in 1878.
A convenient date to mark the approach of the Exchange period

244

THE BEGINNINGS OF LONG DISTANCE

is the opening of the first regular commercial exchange at New
Haven, Connecticut, on January 28, 1878.

From these individual agents local telephone companies
grew up. Soon telephone subscribers became numerous
enough to be class conscious. The desire sprang up among
them to talk to each other. This desire started experiment-
ing. Each license agent worked out his own device for con-
necting his subscribers to each other. Gradually, through
consultation with Thomas A. Watson of the Bell Telephone
Company in Boston (the only one there was at first to con-
sult); through conferences with each other; and improvements
resulting from experience, the telephone switchboard and the
central office developed and opened up new fields of practical
use and of commercial value to the telephone. Soon it was
forgotten there had ever been a time when telephone service
had consisted entirely of private lines without any interconnec-
tion or exchange service. The inherent possibilities had led
the way, and successful experiment had cleared the path. This
was the second period of telephone development. It was
made possible by Technical Engineering and may be called the
Local Service or Exchange Period.

As the types of switchboard tended toward a standard, so too
by natural extensions and mergings the numerous license agen-
cies and local Telephone Companies first increased rapidly in
number and then gathered together a smaller number of larger
companies, pointing toward what are now the operating or As-
sociated Companies of the Bell System. In exactly the same
way that telephone subscribers developed inevitably a desire
to talk with each other, different towns and cities (which at
first usually meant different Telephone Companies), wished to
be able to talk with each other. The steady improvement of
telephone apparatus rendered this no vain wish, but promised
that before lon^ it would be technically possible.

But who should attempt it? Would telephone service over
these longer distances pay? How should the lines and opera-

245

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

tion of this new intercity service be distinguished from the local
telephone service? Or should the two be managed together in
some way? In the case of Companies whose territory was
adjacent it might be simple enough: let each Company con-
tribute the construction and maintain the operation in its own
territory. But when there was an intervening territory be-
longing to one or more other Companies, would it be feasible
to expect these uninterested Companies to meet expense for the
benefit of the distant Companies? Again, would they consent
to having their territory invaded by outside Companies? On
the other hand, would the outside Companies care to finance
construction and operation in territory they did not control?
The whole situation made up a complicated problem, but one
that in the pressure of the march of events had to be met, had
to be solved.

It was most fortunate that at the head of the telephone in-
dustry at that time stood a group of men of the right character
to make the most of the situation and its possibilities. At their
head was William H. Forbes, President of the National Bell
Telephone Company from March, 1879, and of its successor,
the American Bell Telephone Company, an executive of de-
cisive influence, who knew men and was remarkable for getting
results from and through them. The Board of Directors com-
prised men like Charles P. Bowditch, Alexander Cochrane,
Francis Blake, George L. Bradley, and William G. Saltonstall,
— men of standing and ability. Working hand in hand with
Mr. Forbes was the General Manager, Theodore N. Vail, a man
of initiative and of vision, and of rugged determination. Seen
from the standpoint of the present, the problem was one of the
original creation of a new Long Lines system. From the stand-
point of the time, however, the problem appeared to be one of
correlating the existing telephone exchanges, a problem of man-
agement. It naturally fell then primarily into the province of
the General Manager, and Vail was a creative genius in busi-
ness organization.

246

THE BEGINNINGS OF LONG DISTANCE

The third period of telephone development was thus intro-
duced by Mr. Vail's decision to try to create what he called,
with a use of the word common at that time, a grand system, or
as we would now be more likely to express it, a universal sys-
tem. It was a masterly piece of Commercial Engineering, as
has been demonstrated increasingly ever since with the growth
of the country.

So Vail with the support of Mr. Forbes and the Board of Di-
rectors put through the first long distance experiment, the Bos-
ton-New York Telephone Line. While the engineers were im-
proving the apparatus so that it could be relied upon to give
good transmission and justify commercial operation, he at-
tacked the problem from the organic and financial side.

In a Boston-New York telephone line at least four, maybe
five, distinct Companies would be concerned. There was first
in Massachusetts the Telephone Despatch Company in Bos-
ton; and then the Southern Massachusetts Telephone Com-
pany, in process of consolidation with other local companies; in
Rhode Island there was the Providence Telephone Company;
in Connecticut there was the Connecticut Telephone Com-
pany; and at Greenwich the line would pass into the territory
of the Metropolitan Telephone and Telegraph Company of
New York.

Mr. Vail suggested that the long distance line be constructed
by the parent company, the American Bell Telephone Com-
pany, separately from all local lines. The idea was approved
on June 2, 1880. Almost immediately however it was decided
to go more slowly, to feel the way, to start building the through
line only from Boston to Providence. In case of failure the
local companies could take over their own sections of the line.
But Mr. Vail put through his point that the line should not be
built by those local companies, but by a new, a separate com-
pany. Accordingly, on July 7, 1880, the Inter-State Tele-
phone Company was incorporated in New York (the objective
point he had in mind) for the purpose of building and operat-

247

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

ing this line, under a license from the American Bell Telephone
Company. It built it. The line was opened for commercial
operation on January 10, 1881.

The next section, extending westward from Providence,
would carry the line into the Connecticut Telephone Company.
The New Haven officials became enthusiastically interested.
Most of the mileage of the line would be in their territory. So
they urged a reorganization of the Inter-State. A second
Inter-State Telephone Company was incorporated under the
laws of the State of Connecticut on March 21, 1881, to carry
the building of the line on to New York. Of the four chief offi-
cers, three were Connecticut men; the fourth represented
Rhode Island. The President was Governor Marshall Jewell
of Connecticut; the Vice President was Governor Henry How-
ard of Rhode Island; the Secretary-Treasurer was Morris F.
Tyler of New Haven; and the General Manager was H. P.
Frost of New Haven. Meantime consolidation was going on
all along the line. In Massachusetts the Telephone Despatch
Company was merged with other companies into the New Eng-
land Telephone and Telegraph Company by November, 1883.
In Connecticut, the Southern New England Telephone Com-
pany had taken the place of the Connecticut Telephone Com-
pany and on October 2, 1882, bought the Inter-State Company
and gone on with its work. The changing interests were evi-
dent; this might have proved to be an unstable element if the
building of the long distance lines had been apportioned out to
the local companies.

The Boston-New York Line was completed in due course by
1884, and was formally opened on March 27, 1884. It worked
sufficiently well for its real purpose, which was to test out the
idea of a long distance telephone system, co-ordinated with but
distinct from the local systems. In an official report Thomas
B. Doolittle said, "The experimental wires between Boston
and New York have fully demonstrated the practicability of

248

THE BEGINNINGS OF LONG DISTANCE

telephonic communication to distant points, and that is all,
and all that was expected of them."

Meantime the technical achievements of the engineers, such
as Thomas B. Doolittle's hard drawn copper wire and young
John J. Carty's metallic circuit, were opening up vistas of tele-
phonic possibility. Envisioning the problem, finding the right
man and urging him onward with stimulating support, Theo-
dore N. Vail marshalled the whole work. From Boston to
New York! After New York, what? — What not?

He recurred to his original idea, that the construction and
operation of these long distance lines must be done by the
parent company. It would require what was then considered
an enormous amount of money. Application was made to the
Massachusetts Legislature to permit an adequate increase of
the capitalization of the American Bell for the purpose from
$10,000,000 to $30,000,000. It was refused. Therefore there
must be a special corporation to do this work under the Ameri-
can Bell. Mr. Vail again turned back to a previous suggestion.
He had had the first Inter-State Telephone Company incor-
porated under the laws of the State of New York. Let the
new Company be incorporated in New York.

Now for the right man. In Buffalo, New York, a young
man by the name of Edward J. Hall, Jr., had done fine work.
In 1884 he was only thirty-one. Mr. Vail himself was not yet
forty, and was never dismayed by youth in his men if they had
brains and initiative to make up for the lack of years. He sent
for Mr. Hall, now living in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to come to
Boston to see him. At the end of their talk, he pushed the
papers on the table over toward him and said, "Well, there is
the problem. Work it out." It was a great combination:
Mr. Vail in command for general guidance; and Mr. Hall
turned loose on the job as detail man. But they were large
details. So Mr. Hall organized the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company as a subsidiary of the American Bell Tele-
phone Company to build, maintain and operate long distance

249

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

telephone lines, i.e., lines extending between or across the terri-
tory of two or more operating telephone companies. Mr. Hall
was the General Manager and Mr. Vail the first President.

So on February 28, 1885, the four incorporators, Edward J.
Hall, Jr., of Elizabeth, New Jersey; Thomas B. Doolittle of
Bridgeport, Connecticut; Joseph P. Davis of New York City;
and Amzi S. Dodd of New York City, set their hands and seals
to the Certificate of Incorporation of an association to be called
the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and they
appeared before Jno. H. Cahill, Notary Public, No. 92, of New
York County, and duly executed the same. And the certificate
was filed and recorded in the Office of the Secretary of State of
the State of New York, at Albany, on March 3, 1885, 9 hr. 40
m. in the morning, as attested by Anson S. Wood, Deputy
Secretary of State.

The charter provided for a capitalization of $100,000 which
was sufficient for the time being, for the period of organization.
The capital was divided into 1,000 shares of the par value of
$100 each, held in equal lots of 250 shares each by the four in-
corporators. In 1888, on May 5th, the first capital increase
to $500,000 was voted.

Consider from the standpoint of 1884 and of that frankly ex-
perimental little telephone line from Boston to New York, the
enormous range of this charter! How extraordinarily specific
its geographical appropriations ! After a tolerable success over
250 miles, it contemplated lines of 3,000 miles and more. It
addressed itself at once to nation-wide telephony.

" The general route of the lines of telegraph * of said association will be
from a point or points in the city of New York along all rail roads, bridges,
highways and other practicable, suitable and convenient ways or courses,

* The word " telegraph " was until 1877 to all intents and purposes synonymous
with " electrical communication," as the telegraph was the only means of electrical
communication before the invention and development to a practical point of the tele-
phone. By 1885 the word " telephone " was well established in its present discriminat-
ing sense, but in a legal document like this charter conservative judgment considered it
advisable to hold to the old word " telegraph," which also closely identified the new
telephone lines with the basic Bell patent. No. 174,465, March 7, 1876, in which the
telephone is designated as an " improvement in telegraphy."

250

THE BEGINNINGS OF LONG DISTANCE

leading thence to the cities of Albany, Boston, and the intermediate cities,
towns and places, also from a point or points in and through the city of
New York, and thence through and across the Hudson and East rivers and
the bay and harbor of New York, to Jersey City, Long Island City and
Brooklyn, and along all rail roads, bridges, highways and other practicable,
suitable and convenient ways and courses to the cities of Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Charleston, Mobile and New Orleans,
and to all intermediate cities, towns and places; and in like manner to the
cities of Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, :Memphis,
Indianapolis, Chicago, Saint Louis, Kansas City, Keokuk, Des Moines,
Detroit, Milwaukie, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, Omaha, Cheyenne, Denver,
Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Portland, and to all intermediate cities,
to\\Tis and places, and also along all railroads, bridges, highways and other
practicable, suitable and convenient ways and courses as may be necessary
or proper for the purpose of connecting with each other one or more points
in said city of New York, and in each of the cities, towns and places here-
inabove specifically or generally designated."

Dealing with large items indeed, it may still be noted that thus
far the charter merely provided for work in the tangible future.
Continuing, the charter reached out to include with very
specific thoroughness the whole world. At that time to the
minds of most people this must have seemed decidedly vision-
ary. Now it is seen to have been simply a matter of necessity,
a matter of course.

" And it is further declared and certified that the general route of the
lines of this association, in addition to those hereinbefore described or
designated, will connect one or more points in each and every city, town
or place in the State of New York with one or more points in each and
every other city, town or place in said State, and in each and every other
of the United States, and in Canada and Mexico, and each and every of
said cities, towns and places is to be connected with each and every other
city, town or place in said States and Counties, and also by cable and other
appropriate means with the rest of the known world as may hereafter be-
come necessary or desirable in conducting the business of this association."

But standing there with Hall, Doolittle, Davis and Dodd by
his side, creating a powerful instrument for facilitating the will
of the people and developing American civilization. Vail and

251

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

his associates of the American Bell Company, did not forget his
technical engineers, the successors of Alexander Graham Bell.
Confidently depending upon what they would do, with a phrase
which, though casual, impresses us with awe, the document
sweeps us on to what was then unimaginable, — " also by cable
and other appropriate means." Here was latitude for engi-
neering ability! As long as seven years later, at the opening
of the New York-Chicago open air line, the Company stated
that " the use of cable which was exceedingly detrimental to
telephone transmission " had been used as little as possible in
that line. Yet here in 1885 this charter, anticipating and even
guaranteeing steady advancement in the telephone art, specifies
cable as a great means for doing the impossible. This it has
become. The charter goes on with a magnificent inclusiveness:

" Also by cable and other appropriate means with the rest of the known
world as may hereafter become necessary or desirable."

Permalloy, radio telephony, — what else? Is there anything
from which that new little Company with its $100,000 capital-
ization was excluded? The whole world was opened wide to
it as its field. Surely this was a permanent organization, un-
limited in any way.

But no. Like the first Boston-New York line, it must prove
itself. A definite term is allotted to it. If it can make good
on its possibilities, it will be evident within fifty years. So the
clause is put in at the end:

" And the period when it shall terminate shall be at the expiration of
the term of fifty years from said day."

In effect, to the American Telephone and Telegraph Com-
pany with this charter of its creation, Theodore N. Vail said,
as he said to E. J. Hall, Jr., " Well, there is the problem. Work
it out." His successors have indeed worked it out. The great
experiment has been a success. And now its charter has been
made perpetual.

William Chauncy Langdon

252

Talking Pictures in Industry and Education

THE adaptation of the talking motion picture to the needs
of industry and education is an activity that promises to
bring to the public economic and cultural benefits of ever in-
creasing value. Here is a comparatively new vehicle of com-
munication, born in the Bell Telephone Laboratories and
brought to maturity in the Western Electric Company, that
records and transmits ideas, locale and personalities to this and
future generations, with a fidelity to truth and simplicity of op-
eration that have earned it a high place in the history of the art
of communication. It is a medium that makes use of all of the
well-known devices of the silent motion picture — microscopic,
diagrammatic, time lapse, slow motion and realistic photog-
raphy, and of the sound transmission principles of the tele-
phone, the radio, and the phonograph, combining them all so
skillfully into an harmonious whole that the illusion of reality
is substantially maintained.

It was to be expected that leaders in industry would quickly
recognize the merits of this new instrumentality and would
welcome its inclusion in their spheres of activity. A few ex-
amples of the use made of talking pictures by industry show
the wide range of business problems which it has successfully
helped to solve. It has been used for employee training; for
sales demonstration; for the introduction of new products to
dealers and the public, and in advertising, publicity and public
relations work. It has been employed to carry official mes-
sages of management to employees, to report conventions, to
analyze service practices and in many other important busi-
ness activities. For the past three years it has been thoroughly
tested in hundreds of ways by industry and has fully justified
the claims that were made for it.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for a number

253

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

of years had followed the practice of bringing their dealers into
Akron for meetings lasting several days. The expense in-
volved in these meetings was very high, and this year it was
decided to meet with the dealers in their own localities by
using talking pictures. A sales training picture, running an
hour and a half, entitled, " Every Third Wheel " was pro-
duced, taken to one hundred and sixty-nine cities and shown to
more than twenty-one thousand dealers and their employees.
The attendance at the meetings was almost double what Good-
year had anticipated, and it is the opinion of Goodyear officials
that the use of talking movies increased their sales for 1931.
As a result of the success of this picture, Goodyear is now plan-
ning the production of its second feature picture to be distrib-
uted in 1932.

A somewhat similar activity was carried on by Chevrolet
Motor Car Company, Detroit, Michigan. Three sound pic-
tures were produced for dealer and employee training and were
distributed and shown to dealers and employees in theatres
throughout the country during the morning hours and in hotels
equipped with Western Electric Sound Systems. One picture
— " The Prospect Within Two Blocks " — which ran for forty
minutes was particularly successful. It was shown in fifty-
two cities and the results were so satisfactory that Chevrolet
will produce a fourth picture to be shown at their Fall meet-
ings to dealers this year.

A similar use of the talking movie was made by The Perfect
Circle Company, Hagerstown, Indiana. This concern pro-
duced a three-reel picture on the history of The Perfect Cir-
cle Company, including a complete explanation of the manu-
facturing processes involved in producing Perfect Circle Piston
Rings. This picture was first shown at the annual convention
of the National Spare Parts Association, held in Cleveland last
November. Since that time it has been shown to dealers and
jobbers throughout the country with gratifying results. In
spite of the fact that the automotive industry has been hard

254

TALKING PICTURES IN INDUSTRY AND EDUCATION

hit by the present depression, the Vice President and Director
of Sales of this organization reports that the sale of Perfect
Circle Piston Rings has increased 52 per cent this year over
any previous year. He gives full credit for this increase to the
talking picture entitled " The Magic Circle " and, as a result,
this organization is now preparing a new forty minute picture
which will have its initial showing in November at the National
Spare Parts Association Convention.

Studebaker Corporation has been a consistent user of the
talking movie for the past three years. Two of its recent pic-
tures produced for theatrical distribution, entitled " A Trip to
the Clouds " and " Wildflowers," in which the Studebaker musi-
cal organization, " The Champions," was presented to the pub-
lic, have been particularly successful.

Dodge Brothers Corporation have made use of the talk-
ing picture principally at the automobile shows by means of
shadow-box arrangements in hotel lobbies and have caused
much widespread comment. So pleased were Dodge Broth-
ers with the results of their talking picture campaign that they
are now producing a ten reel feature subject in Hollywood,
which will be shown for the first time at their dealer meetings
to be held throughout the United States this Fall.

Another large user of the talking movie is Standard Oil
Company (Ohio). This company began with the production
of a two reel training picture which was distributed through-
out the State of Ohio under the Road Show Plan operated by
Electrical Research Products, Inc. Forty-nine shows were
given in six days' time. Standard Oil Company (Ohio) was
so well pleased with the results obtained that they immediately
contracted for a series of twelve single reel training subjects,
one to be released each month during 1931. Up to the present
time seven of these pictures have been produced and shown
throughout Ohio, and arrangements have been made for six
new pictures for the first six months of 1932.

When the United States Rubber Company wished to

255

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

reach golf professionals with an intensive campaign, it turned
to the talking movie and produced two sound pictures — one
entitled " Pros, Players and Profits " and the other entitled —
"The Inside Story of the Golf Ball." These pictures have
already been shown in fifty cities to leading golf professionals,
sporting goods dealers and gold enthusiasts.

An interesting use of the talking movie was made by Coca-
Cola Company. This company produced several pictures,
the most important of which was a four-reel subject, entitled
" The Soda Fountain Service." This picture contained one of
the largest sets ever used in the production of an industrial pic-
ture. A complete drug store was installed in the studio and
placed in actual operation in all its details in order to give the
picture a high degree of accuracy. The objective of the picture
was the analysis of service and the presentation of methods for
improvement.

Several other companies have been actively engaged in talk-
ing, movie campaigns this year. Outstanding among these are
the PuGET Sound Light & Power Company with their excel-
lent production picturing the State of Washington; Standard
Brands, Inc. with an eight reel feature subject, entitled " Food
For Thought "; Richfield Oil Company with their three reel
subject featuring Lloyd Hamilton, entitled "Service Wins
Again " ; International Harvester Company with a feature
length subject commemorating the one hundredth anniversary
of the invention of the McCormick Reaper and Harvester;
Armstrong Cork Company v/ith a picture describing their
new product " Temlock," which was taken out to lumber deal-
ers throughout the country, and many others.

Another development that will be of economic importance in
this time of depression, and which is well under way, is worthy
of comment. Many of the largest corporations in the country
are completing their plans for an intensive use of talking movies
for the furtherance of better personnel relations, more economi-
cal training of employees and the improvement of public re-

256

TALKING PICTURES IN INDUSTRY AND EDUCATION

lations. An example of this work is the excellent start that has
been made by the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company through the production of pictures for the training
of directory advertising salesmen, the training of plant con-
struction forces in the use of the new mortar bandage joints,
and a picture showing the advantages of systematic training of
P.B.X. operators.

The list of concerns using talking pictures is an imposing one
for a year of depression and the results that industry has se-
cured through these activities give a clear indication of the
great value that the talking picture has in the commercial
world.

Satisfactory as these results have been in the field of in-
dustry, perhaps even more striking have been the results se-
cured by Electrical Research Products, Inc. in adapting the
talking motion picture to education.

In the initial stages of this development, a small number of
demonstration pictures were produced and shown at the princi-
pal educational conventions of the National Education Asso-
ciation, Progressive Education Association, Parent-Teacher As-
sociations and many State Teacher Associations. Literally
thousands of opinions and suggestions were sought for and se-
cured from teachers and school administrators as to the value
and proper use of talking movies in the schools, before the
broad outlines of the educational plan were finally laid out.

In one of the early campaigns a twenty minute demonstration
picture was shown at the summer training courses for teachers
at eleven universities, including Chicago University, Columbia
University, University of Southern California and other impor-
tant institutions. Fifty-six demonstrations were given to
nearly seven thousand students, faculty members and college
officials, and by means of questionnaires some indication of the
trend of educational thought was secured. The opinion was
almost unanimous that the talking movie would be of tre-
mendous value in educational work. These seven thousand

257

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

educators listed their reasons for believing in the talking movie,
and it is interesting to reproduce them here in the order of im-
portance in which they were rated on the questionnaires.
These educators thought:

1. The talking movie makes the subject more stimulating

and interesting.

2. Gives information not available in the classroom.

3. Excels in revealing personalities.

4. Democratizes education.

5. Leaves a more lasting impression.

An Educational Advisory Committee was formed, consisting
of several prominent educators, representing different activities
in the educational field. For three years these advisers have
been in constant consultation with the administrators of the
educational plan. They have formulated educational stand-
ards to serve as guides in the production of talking movies for
classroom use. As the plan evolves, they are determining from
the standpoint of the teacher himself the subject to produce,
with a careful scrutiny of their content, so that the greatest
possible advantage may be taken of the talking movie as an
agency for the enrichment of the school curriculum.

With the advice and assistance of this Educational Advisory
Committee, three specialized groups were formed to carry out
the broad plans of the Department of Educational Talking
Pictures of Electrical Research Products, Inc. for the introduc-
tion of the talking movie as a teaching aid. These groups are
the Research, Production and Promotion Divisions of the Edu-
cational Department.

The Research group, supervised by a former Superintendent
of Schools, with graduate work at Chicago and Columbia Uni-
versities, was organized with several research associates, each
one of whom is a specialist in the field of education. Each has
had actual teaching experience and each holds the Ph.D. de-
gree in educational research in his special field. This full time

258

TALKING PICTURES IN INDUSTRY AND EDUCATION

research staff has made a complete survey of the courses of in-
struction offered in American schools; has analyzed the sales
possibilities and has determined in what way talking pictures
can be employed to make the greatest possible contribution to
American education. On the basis of these analyses, checked
with educators throughout the country so that group judgment
rather than personal judgment would prevail, a series of com-
plete teaching courses, into which the talking movie has been
incorporated, has been prepared. In each of these courses,
units of instruction have been prepared. Teachers' Hand-
books have been made available and suggested continuities
have been written on the basis of which demonstration pic-
tures have been made for release to the teaching profession.

The Production Division was organized with several ex-
perienced directors, scenario writers and technicians, each of
whom has had several years training in the production of pic-
tures for the non-theatrical market. Supplementing the work
of this division and of great value in maintaining the quality of
the pictures produced have been the services of the engineers,
the technical experts on sound recording, sound reproduction,
and acoustics, who are part of the headquarters staff of Elec-
trical Research Products, Inc.

Using the material developed as a result of the research ac-
tivities and with the advice and assistance of outside special-
ists in the educational field retained for consultation in the
case of each production, the Educational Department produced
some fifty educational talking movies for demonstration uses
in the school field in the following departments of education:
Teacher Training; Music Appreciation; Natural Science;
Physical Education; Social Science.

Among the pictures produced are those featuring some of the
most famous educators in the world, recognized leaders whose
standing and reputation permit them to speak with authority
on the subjects in which they have specialized. A few of these
authorities are: Dr. William H. Kilpa trick, Columbia Univer-

259

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

sity; Dr. Guy T. Buswell, University of Chicago; Dr. Boyd H.
Bode, Ohio State University; Dr. Arnold Gesell, Yale Univer-
sity; Dr. Charlotte Buehler, University of Vienna; Dr. Hughes
Mearns, New York University; Dr. Richard D. Allen, Lecturer
at Harvard University; Dr. Arthur I. Gates, Columbia Univer-
sity; Dr. Clyde Fisher, American Museum of Natural History,
and others.

During the past year demonstration pictures produced under
the educational plan have had a widespread showing through-
out the country and a large number of interesting uses have
been made of the material prepared and of the equipment pro-
vided for such use.

One activity which is of special interest is the Parent and
Teacher Guidance course which was conducted weekly at the
Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D. C, February 24 to April 15,
1931. This course, which was sponsored by Dr. William J.
Cooper, Commissioner of Education, and by an imposing list
of leaders in the educational world, used one of the teacher
training pictures at each session as the basis for discussion.
The course of instruction was taken by six hundred educators,
teachers and parents. The discussions were spirited and pro-
longed and the results were approved as making a significant
contribution to American education.

A similar course of instruction in visual education was given
at the University of California, Los Angeles, during the month
of July, in which a large number of educational pictures were
used as the basis for the course. These two examples of the
use of the talking movies in teacher training have been re-
ferred to generally in the press as " The Talking Movie Uni-
versity," and great good has been accomplished.

While these two courses show an interesting use of the
talking movie, more important still has been the fact that, not
only in teacher training courses, but also in actual classroom
situations, the talking movie has been used during the past year
to reach thousands of students as a regular part of their every

260

TALKING PICTURES IN INDUSTRY AND EDUCATION

day courses of instruction. With the opening of the present
school term it is expected that a still wider use will be made of
talking movies on the sound projectors that have been recently
installed in several of the school systems throughout the coun-
try.

It may be well to note that schools may use the subjects pre-
pared for them with the greatest assurance that a substantial
contribution to the learning process will result. During the
past year a staff of research workers, experienced in psychologi-
cal testing and statistical analysis, has made a series of tests
and measurements to determine the value of the talking movie
in comparison with other teaching devices. The findings will
shortly be published in monograph form for the professional
field and will reveal for the first time well authenticated con-
clusions that the contribution of the talking motion picture to
the learning process is definite and substantial.

Many related activities have been carried on in the non-
theatrical use of talking movies, all of which are charged with
interest, but do not fall within the scope of this present article.
One of these is the production of medical pictures for clinical
instruction, nurses' training and for use at medical societies
throughout the country. Several remarkable pictures have
been produced in this field and have been widely used with
uniformly good results.

Demonstration pictures have also been produced for use in
the religious field and several of the most important denomi-
nations are now carrying on research programs to determine
in what way the talking motion picture can best be adapted to
advance the work of the church. Sufficient results have al-
ready been secured in the training of Sunday School teachers,
in the recording of outstanding messages and personalities, and
in the production of relisjious music to indicate a widespread
use of the medium for this purpose in the near future.

At many of the Veterans' Hospitals throughout the country,
talkies shown on Western Electric equipment are bringing

261

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

comfort and cheer to disabled soldiers and sailors. Ships at
sea are showing regular programs. County and state institu-
tions are bringing to their inmates a conception of the changing
world outside. Teachers are gaining a new perspective and
new enthusiasms for their calling. Doctors are studying the
techniques of famous surgeons. School children are gaining
their early concepts through carefully formulated talking movie
lessons. Surely, here is a Bell System contribution to Ameri-
can civilization of growing importance, and one that is in har-
mony with the high ideals of service to the public that is the
heritage of telephone men and women everywhere.

F. L. Devereux

262

Notes on Recent Occurrences

OVERSEAS TELEPHONE SERVICE EXTENDED

Radio telephone service was extended on August 15 from
North America to the Canary Islands, off the west coast of
Africa, slightly south of Morocco.

A call from New York to any point in the Canary Islands
costs $40.50 for the first three minutes of conversation and
$13.50 for each additional minute. After leaping the Atlantic
by radio, calls cross England by land wire, pass under the Eng-
lish Channel and travel to Madrid by wire. Here they are
transmitted by radio to their destination in the Canary Islands.
This last operation is handled by the National Telephone Com-
pany of Spain while transmission from the United States is in
the hands of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

600,000 A. T. & T. STOCKHOLDERS RECEIVED
JULY 15 DIVIDEND

THE dividend of July 1 5 to American Telephone and Tele-
graph Company stockholders of record June 20 was paid
to more than 600,000 owners of the stock. This is the largest
number ever to receive a dividend payment from the Company.

From the beginning of the year to the record date the A. T.
& T. stock list increased over 33,000. About 15,000 of the net
gain was accounted for by employee stockholders while about
4,000 new accounts resulted from installment subscriptions
completed last April under the 1930 stock offer.

As has been true in the past, small stockholders comprised
the bulk of the gain, those holding 5 shares or less increasing
1 6,000 and those owning 2 5 shares or less about 30,000. From
December 31, 1930 to June 20, 1931 the average number of
shares per holder declined from 31.6 to 30.8.

263

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

Since the end of last year stockholders have increased in all
geographical areas of the United States with the Central and
Southwestern territories showing the largest percentage gains.

CONFERENCE OF BELL SYSTEM PRESIDENTS

A CONFERENCE of Presidents of Bell System Companies
was held from September 29 to October 4, inclusive, at
Yama Farms, Napanoch, New York.

264

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY

VOLUME X, 1931
INDEX

PAGE

Andrew, S. L.: The Methods of Industrial and Business Forecasting 26

Annual Meeting, American Telephone and Telegraph Co., March 31, 1931,

Note on 130

Australia, Overseas Service Extended to, Oct. 27, 1930, Note on 60

Auxiliary Services and Facilities of the Bell System, Some, by R. S. Coe (11

illus.) ISO

Barrett, R. T.: Milestones, Guideposts and Footprints 80

Beginnings of Long Distance, The, by William C. Langdon 244

Belgenland, Ship-to-Shore Service Extended to, Dec. 2, 1930, Note on 63

Belgenland, Talk to U. S. Points from. Note on 203

Bell, The Russell Portrait of Alexander Graham, by W. C. Langdon (1 illus. —

frontispiece) 124

Building, Moving the Indianapolis Telephone, by Vance Oathout and W. H.

Harrison (15 illus.) 17

Buried Cable Distribution System, by C. G. Sinclair, Jr. (4 illus.) 237

Cable, Another Telephone, Goes into Service to Cuba, Jan. 22, 1931, Note on 128

Cable, Buried, Distribution System, by C. G. Sinclair, Jr. (4 illus.) 237

Cable Conductors, An Important New Insulating Process for, by H. G. Walker 211
Canary Islands, Overseas Telephone Service Extended to, Aug. 15, 1931, Note on 263
Carter, H. H.: Some Commercial Aspects of Radio Network Service (3 illus.) 69

Census, Preliminary Returns of the Distribution, by R. L. Tomblen 216

Coe, R. S.: Some Auxiliary Services and Facilities of the Bell System (11 illus.) ISO
Coe, R. S.: The Growing American Taste for Beauty and What the Bell Sys-
tem is Doing to Satisfy It 103

Communication Industries, What the Electrical, Expect of the Technical Schools,

by Bancroft Gherardi 3

Conductors, Cable, An Important New Insulating Process for, by H. G. Walker 211
Conduit, Toll, Construction on Private Property, by G. P. Dunn and J. C. Nash

(14 illus.) 39

Cresson, Elliott, Medal Award to Clinton J. Davisson and Lester H. Germer,

Note on 206

Cruise Ships in Distant Oceans, Talk to U. S. Points from, Note on 203

Cuba, Another Telephone Cable Goes into Service to, Jan. 22, 1931, Note on ... 128

Davisson, Clinton J., awarded Elliott Cresson Medal, Note on 206

Development of the Microphone, The, by H. A. Frederick (27 illus.) 164

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY INDEX, VOLUME X

PAGE

Devereux, F. L.: Talking Pictures in Industry and Education 253

Dunn, G. P., and J. C. Nash: Toll Conduit Construction on Private Property

(14 illus.) 39

Dusenberry, W. L.: Teletypewriter Service and its Present Day Uses (15 illus.) 92

Education and Industry, Talking Pictures in, by F. L. Devereux 253

Electrical Communication Industries, What the. Expect of the Technical Schools,

by Bancroft Gherardi 3

Espenschied, Lloyd: International Radio Technical Conference at Copenhagen 135

Forecasting, The Methods of Industrial and Business, by S. L. Andrew 26

Frederick, H. A.: The Development of the Microphone (27 illus.) 164

General Commercial Managers' Sales Conference, Shawnee on Delaware, June 5-9,

1931, Note on 207

Germer, Lester H., awarded Elliott Cresson Medal, Note on 206

Gherardi, Bancroft: What the Electrical Communication Industries Expect of

the Technical Schools 3

Gherardi, Bancroft, Elected President of the American Standards Association,

Note on 64

Growing American Taste for Beauty and What the Bell System is Doing to

Satisfy It, by R. S. Coe 103

Harrison, W. H., and Vance Oathout: Moving the Indianapolis Telephone Build-
ing (15 illus.) 17

Hodgkinson, Wm., Jr.: The Primary Production of the World (3 illus.) 193

Hoiden, Hale, Made A. T. & T. Director, Note on 64

Homeric, Talk to U. S. Points from. Note on 203

Important New Insulating Process for Cable Conductors, An, by H. G. Walker 211
Indianapolis Telephone Building, Moving the, by Vance Oathout and W. H.

Harrison (15 illus.) 17

Industry and Education, Talking Pictures in, by F. L. Devereux 253

Insulating Process for Cable Conductors, An Important New, by H. G. Walker 211
International Radio Technical Conference at Copenhagen, by Lloyd Espenschied 135
Italy and Sicily, Transatlantic Telephone Service Extended to all, April 6, 1931,

Note on 203

Java, Telephone Service to, April 1, 1931, Note on 130

LaChance, H. C: The Training of Telephone Operators (6 illus.) 12

Langdon, W. C: The Beginnings of Long Distance 244

Langdon, W. C: The Russell Portrait of Alexander Graham Bell (1 illus.—
frontispiece ) 124

Leviathan, Oceangate, N. J. station in communication with. Note on 127

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY INDEX, VOLUME X

PAGE

Long Distance, The Be^nninps of, by William C. Langdon 244

Lucas, Francis F., received honorary degree, Lehigh Univ., Note on 206

Majestic, Oceangate, N. J. station in communication with, Note on 127

Measurement of Noise. The; a New Service of Electrical Research Products, Inc.,

by S. K. Wolf (6 illus.) 1S9

Methods of Industrial and Business Forecasting, The, by S. L. Andrew 26

Microphone, The Development of the, by H. A. Frederick (27 illus.) 164

Milestones, Guideposts and Footprints, by R. T. Barrett 80

Moving the Indianapolis Telephone Building, by Vance Oathout and W. H. Harri-
son (IS illus.) 17

Nash, J. C, and G. P. Dunn: Toll Conduit Construction on Private Property

(14 illus.) 39

Network, Radio, Service, Some Commercial Aspects of, by H. H. Carter (3 illus.) 69
Noise. The Measurement of; a New Service of Electrical Research Products, Inc.,
by S. K. Wolf (6 illus.) 189

Numerical Center of Telephones, Announcement if made of a new, Note on 129

Oathout, Vance and W. H. Harrison: Moving the Indianapolis Telephone Build-
ing (15 illus.) 17

Oceangate, N. J., New Ship-to-Shore Transmitting Station Opened at, Jan. 15,

1931, Note on 127

Operating Conference, Absecon, N. J., April 30-May 6, 1931, Note on 205

Operators, The Training of Telephone, by H. C. LaChance (6 illus.) 12

Overseas Telephone Extensions During the Year 1930 57

Overseas Telephone Service extended to Canary Islands, Aug. IS, 1931, Note on 263

Pictures, Talking, in Industry and Education, by F. L. Devereux 253

Population Changes in Small Communities and in Rural Areas, by R. L. Tomb-

len (2 illus.) llS

Preliminary Returns of the Distribution Census, by R. L. Tomblen 216

Presidents' Conference, Yama Farms. Sept. 29-Oct. 4, 1931, Note on 264

Primary Production of the World, The, by Wm. Hodgkinson, Jr. (3 illus.) 193

Radio, International, Technical Conference at Copenhagen, by Lloyd Espenschied 135
Radio Network Service, Some Commercial Aspects of, by H. H. Carter (3 illus.) 69

Returns of the Distribution Census, Preliminary, by R. L. Tomblen 216

Rural Areas, Population Changes in Small Communities and in, by R. L. Tomblen

(2 illus.) lis

Russell Portrait of Alexander Graham Bell, The, by W. C. Langdon (1 illus.—

frontispiece) 124

Ship-to-Shore, New, Transmitting Station Opened at Oceangate, N. J., Jan. IS,

1931, Note on 127

Ship-to-Shore Service Extended to Belgenland, Dec. 2, 1930, Note on 63

BELL TELEPHONE QUARTERLY INDEX, VOLUME X

PAGE

Sicily and all Italy, Transatlantic Telephone Service Extended to, April 6, 1931,

Note on 203

Sinclair, C. G., Jr.: Buried Cable Distribution System (4 illus.) 237

600,000 A. T. & T. Stockholders Received July IS, 1931 Dividend, Note on 253

Some Auxiliary Services and Facilities of the Bell System, by R. S. Coe (11 illus.) ISO
Some Bell System Services Offered to Private Switchboard Users, by G. L. White-
man (3 illus.) 231

Some Commercial Aspects of Radio Network Service, by H. H. Carter (3 illus.) 69

South America, Overseas Service Extended to, Jan. 1, 1931, Note on 61

Statistics, World's Telephone, Jan. 1, 1930 (7 illus.) 138

Switchboard, Private, Users, Some Bell System Services Offered to, bv G. L.

Whiteman (3 illus.) 231

Talking Pictures in Industry and Education, by F. L. Devereux 253

Telephone, World's, Statistics, Jan. 1, 1930 (7 illus.) 138

Telephone Cable, Another, to Cuba Goes into Service, Jan. 22, 1931, Note on .. 128

Telephone Service to Java, April 1, 1931, Note on 130

Telephone Operators, The Training of, by H. C. LaChance (6 illus.) 12

Teletypewriter Service and its Present Day Uses, by W. L. Dusenberry (IS illus.) 92
Toll Conduit Construction on Private Property, by G. P. Dunn and J. C. Nash

(14 illus.) 39

Tomblen, R. L.: Population Changes in Small Communities and in Rural Areas

(2 illus.) lis

Tomblen, R. L.: Preliminary Returns of the Distribution Census 216

Training of Telephone Operators, The, by H. C. LaChance (6 illus.) 12

Transmitting Station, New Ship-to-Shore, Opened at Oceangate, N. J., Jan. IS,

1931, Note on 127

Walker, H. G.: An Important New Insulating Process for Cable Conductors 211

Wente, Edward C, awarded John Price Wetherill Medal, Note on 206

Wetherill, John Price, Medal Awarded to Edward C. Wente, Note on 206

What the Electrical Communication Industries Expect of the Technical Schools,

by Bancroft Gherardi 3

Whiteman, G. L.: Some Bell System Services Offered to Private Switchboard

Users (3 illus.) 231

Wolf, S. K.: The Measurement of Noise; a New Service of Electrical Research

Products, Inc. (6 illus.) 189

World's Telephone Statistics, Jan. 1, 1930 (7 illus.) 138

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

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