System Being Introduced Into London: A Gradual Change The Engineering - Department
engaged upon a s! e for eqnipof the General one ed _is ptmaae Ae gradually with an automatic telephone system, such as already is in satisfactory operation in Leeds, Portsmouth, and Newport (Mon.)> After the capital outlay an automatic system involves important economies in staff and buildings, and, increased efficiency and saving' "of time.
The London telephone area is at present served by 90 exchanges, each of which requires trained operators. The automatic system enables a small village to have an' exchange which would be impossible if a staff of operators with the necessary reliefs for holidays had to employed. Examples of such automatic exchanges with 50 or less lines are Hurley, Colnbrook, and Ramsey. Another automatic exchange will be opened shortly at Southampton, with a capacity for 5,500 subscribers. The ultimate capacity of exchanges now working in this country exceeds 44,000 lines, and about 3 per cent. of the total instruments in use are automatic.
It will probably be at least 15 years before London has a full a transition stage, involving the period there will necessarily be a transition stage, involving the simultaneous us2. of th systems. The problem has been attacked by studying, in the form of working models, every possible difficulty which might arise, such as the case of a subscriber on an outlying manual exchange wishing to speaking to a subscriber connected to City automatic exchange and vice versa. Working in close ce-operation with the leading manufacturers, the engineers have evolved satisfactory apparatus,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.