Benedicts To continue further this discussion of matrimony-we have at hand two interesting newspaper clippings. One, brief and business-like, records that in Santa Barbara "another wedding took place last night, when Miss Bessie Agnes Smith, chief operator of the Pacific States Telephone Company, here, became the bride of Earl Elmo English, who is employed by the same concern. Rev. George C. Wright tied the knot at the Baptist Church. The bride is a native of Pasadena, where her parents still live." This was on June 20. A week earlier, G. W. Patterson, manager at Hanford. joined the benedicts. Mr. Patterson's adventure was recorded in the Hanford Sentinel in the following language: Hello, Central! G. W. Patterson, the genial manager of the Pacific Telephone Company here, went away the other day and the Sentinel printed a suspicious statement concerning his trip. It is now stated that he was united in marriage at Angels Camp, June 12, to a Miss Rose. The couple then left for Los Angeles to enjoy a honeymoon. Mr. Patterson is a fine man and we trust the Rose he has chosen is just the right one. Having taken her from Angels Camp and gone with her to the Angel City we can not infer otherwise than that all is well, and when he comes home we will try and get the line on him and make him telephone all about it. Aluminum Telephone Wires The high co-efficient of expansion of aluminum wire, and its comparatively low tensile strength, causes a greater sag at high temperatures than with copper in overhead line work. In telephone construction, where the wires, by necessity, are strung closer together on the cross arms, this greater sag of aluminum would probably result in contact between wires at the deflections which would occur at summer temperatures. For this reason, together with the soldering difficulty, where lateral connections are made, aluminum is practically shut out of competition with copper for this particular use. There is also some objection to the use of aluminum wire as small as that required for telephone purposes, on account of the necessity of stranding it. There is no reason, however, why aluminum should not be used as a conductor for isolated aerial telephone lines, if a large enough wire can be used. In cases known to the writer where it has been used for such telephone circuits, it seems to have operated as a particularly good carrier of the voice. This may possibly be due to the particular balance which exists in an aluminum wire between resistance, inductance and capacity, aluminum having somewhat less self-induction, and more capacity, than a copper wire of the same resistance.-H. W. Buck, in Journal of Electricity, Power and Gas. They're Slow in Europe The number of new telephones installed phones a thousand, almost identical with in the United States last year far exceeded the total number in use in Great Britain. Use of telephones in America is ten times greater than in Europe, in proportion to population. So striking has this been in England, and so important the principle involved, that the European management of the New York Sun has collected data bearing upon the subject from the Sun's correspondents in all the capitals of Europe. The British government-all European governments, for that matter-assumes that all methods of communication except by the voice alone belong to the state. This state monopoly is so jealousy guarded that even the boy messenger companies are compelled to pay a royalty to the state of two cents upon each message carried the sum it would have cost to send it through the post. In spite of difficulties, however, there were 425,356 telephones in use in the country at the beginning of the present year, nearly 400,000 of these being the property of the National Company. The number of telephones in London is 130,000, of which 38,500 are connected with the postoffice government exchange. There are in all Europe, with a population of 380,000,000, a total of 1,675,000 telephones in service, an average of only 4.4 telephones to the thousand inhabitants. In Great Britain the proportion is 10.1 tele Germany, where there are 593,535 telephones, the ratio being 10.2 to the thousand. America, with its equipment of more than 3,000,000 telephones for a population about one-fifth that of Europe, shows by contrast how backward has been the European development of the industry. In capital invested the comparison is no less striking. The telephone companies of the United States spent last year nearly $80,000,000 of fresh capital in extension of plant and exchange systems. This sum is considerably greater than the total amount invested in the telephone business in Great Britain from the outset until the present day. There are in Paris at the present time 46,933 telephones among a population of 2,714,068, or one telephone to about fiftyseven inhabitants. In St. Petersburg, with its population of more than a million and a half, there were on January only 11,000 possessors of telephones. There are 95,000 telephones in greater Berlin, which has 3,367,000 inhabitants. The telephone is more generally used and the service is more efficient in Sweden than in any other country in Europe. There are more telephones in Stockholm alone than in all Austria, three times as many as in Italy. A large proportion of all telephones used in Europe are made in Sweden. Ting-a-lings more. * A French postoffice employee says that kept quiet about it so long he might have made he invented the telephone in 1854. He has persuaded the French government that he actually did, and the government has given him a pension of $600 a year. If he hadn't A telephone system, which keeps the marksmen constantly informed as to scores Manager Ahlborn of the Sunset Telephone Company has issued a new telephone directory, which places the number of subscribers in this city and suburban lines at 316, the number including several secured since publication of the directory. During the six months of his management he has added 111 new subscribers to the list, and the number is constantly on the increase. A new switchboard will be installed, necessitating employing another operator at the central office. A new testing machine has been installed. Two-party lines are taking the place of four-party circuits, and improvement in the service is noted all along the line. When it is known that three years ago the company had only eighty subscribers here, the increase must be regarded as phenomenal. -Anaheim (Cal.) Gazette. It was no trouble for Palo Alto people to get long distance telephone service with points in San Francisco at any time during the past week. And Peninsula people in general appreciated the fact that the service was at their disposal, since it was easier in many instances, and cheaper, too, to telephone than to make a trip to the city and endeavor to "get around." It is a pleasure to know that Palo Alto's telephone system is in such fine working order, that its operating employees were all on duty and that nothing whatsoever was amiss.-Palo Alto (Cal.) Citizen. J. M. Kean, a well known telephone man who has been in the employ of The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company the past several years, has been transferred to Long Beach to take the place of James D. Lynch, the popular manager of the local company, who has in turn been transferred to Red lands to take charge of the branch office Mr. C. E. Eldridge, manager of the Sunset Telephone Company, has been transferred to Fresno, and will leave this morning for his new field of labor. The change was made at the suggestion of Mr. Caldwell, who succeeds Mr. Eldridge here. Mr. Caldwell resided here for a while several years ago: Mr. Eldridge's transfer is regretted, as he has made a wide circle of friends while here. He carries with him the best wishes of all, especially his associates in the office. When he reached his desk he found thereon a very handsome gold ring, the gift of the employees. The ring has Mr. Eldridge's initials in monogram thereon. There was no presentation address. The ring itself speaks louder than words the esteem in which Mr. Eldridge is held by his associates. Here's hoping that he will find the transfer a pleasant one. Mr. Caldwell, his successor here, is a very pleasant gentleman and an experienced telephone man.—Bakersfield (Cal.) Echo. * * A. M. Caldwell arrived here from Fresno this morning and will take charge of the business of the Telephone Company in Bakersfield and Kern County, succeeding C. E. Eldridge. The latter will go to Fresno, where he will manage the city system. Mr. Caldwell was formerly a resident of Bakersfield, being then in the telephone service. Since going to Fresno his health has not been of the best, and he requested to be transferred to Bakersfield, desiring a more healthy climate than that of the Raisin City. Bakersfield (Cal.) Californian. Collection Statistics Statistics prepared by the collection department of The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company show that on May 31 four exchanges in the list of those having more than 300 stations had no outstanding accounts. There were seven others which had not over two per cent of accounts outstanding, while nine had between two and three per cent uncollected. Four had between three and four per cent uncollected and two an even four per cent. The standing of exchanges making the best collection showing, with the number of stations in each exchange and the percentage of outstanding accounts, follows: |