The Golden Rule of the Telephone
Leinster Leader, Saturday 20 June 1903, Last Edition - Page
5.
TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
BETWEEN NAAS, NEWBRIDGE AND DUBLIN.
COMPLETION OF THE WORK.
During the week the work of connecting Naas and Newbridge districts
telephonically with Dublin was competed. Naas and Newbridge
subscribers were afforded opportunities of testing the system,
and found it most satisfactory. The "Leinster Leader"
office tested not only the local line, but were "put on"
to both Dublin and Belfast on Friday morning. The results were
all that could be desired. The voices in Belfast were as audible
and distinct as the voices in Newbridge - a circumstance which
enabled us to very keenly appreciate the blessings of the "new
departure," for the communications with Belfast were of
such an urgent and technical character that they could not have
been properly carried out through the medium of the telegraph.
The prompt courtesy of the Naas Postmaster, Mr. Croker, in facilitating
the tests of the system and giving the fullest information to
the public, deserves special acknowledgement. The same remark
applies to Mr. Cooper, of the Headquarters' staff.
Subscribers at Naas, Newbridge and the Curragh will pay (in
addition to their ordinary subscriptions) a fee of 3d. per three
minutes for conversing with Dublin. For Belfast, the tariff
is 1s. per three minutes, and charges for other centres, nearer
and farther away, will vary according to distance. A booklet
giving the different tariffs can be obtained at the Post Office.
Time will be reckoned (for charging purposes) from the moment
at which the conversation starts between the subscribers at
the different points. It is important to note that anything
exceeding three minutes is calculated as six and so on.
Subscribers will have to secure a list of the numbers and names
of those "on the telephone" in the various towns.
A supplemental list of new subscribers is already available
locally, and the main directory will, we understand, be procurable
in a few days. Those new to the instrument will save themselves,
the Exchanges and the Post Office a world of worry and delay
if they remember - there are no "persons" in the telephone
world, only "numbers," and Mr. Fitzpatrick, of Dublin,
or Mr. Barnes, of New York, must be asked for, not by their
surnames, but as (say) No. 3080 or No. "046850, New York,"
and so forth. In the same way, a Naas subscriber, while communicating
with officials, ceases to be Tom Jones or Dick O'Brien, and
becomes for the time being "No. 10, Naas," or "No.
12, Naas," as the case may be. "Always have your own
number and the number of the person you want on the tip of your
tongue." This is the golden rule of the telephone.
TELEPHONING TELEGRAMS.
Subscribers can dictate their telegrams to the Post Office,
where they will be written down and transmitted. If a local
subscriber wishes to communicate with a person in any outside
centre who is not on the telephone, he will be able to speak
a message to the Post Office for the centre concerned. Here
the message will be written down and despatched to the address
by special messenger, for which the usual Express Delivery Fee
will be collected from the addressee. The charge will be for
Dublin the same as in ordinary cases above mentioned, namely3d.
for three minutes. The value received will depend, of course,
upon the sender's capacity for condensing all he has to say
in words that can be reduced to writing within the three minutes'
space.