of iron frames, as in fig. 133, A and B, which, being made all exactly alike, secure the maintenance of perfect distance between the wires. When two loops run on the same poles the frames are modified as at C and D. The twisting system is reported to have given much trouble after breakdowns due to snow, the workmen, finding it impossible to restore the twist promptly, having had to

C

Α

B

D

FIG. 133

run the wires straight through in order to re-establish communication, and to subsequently retwist them at leisure.

PAYMENT OF WORKMEN

General Company.-Foremen, 4s. 5d.; skilled wiremen, 3s. 4d. ; labourers, from 2s. 2d. to 2s. 8d. per day. Country allowance, 25. 2 d. per day.

State. Foremen, 3s. 6d. ; skilled wiremen, 2s. 9d. ; labourers, Is. 11d. to 25. 2d. per day.

Hours worked in summer, 7 A.M. till 7 P.M., with one and a half hours for meals; in winter, sunrise to sunset, with one hour for meals.

PAYMENT OF OPERATORS

General Company.-27. 4s. 1d. to 27. 155. 7d. per month, according to experience. Extra pay is given for night duty, which is performed by the girls in rotation. The hours worked are normally seven per day, divided into two watches with an interval of at least three hours between. Exceptionally the duty may be extended to eight hours, but never more. The girls, who are taken on at eighteen years of age, get fourteen days' holiday on full pay annually, and in case of sickness receive full pay for the first fortnight and half pay for a second. The lady superintendents receive from 37. 175. 8d. to 8l. 6s. 8d. per month, according to length of service and the importance of their charge.

State.-17. 135. 2d. to 2l. 4s. 1d. per month for ordinary, and 27. 155. 7d. for trunk operators. Extra pay is given for night duty. Girls are taken on at eighteen; no examination is imposed.

STATISTICS

An enumeration of the exchanges in Sweden would be practically a list of the names of all the towns and chief villages in the country. At the end of 1894 the General Company, in addition to its Stockholm switch-rooms, possessed 113 exchanges within the 70-kilometer radius, having between them 2,012 subscribers. Of these, Upsala (population 21,000), with 363 subscribers, was the most important; and Södertelge, with 145, the second. At both these towns the State is also established. The Upsala rate is 27. 15s. 7d. per annum, without any admission fee. At Södertelge and the majority of the other places, the rate is the same, but with an admission fee, also of 2l. 15s. 7d. In a few instances this subscription covers only one hundred free connections per quarter, all over that number being charged 13d. each. In other cases, principally where submarine cable work is necessary, the admission fee is 27. 155. 7d. and the annual subscription 47. 8s. 11d. A few of the smaller places are worked at an

admission fee of 11s. old., an annual subscription of 115. old, and a charge of 13d. for every connection had.

Within the 70-kilometer radius the State also possesses seventy-five exchanges in addition to its Stockholm system, making a total for the radius of 188 exchanges, exclusive of the metropolitan, and entitling the area to the distinction of being by far the best telephoned piece of country in the world. The area represented by seventy kilometers round London is, on the other hand, probably the worst in the neighbourhood of an important city. The State's provincial tariff is the same as in the town.

For the rest of Sweden there are no statistics later than the end of 1892. At that time the State owned 288 exchanges and cooperative societies 158, but a number of these last have since been absorbed by the State. At the same date the State owned 15,416 kilometers of trunk lines. At the end of 1893 the General Company had 9,031 instruments working in connection with 95 switchrooms, 15,259 kilometers of lines (not wires). The number of connections in Stockholm alone for the year was 25,060,715, or 9.05 per subscriber per day, dealt with by a total staff of 200 lady telephonists. The value of the company's Stockholm system at December 31, 1893, was 2,006,693 kronor, and of its country system 1,018,510 kronor, making a total of 3,019,203 kronor, or 165,890/. Adding the value of premises, workshop plant, stores, and raw materials in hand, the assets were brought up to 3,742,801 kronor, or 205,6487. All this had been brought into existence with a share capital of only 32,9667., and the surplus of profits remaining after paying 8 per cent. per annum to the shareholders and creating a reserve fund, a renewal or deterioration fund, a fire insurance fund, an accident fund, an employees' benevolent fund, and a general purposes fund. At December 31, 1893, these several items stood as follows::

The net profits each year since 1883 have been :—

These profits have sufficed to pay a steady dividend of 8 per cent. per annum (the maximum allowed) on the share capital, to extend the business to an extent unprecedented elsewhere, to convert the system from single to double wire, and to lay by money against deterioration and almost every possible contingency. And all on a maximum rate of 57. 11s. Id. operative over 140 kilometers !

XXIV. SWITZERLAND

HISTORY AND PRESENT POSITION

THE Swiss Government at an early date determined to control the telephones within its jurisdiction, and in 1885 took over the only exchange, that at Zürich, which it had permitted a company -the International Bell Telephone-to establish. For about nine years the administration has consequently been in the hands of the State, and the development attained is certainly most imposing, there being at the close of 1894, with a population of about three millions, nearly 20,000 subscribers.

The Swiss telephone system is remarkable in many ways. From the beginning of its management the Government has endeavoured to bring the telephone within the reach of all and to render the service as complete and satisfactory as possible. Originally, the annual subscription for an ordinary line and instrument within a radius of two kilometers was 150 francs (67.), without restriction as to the number of communications; but Dr. T. Rothen, then director of the Swiss telegraphs, as early as 1883 pointed out in the Journal Télégraphique' that it was not more logical to accept an annual payment from a merchant to cover all his telephonic communications than to cover all his telegrams. The system, notwithstanding its convenience and almost universal application, is, in fact, inequitable- for a busy merchant, to whom telephonic communication is a necessity, obtains much greater value for his annual subscription than does a person whose business relations are neither so extensive nor so important. Dr. Rothen proposed, as the only just solution, to charge subscribers a fixed sum for every connection asked for and had, just as tele