being thirty-five in Munich, thirteen in Nuremberg, eight in Würzburg, and at least one in every town. An attendant is always provided, who collects the fees and obtains the connections asked for. 9. Fire service.-In such towns as do not enjoy a night service the lines of those subscribers who pay a small extra annual subscription are switched through to the fire station at closing time. A full description of this service will be given in the Würtemberg section, at page 422. TARIFFS 1. Local exchange rates. An ordinary subscriber's station within 5 kilometers Excess charge for distances beyond 5 kilometers, per 100 meters 7 10 3 O 315 O A second instrument on the same line, but not in the Second and subsequent instruments in connection with An extra bell IO O 2 10 O . 05 0 Government and municipal offices enjoy a reduction of one half. All distances measured as the crow flies. Agreements for lines not exceeding five kilometers, one year; exceeding that distance, two years. This tariff applies to all towns, irrespective of size. 2. Trunk communication between towns of the same group. Subscribers may pay per conversation, or by annual subscription. Per conversation of 5 minutes The right to call any subscriber in any town of a group, per annum £ S. d. O O 5 2 JO O Express or urgent talks are admitted at triple fee. S. d. O 5 I 4. International trunk communication. Munich and other chief towns to Berlin, per 3 minutes Austria, per 3 minutes Switzerland, via Austria, per 3 minutes towns in the south-west of the Imperial Post I 2 I O There are a few rates of 3d. and 5d. in operation between towns situated close together, but on different sides of the frontier, as Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, Lindau and Bregenz, and Bad Reichenhall and Salzburg. 5. Telephoning of telegrams. This service is free. 6. Telephoning of messages for local delivery. For each telephonogram delivered by messenger the charge is 1d. plus 1d. per word. Thus a ten-word message costs 2d., and a twenty-word 3d. 7. Telephoning of mail matter.-The charge for this service is the same as for telephonograms, plus the value of the post-card or postage-stamp required. 8. Public telephone station rates.-Time unit, five minutes. Local talks: A subscriber, member of his family, partner, or employee Id. 2·5d. A non-subscriber may, however, put himself on an equality with a subscriber by buying a book containing fifty penny tickets, each of which will entitle him to a local talk if presented within one year from date of purchasing. Trunk talks, as from subscribers' offices. 9. Fire service charge. For connection with the fire station after an exchange is closed for the night, per annum, 10s. WAY-LEAVES The Government has no right to fix supports and wires on private property without the owner's permission. Subscribers can only give leave to attach wires intended for their own use to premises they lease or rent. SWITCHING ARRANGEMENTS Hitherto 'standard' boards of the Western Electric Company have been used at the principal switch-rooms, so it may be imagined that smart management has been requisite at Munich, with its 5,000, and Nuremberg, with its 2,500 subscribers, in order to provide an acceptable service. But multiple switch-boards have been ordered for, and will soon be fitted at, both these centres. They are of the same company's manufacture, with selfrestoring drops of the type already installed at Zürich, and which is described in the Swiss section (p. 390). Fig. 8 is a plan of a recent Bavarian switch-board for small centres, showing how both single and double subscribers' lines and trunk wires are dealt with. The bar commutator is for cross-connecting and joining any wire temporarily to the testing apparatus. This bar commutator is sometimes replaced in the larger exchanges by a cross-wire commutator invented by Mr. J. Baumann, an engineer of the Royal Bavarian Telephone Department, which, for a large number of lines, is far cheaper to construct, while it occupies less space and is simpler to manipulate. Mr. Baumann's cross-connecting board consists of a strong rectangular iron frame encased in beechwood, and arranged to receive a number of silicium bronze wires of 8 mm. diameter, strung, some horizontally and some vertically, so as to cross each other at right angles at a distance of some two centimeters. The wires are insulated at the frames, and provided with tightening screws, similar to those of a violin (a tension of from thirteen to sixteen kilogrammes is kept normally on the wires), and connection terminals, by which the horizontal wires are joined to the subscribers' lines and the vertical wires to the switch-board. Under the tension applied, the wires remain so taut that it is not found necessary in practice to allow a greater clearance between parallel conductors than from three to five millimeters. The necessary connections between the horizontal and vertical wires are effected by small brass plates, each bearing two hooks about one centimeter apart, one hook adjusted to hold a horizontal, the other a vertical, wire. When two such wires, FIG. 8.-BC, bar commutator; T, translator; TR, trunks; MB, transmitter battery: NB, night bell; os, transfer jacks; LG, lightning guards; 3 to 14, subscribers' double lines; 1, to 20, subscribers' single lines. фо FIG. 9 tightly stretched and separated by a space of two centimeters, are hooked together so that the clearance between them is reduced to one centimeter, they exert such a considerable pull on the connecting plate that the electrical contacts brought about are as perfect and permanent as those due to binding screws. The connector is shown in fig. 9. A number of spare vertical wires is kept in reserve, by means of which any two of the horizontals can be connected together, or any one of them to earth, to the testing-room, or to a speaking instrument. A crossconnecting board on this system for Soo lines occupies, including the lightningguard board, 5-6 meters in length and 24 in height. Reverting to fig. 8, the transmitter shown is of a type used a good deal in Bavaria. The diaphragm is of wood, backed by a carbon plate. To the back of the box are fixed two separate blocks of carbon, each block containing four slanting holes in which a corresponding number of carbon pencils lie loosely with their lower ends resting against the carbon diaphragm plate. This plate is then intermediate between the two blocks, which receive the transmitter battery wires. The translators employed consist of primary and secondary bobbins of equal resistance-200 ohms-wound on a closed magnetic circuit ring. They are made by Mr. F. Reiner, Munich. The subscribers, both in Munich and Nuremberg, are divided between two principal switch-rooms, and in each town the subscribers' list numbers are preceded by a switch-room number, which must be mentioned without fail by the caller, together with the list number and name. Called subscribers are rung by the operator, and callers are required to stand with phone to ear until the reply is forthcoming. Talkers are not instructed to say 'please answer' after every remark, as in the Imperial Post Office system, but on bringing a conversation to an end they are expected to call out 'finished!' prior to ringing off. This last signal has nothing to differentiate it from a ring through, so that the Bavarian subscribers, in common with all others on the Continent, cannot leave their instruments during a talk. During a thunder |