MEASURED SERVICE
In the commercial relation between the public and a telephone system,
the commodity which is produced by the latter and consumed by the former
is telephone service. Users often consider that payment is made for
rental of telephone apparatus and to some persons the payment per month
seems large for the rental of a mere telephone which could be bought
outright for a few dollars.
The telephone instrument is but a small part of the physical property
used by a patron of a telephone system. Even the _entire_ group of
property elements used by a patron in receiving telephone service
represents much less than what really is his proportion of the
service-rendering effort. What the patron receives is service and its
value during a time depends largely on how much of it he uses in that
time, and less on the number of telephones he can call.
_The cost of telephone service varies as the amount of use._ It is just,
therefore, that the selling price should vary as the amount of use.
=Rates.= There are two general methods of charging for telephone service
and of naming rates for this charge. These are called flat rates and
measured-service rates. The latter are also known as message rates,
because the message or conversation is the unit. Flat rates are those
which are also known as rentals. The service furnished under flat rates
is also known as unlimited service, for the reason that under it a
patron pays the same amount each month and is entitled to hold as many
conversations--send as many messages and make as many calls--as he
wishes, without any additional payment. In the measured-service plan,
the amount of payment in a month varies in some way with the amount of
use, depending on the plan adopted. The patron may pay a fixed base
amount per month, entitling him to have equipment for telephone service
and to receive messages, but being required to pay, in addition to this
base amount, a sum which is determined by the number of messages which
he sends. Or he may pay a base amount per month and be entitled to have
the equipment, to receive calls, and to send a certain number of
messages, paying specifically in addition only for messages exceeding
that certain number.
Whether flat rates or measured-service rates are practiced, the general
tendency is to establish lower rates for service in homes than in
business places. This is another recognition of the justice of
graduating the rates in accordance with the amount of use.
=Units of Charging.= While both the flat-rate and the measured-rate
methods of charging for unlimited and measured service are practiced in
local exchanges, long-distance service universally is sold at message
rates. The unit of message rates in long-distance service is time. The
charge for a message between two points joined by long-distance lines
usually is a certain sum for a conversation three minutes long plus a
certain sum for each additional minute or fraction of a minute. In local
service, the message-rate time charge per message takes less account of
the time unit. The conversation is almost universally the unit in
exchanges. Some managements restrict messages of multi-party lines to
five minutes per conversation, because of the desire to avoid
withholding the line from other parties upon it for too long periods.
Service sold at public stations similarly is restricted as to time, even
though the message be local to the exchange. Three to five minutes local
conversation is sold generally for five cents in the United States. The
time of the average local message, counting actual conversation time
only, is one hundred seconds.
=Toll Service.= _Long Haul._ In long-distance service, there are two
general methods of handling traffic, as to the relations between the
calling and the called stations. For the greater distances, as between
cities not closely related because not belonging to one general
community, the calling patron calls a particular person and pays nothing
unless he holds conversation with that person. In this method, the
operator records the name of the person called for; the name, telephone
number, or both, of the person calling; the names of the towns where the
message originated and ended; the date, the time conversation began, and
the length of time it lasted.
_Short Haul._ Where towns are closely related in commercial and social
ways and where the traffic is large and approaches local service in
character, and yet where conversations between them are charged at
different rates than are local calls within them, a more rapid system of
toll charging than that just described is of advantage. In these
conditions, patrons are not sold a service which allows a particular
party to be named and found, nor is the identity of the calling person
required. The operator needs to know merely of these calls that they
originate at a certain telephone and are for a certain other. The facts
she must record are fewer and her work is simpler. Therefore, the cost
of such switching is less than for true long-distance calls and it can
be learned by careful auditing just when traffic between points becomes
great enough to warrant switching them in this way. Such switching, for
example, exists between New York and Brooklyn, between Chicago and
suburbs around it which have names of their own but really are part of
the community of Chicago, and between San Francisco and other cities
which cluster around San Francisco Bay.
Calls of the "long-haul" class are known as "particular person" or
"particular party" calls, while "short-haul" calls are known as
"two-number" long-distance calls. It is customary to handle particular
party calls on long-distance switchboards and to handle two-number calls
in manual systems on subscribers' switchboards exactly like local calls,
except that the two-number calls are ticketed. It is customary in
automatic systems to handle two-number calls by means of the regular
automatic equipment plus ticketing by a suburban or two-number operator.
_Timing Toll Connections._ It formerly was customary to measure the time
of long-distance conversations by noting on the ticket the time of its
beginning and the time of its ending, the operator reading the time from
a clock. For human and physical reasons, such timing seems not to be
considered infallible by the patron who pays the charge, and in cases of
dispute concerning overtime charges so timed, telephone companies find
it wisest to make concessions. The physical cause of error in reading
time from a clock is that of parallax; that is, the error which arises
from the fact that the minute hand of a clock is some distance from the
surface of the dial so that one can "look under it." On an ordinary
clock having a large face and its minute hand pointing upward or
downward, five people standing in a row could read five different times
from it at the same instant. The middle person might see the minute
hand pointing at 6, indicating the time to be half-past something;
whereas, person No. 1 and person No. 5 in the row might read the time
respectively 29 and 31 minutes past something. Operators far to the
right or to the left of a clock will get different readings, and an
operator below a clock will get different kinds of readings at different
times and correct readings at few times.
Timing Machines:--Machines which record time directly on long-distance
tickets are of value and machines which automatically compute the time
elapsing during a conversation are of much greater value. The
calculagraph is a machine of the latter class. The use of some such
machine uniformly reduces controversy as to time which really elapsed.
Parallax errors are avoided. The record possesses a dignity which
carries conviction.
[Illustration: Fig. 453. Calculagraph Records]
Calculagraph records are shown in Fig. 453. In the one shown in the
upper portion of this figure, the conversation began at 10.44 P.M. This
is shown by the right-hand dial of the three which constitute the
record. The minutes past 10 o'clock are shown by the hand within the
dial and the hour 10 is shown by the triangular mark just outside the
dial between X and XI.
The duration of the conversation is shown by the middle and the
left-hand dials. The figures on both these dials indicate minutes. The
middle dial indicates roughly that the conversation lasted for a time
between 0 and 5 minutes. The left-hand dial indicates with greater
exactness that the conversation lasted one and one-quarter minutes.
The hand of the left-hand dial makes one revolution in five minutes; of
the middle dial, one revolution in an hour. The middle dial tells how
many full periods of five minutes have elapsed and the left-hand dial
shows the excess over the five-minute interval.
The lower portion of Fig. 453 is a similar record beginning at the same
time of day, but lasting about five and one-half minutes. As before, the
readings of the two dials are added to get the elapsed time.
[Illustration: Fig. 454. Relative Position of Hands and Dials]
The right-hand dial, showing merely time of day, stands still while its
hands revolve. The dies which print the dials and hands of the middle
and the left-hand records rotate together. Examining the machine, one
finds that the hands of these dials always point to zero. The middle
dial and hand make one complete revolution in an hour; the left-hand
dial and hand, one in five minutes. In making the records, the dials are
printed at the beginning and the hands at the end of the conversation.
Therefore, the hands will have moved forward during the
conversation--still pointing to zero in both cases--but when printed the
hands will point to some other place than they were pointing when the
dials were printed. In this way, their angular distances truly indicate
the lapse of time. Fig. 454 shows the relative position of the hands and
dials within the machine at all times. It will be noted that the arrow
of the left-hand dial does not point exactly to zero. This is due to the
fact that the dials and hands are printed by separate operations and
cannot be printed simultaneously.
[Illustration: WESTERN ELECTRIC RINGING MACHINE]
Another method of timing toll connections has been developed by the
Monarch Telephone Manufacturing Company. This employs a master clock of
great accuracy, which may be mounted on the wall anywhere in the
building or another building if desired. A circuit leads from this clock
to a time-stamp device on the operator's key shelf, and the clock closes
this circuit every quarter minute. The impulses thus sent over the
circuit energize the magnet of the time stamp, which steps a train of
printing wheels around so as always to keep them set in such position as
to properly print the correct time on a ticket whenever the head of the
stamp is moved by the operator into contact with the ticket. A large
number of such stamps may be operated from the same master clock. By
printing the starting time of a connection below the finishing time the
computation of lapsed time becomes a matter of subtraction. A typical
toll ticket with the beginning and ending time printed by the time stamp
in the upper left-hand corner and the elapsed time recorded by hand in
the upper right-hand corner is shown in Fig. 455. It is seen that this
stamp records in the order mentioned the month, the day, the hour, the
minute and quarter minute, the A.M. and P.M. division of the day, and
the year.
[Illustration: Fig. 455. Toll Ticket Used with Monarch System]
An interesting feature of this system is that the same master clock may
be made in a similar manner to actuate secondary clocks placed at
subscribers' stations, the impulses being sent over wires in the same
cables as those containing the subscribers' lines. This system,
therefore, serves not only as a means for timing the toll tickets and
operating time stamps wherever they are required in the business of the
telephone company, but also to supply a general clock and time-stamp
service to the patrons of the telephone company as a "by-product" of the
general telephone business.
Exchange service is measured in terms of conversations without much
regard to their length. The payment for the service may be made at the
time it is received, as in public stations and at telephones equipped
with coin prepayment devices; or the calls from a telephone may be
recorded and collection for them made at agreed intervals. In the
prepayment method the price per call is uniform. In the deferred payment
method the calls are recorded as they are made, their number summed up
at intervals, and the amount due determined by the price per call. The
price per call may vary with the number of calls sold. A large user may
have a lower rate per call than a small user.
=Local Service.= _Ticket Method._ Measured local service sometimes is
recorded by means of tickets, similarly to the described method of
charging long-distance calls, except that the time of day and the
duration of conversation are not so important. Where local ticketing is
practiced, it is usual to write on the ticket only the number of the
calling telephone and the date, and to pass into the records only those
tickets which represent actual conversations, keeping out tickets
representing calls for busy lines and calls which were not answered.
_Meter Method._ The requirements of speed in good local service are
opposed to the ticketing method. Where measured service is supplied to a
substantial proportion of the lines of a large exchange,
electro-mechanical service meters are attached to the lines. These
service meters register as a consequence of some act on the part of the
switchboard operator, or may be caused to register by the answering of
the called subscriber.
[Illustration: Fig. 456. Connection Meter]
In manual practice, meters of the type shown in Fig. 456 are associated
with the lines as in Fig. 457. The meters are mounted separately from
the switchboard, needing only to be connected to the test-strand of the
line by cabled wires. If desired, the meter may be mounted on racks in
quarters especially devoted to them, and the cases in which the racks
are mounted may be kept locked. In such an arrangement the meters are
read from time to time through the glass doors of the cases.
The meters are caused to operate by pressure on the meter key _MK_,
associated with the answering cord as in Fig. 458. This increases the
normal potential to 30 volts. When the armature of the meter has made a
part of its stroke, it closes a contact which places its 40-ohm winding
in shunt with its 500-ohm winding, thus furnishing ample power for
turning the meter wheels.
[Illustration: Fig. 457. Western Electric Line Circuit and Service
Meter]
Such meters are in common use in large exchanges, notable examples being
the cities of New York and London. In London, there is a zone within
which the price per call is one penny and between which and other zones
the price is twopence. Calls within the zone either are completed by the
answering operator directly in the multiple before her or are trunked to
other offices in that zone. Calls for points outside of that zone are
trunked to other offices and in giving the order the operator finds that
the call circuit key lights a special signal lamp before her. This
reminds her that the call is at a twopence price, so in recording it she
presses the meter key twice. This counts two units on the meter and the
units are billed at a penny each.
In automatic systems it is not possible to operate a meter system in
which the operator will press a key for each call to be charged, because
there is no operator. In such systems--a notable example being the
measured-service automatic system in San Francisco--the meter registers
only upon the answering of the called subscriber. Calls for lines found
busy and calls which are not answered do not register. Calls for
long-distance recording operators, two-number ticket operators,
information, complaint, and other company departments are not
registered. In the Chinatown quarter of San Francisco, where most calls
begin and end in the neighborhood, service is sold at an unlimited flat
rate for neighborhood calls and at a message rate for other calls. The
meter system recognizes this condition and does not register calls
_from_ Chinese subscribers _for_ Chinese subscribers, though it does
register calls from Chinese subscribers to Caucasian subscribers. The
nature of the system is such as to enable it to discriminate as to
races, localities, or other peculiarities as may be desired.
[Illustration: Fig. 458. Western Electric Cord Circuit and Service Meter
Key]
In the manual meter circuits of Figs. 457 and 458, the meter windings
have no relation to the line conductors. In the automatic arrangement
just described, there are meter windings in the line during times of
calling, but none in the line during times of conversation. The balance
of the line, therefore, is undisturbed at all times wherein balance is
of any importance.
In both systems just described, the meters of all lines are in their
respective central offices. Meters for use at subscribers' stations have
been devised and there is no fundamental reason why the record might not
be made at the subscriber's station instead of, or in addition to, a
central-office record. Experience has shown that confidence in a meter
system can be secured if the meters be positive, accurate, and reliable.
The labor of reading the meters is much less when they are kept in
central offices. Subscribers may have access to them if they wish.
_Prepayment Method._ Prepayment measured-service mechanisms permit a
coin or token to be dropped into a machine at the subscriber's telephone
at the time the conversation is held. A variety of forms of telephone
coin collectors are in use, their operations being fundamentally either
electrical or mechanical.
Electrically operated coin collectors require either that the coin be
dropped into the machine in order to enable the central office to be
signaled in manual systems, or the switches to be operated in automatic
systems, or they require that the coin be dropped into the machine after
calling, but before the conversation is permitted.
Western Electric Company coin collectors, shown in Fig. 459, may be
operated in either way in connection with manual systems. The usual way
is to require the coin to be dropped before the central-office line lamp
can glow. The operator then rings the called subscriber and upon his
answering places a sufficient potential upon the calling line to operate
the polarized relay and to drop the coin into the cash box. If the
called subscriber does not answer or his line is busy, potential is
placed on the calling line, moving the polarized relay in the other
direction and dropping the coin into a return chute so that the
subscriber may take it. If it is preferred that the coin be paid only on
the request of the operator, the return feature need not be provided.
In both forms of operation, the Western Electric coin collector is
adapted to bridge its polarized relay between one limb of the line and
ground during the time a coin rests on the pins, as shown in Fig. 459.
When no coin is on the pins--_i. e._, before calling and after the
called station responds--the relay is not so bridged.
[Illustration: Fig. 459. Principle of Western Electric Coin Collector]
The armature of the relay responds only to a high potential and this is
applied by the operator. If the coin is to be taken by the company, one
polarity is sent; if it is to be returned to the patron, the other
polarity is sent. These polarities are applied to a limb of the line
proper. It will be recalled that pressures to actuate service meters are
applied to the test-strand. If wished, keys may be arranged so as to
apply 30 volts to the test-strand and the collecting potential to the
line at the same operation. This enables the service meter to count the
tokens placed in the cash box of the coin collector, and serves as a
valuable check.
In automatic systems, in one arrangement, coin collectors are arranged
so that no impulses can be sent unless a coin has been deposited, the
coin automatically passing to the cash box when the called subscriber
answers, or to the patron if it is not answered. In another arrangement,
calls are made exactly as in unlimited service, but a coin must be
deposited before a conversation can be held. The calling person can hear
the called party speak and may speak himself but can not be heard until
the coin is deposited. No coin-return mechanism is required in this
method.
Coin collectors of these types usually are adapted to receive only one
kind of coin, these, in the United States, being either nickels or
dimes. For long-distance service, where the charges vary, it is
necessary to signal to an operator just what coins are paid. It is
uniformly customary to send these signals by sound, the collector being
so arranged that the coins strike gongs. In coin collectors of the Gray
Telephone Paystation Company, the coins strike these gongs by their own
weight in falling through chutes. In coin collectors of the Baird
Electric Company, the power for the signals is provided by hand power, a
lever being pulled for each coin deposited. Both methods are in wide
use.