| Show tortal for an paper sw EDEN S TELEPHONE SYSTEM STOCKHOLM sept 29 among all countries on the globe sweden takes the in the development of the telephone system the ericsson telephone used here is an improvement of the bell telephone and communication by telephone is ridiculously cheap the telegraph in sweden has far from reached that high state ot development as in america but telephoning may be said to fully replace telegraphing in king oscars domain it is indeed a poor family who cannot afford to pay the stockholm general telephone company an annual fee of sio 10 tor the use of a telephone which the company puts up free ot of charge in your office or in your residence wherever you please through that telephone you can speak with your friends in nearly every city of the realm and if you want it you can even put yourself in communication with the people of norway and denmark these countries being connected with sweden by telephone for telephoning in stockholm and to pla places ces within a radius of 50 miles from that city the subscriber for an ericsson telephone does not pay a cent over the annual fee but for telephoning over a longer distance an extra fee is demanded this fee is very moderate for instance a three minutes conversation between the cities of malmo and a distance about twice that between chicago and minneapolis costs only 27 cents and six cents extra for every exceeding minute connections from the stockholm Stoc khom general telephone companas Comp anys net to the government telephone net and vice versa are made all over sweden for which a small charge of only zo 10 ore 2 cents is demanded the history odthe of the development of the telephone ephone el in oscars kingdom is a very interesting one As early as in 1877 the first telephone connections were mentioned as existing in sweden and their increase both in number and extent rapidly developed in many of the large towns companies were formed so as to carry on telephonic activity at some places the telephone lie network was erected by the royal board of telegraphs more especially in the southernmost province oi of the kingdom in most most towns boroughs and more or less important places the interchange of telephonic communication was arranged in another manner so called telephone clubs being formed founded on the simplest principles being intended to place their members in telephonic communication with as many many as possible without any idea of deriving pecuniary profit the payment was therefore often decided yea yearly aly and was raised or lowered according to requirement that it was riot not high may be gathered from the fact that in more than ninety clubs with a total of more than apparatus the yearly fee on an average was 6 16 it must however be noted that the subscribers had themselves to defray the expenses of their own connection and apparatus by degrees the telephone communications were still further extended the central stations of the telephone clubs being connected with each other by independent wires to net works which in many instances extended over several provinces communication by telephone in sweden was thus chiefly left to private enterprise however from 1889 it may be said that things changed the government then by means of the board of telegraphs commenced to compete vigorously with the private lines and by laying the interurban double wired lines between the more important towns and places and by the purchase of private networks the state telephone has developed to an enormous degree and replaced many of the afore mentioned telephone clubs or telephone companies these notwithstanding their merits concerning telephony have generally been handicapped by very considerable sid erable faults and disadvantages chiefly caused by the want of unanimity when building and managing the lines in spite ot of the higher fee charged for state telephone intercommunication it has therefore generally been found more profitable to allow the state telephone to assume the whole the diet understanding the great importance of this new means of communication has generously granted large appropriations to the state telephone the central and southern parts of the kingdom are already connected by double wired lines in the north many such connections are made and are being still further extended and completed at the close of the year 1893 the network of the state telephone intercommunication muni cation included central and district stations the combined length of the wires being more than miles the number of apparatus in use is about of which were at the stations and the balance used by the subscribers among the private companies there can be no doubt that the in general telephone company occupies the very foremost position its central station is the largest and best arranged in the world originally original ly intended for lines it can now in in consequence of certain alterations open as many as lines july i 1 1894 the company had subscribers the total length of private telephone wires at the same time was ws about miles with centrals and apparatus thus in the entire realm there were more than miles of telephone connections centrals and district stations and telephone apparatus in use As to the latest statistics of september 12 the city of stockholm has one telephone to every eighteen inhabitants the number of apparatus is all business is transacted per telephone you buy your theater tickets subscribe for yur your newspapers or order your groceries all by means of telephone As mentioned above telephone communication muni cation can be had for a price of io 10 per year when the charges in 1880 1880 were a as s big high h as 75 this development depends p end partly upon the fact that among women plenty of hands bands can be had at a cheap price but the telephone service has proven a very unhealthy occupation so much so even as to incapacitate women lor for a service ot of any long duration ten years being considered to be the longest period a woman can stand the strain in any of the larger telephone stations all the telephone stati stations Jio however wever are superintended super intended and worked by women for the admittance to the telephone service it is requisite to have testimonials as to good conduct fair schooling and a strong constitution the lowest wages paid are crowns 97 the highest 1800 crowns a year being the salary of the lady superintendents the average is seven hours attendance daily in some cases vacation is allowed for a fortnight otherwise no vacation at all notwithstanding the low fees charged from subscribers the stockholm general telephone company is able to pay a large annual dividend to its shareholders many of whom are among the most prominent men in the kingdom engineer H T cedergren is the diorec tor general of the company he is favorably known within telephone circles in the united states having twice visited that country |
