Unification of the Manual and Automatic Telephone Systems

A description is given of the physical consolidation of the Bell manual and the Automatic Electric telephone systems of Los Angeles, Cal., which previously to June 1, 1918 operated as separate systems. While similar consolidations had been made previously they included relatively small volumes of traffic and afforded no engineering precedents as a guide to the consolidation of two systems serving 129,000 stations. The plans for the physical union of the two companies were devised by a joint committee of engineering representatives, and contained a number of novel operating and construction methods which are described. Under the new system each subscriber has access to every other subscriber in the Los Angeles exchange and to all long-distance lines centering there. Where duplicate services were installed the subscriber was given his choice as to whether he would retain the manual or the automatic system, and about 13,000 duplicates were eliminated, the choice between the two types being equally divided.