Cyclopedia of Telephony and Telegraphy Volume Ii Part 1

Cyclopedia of Telephony and Telegraphy.

Vol. 2.

by Kempster Miller and George Patterson and Charles Thom and Robert Millikan and Samuel McMeen.

Foreword

The present day development of the "talking wire" has annihilated both time and s.p.a.ce, and has enabled men thousands of miles apart to get into almost instant communication. The user of the telephone and the telegraph forgets the tremendousness of the feat in the simplicity of its accomplishment; but the man who has made the feat possible knows that its very simplicity is due to the complexity of the principles and appliances involved; and he realizes his need of a practical, working understanding of each principle and its application. The Cyclopedia of Telephony and Telegraphy presents a comprehensive and authoritative treatment of the whole art of the electrical transmission of intelligence.

The communication engineer--if so he may be called--requires a knowledge both of the mechanism of his instruments and of the vagaries of the current that makes them talk. He requires as well a knowledge of plants and buildings, of office equipment, of poles and wires and conduits, of office system and time-saving methods, for the transmission of intelligence is a business as well as an art. And to each of these subjects, and to all others pertinent, the Cyclopedia gives proper s.p.a.ce and treatment.

The sections on Telephony cover the installation, maintenance, and operation of all standard types of telephone systems; they present without prejudice the respective merits of manual and automatic exchanges; and they give special attention to the prevention and handling of operating "troubles." The sections on Telegraphy cover both commercial service and train dispatching. Practical methods of wireless communication--both by telephone and by telegraph--are thoroughly treated.

The drawings, diagrams, and photographs incorporated into the Cyclopedia have been prepared especially for this work; and their instructive value is as great as that of the text itself. They have been used to ill.u.s.trate and illuminate the text, and not as a medium around which to build the text. Both drawings and diagrams have been simplified so far as is compatible with their correctness, with the result that they tell their own story and always in the same language.

The Cyclopedia is a compilation of many of the most valuable Instruction Papers of the American School of Correspondence, and the method adopted in its preparation is that which this School has developed and employed so successfully for many years. This method is not an experiment, but has stood the severest of all tests--that of practical use--which has demonstrated it to be the best yet devised for the education of the busy, practical man.

In conclusion, grateful acknowledgment is due to the staff of authors and collaborators, without whose hearty co-operation this work would have been impossible.

CHAPTER XXII

THE SIMPLE COMMON-BATTERY SWITCHBOARD

=Advantages of Common-Battery Operation.= The advantages of the common-battery system of operation, alluded to in Chapter XIII, may be briefly summarized here. The main gain in the common-battery system of supply is the simplification of the subscribers' instruments, doing away with the local batteries and the magneto generators, and the concentration of all these many sources of current into one single source at the central office. A considerable saving is thus effected from the standpoint of maintenance, since the simpler common-battery instrument is not so likely to get out of order and, therefore, does not have to be visited so often for repairs, and the absence of local batteries, of course, makes the renewal of the battery parts by members of the maintenance department, unnecessary. Another decided advantage in the common-battery system is the fact that the centralized battery stands ready always to send current over the line when the subscriber completes the circuit of the line at his station by removing his receiver from its hook. The common-battery system, therefore, lends itself naturally to the purposes of automatic signaling, since it is only necessary to place at the central office a device in the circuit of each line that will be responsive to the current which flows from the central battery when the subscriber removes his receiver from its hook.

It is thus that the subscriber is enabled automatically to signal the central office when he desires a connection; and as will be shown, it is by the same sort of means, a.s.sociated with the cord circuits used in connecting his line with some other line, that the operator is automatically notified when a disconnection is desired, the cessation of current through the subscriber's line when he hangs up his receiver being made to actuate certain responsive devices which are a.s.sociated with the cord at that time connected with his line, and which convey the proper disconnect signal to the operator.

Concentration of sources of energy into a single large unit, the simplification of the subscriber's station equipment, and the ready adaptability to automatic signaling from the subscriber to the central office are, therefore, the reasons for the existence of the common-battery system.

=Common Battery vs. Magneto.= It must not be supposed, however, that the common-battery system always has advantages over the magneto system, and that it is superior to the magneto or local-battery system for all purposes. It is the outward attractiveness of the common-battery system and the arguments in its favor, so readily made by over-zealous salesmen, that has led, in many cases, to the adoption of this system when the magneto system would better have served the purpose of utility and economy.

To say the least, the telephone transmission to be had from common-battery systems is no better than that to be had from local-battery systems, and as a rule, a.s.suming equality in other respects, it is not as good. It is perhaps true, however, that under average conditions common-battery transmission is somewhat better, because whereas the local batteries at the subscribers' stations in the local-battery system are not likely to be in uniformly first-cla.s.s condition, the battery in a common-battery system will be kept up to its full voltage except under the grossest neglect.

The places in which the magneto, or local-battery, system is to be preferred to the common-battery system, in the opinion of the writers, are to be found in the small rural communities where the lines have a rather great average length; where a good many subscribers are likely to be found on some of the lines; where the sources of electrical power available for charging storage batteries are likely either not to exist, or to be of a very uncertain nature; and where it is not commercially feasible to employ a high-grade cla.s.s of attendants, or, in fact, any attendant at all other than the operator at the central office.

In large or medium-sized exchanges it is always possible to procure suitable current for charging the storage batteries required in common-battery systems, and it is frequently economical, on account of the considerable quant.i.ty of energy that is thus used, to establish a generating plant in connection with the central office for developing the necessary electrical energy. In very small rural places there are frequently no available sources of electrical energy, and the expense of establishing a power plant for the purpose cannot be justified. But even if there is an electric light or railway system in the small town, so that the problem of available current supply does not exist, the establishment of a common-battery system with its storage battery and the necessary charging machinery requires the daily attendance at the central office of some one to watch and care for this battery, and this, on account of the small gross revenue that may be derived from a small telephone system, often involves a serious financial burden.

There is no royal road to a proper decision in the matter, and no sharp line of demarcation may be drawn between the places where common-battery systems are superior to magneto and _vice versa_. It may be said, however, that in the building of all new telephone plants having over about 500 local subscribers, the common-battery system is undoubtedly superior to the magneto. If the plant is an old one, however, and is to be re-equipped, the continuance of magneto apparatus might be justified for considerably larger exchanges than those having 500 subscribers.

Telephone operating companies who have changed over the equipment of old plants from magneto to common battery have sometimes been led into rather serious difficulty, owing to the fact that their lines, while serving tolerably well for magneto work, were found inadequate to meet the more exacting demands of common-battery work. Again in an old plant the change from magneto to common-battery equipment involves not only the change of switchboards, but also the change of subscribers'

instruments that are otherwise good, and this consideration alone often, in our opinion, justifies the replacing of an old magneto board with a new magneto board, even if the exchange is of such size as to demand a small multiple board.

Where the plant to be established is of such size as to leave doubt as to whether a magneto or a common-battery switchboard should be employed, the questions of availability of the proper kind of power for charging the batteries, the proper kind of help for maintaining the batteries and the more elaborate central-office equipment, the demands and previous education of the public to be served, all are factors which must be considered in reaching the decision.

It is not proper to say that anything like all exchanges having fewer than 500 local lines, should be equipped with magneto service. Where all the lines are short, where suitable power is available, and where a good grade of attendants is available--as, for instance, in the case of private telephone exchanges that serve some business establishment or other inst.i.tution located in one building or a group of buildings--the common-battery system is to be recommended and is largely used, even though it may have but a dozen or so subscribers' lines. It is for such uses, and for use in those regular public-service exchange systems where the conditions are such as to warrant the common-battery system, and yet where the number of lines and the traffic are small enough to be handled by such a small group of operators that any one of them may reach over the entire face of the board, that the simple non-multiple common-battery system finds its proper field of usefulness.

=Line Signals.= The principles and means by which the subscriber is enabled to call the central-office operator in a common-battery system have been referred to briefly in Chapter III. We will review these at this point and also consider briefly the way in which the line signals are a.s.sociated with the connective devices in the subscribers' lines.

_Direct-Line Lamp._ The simplest possible way is to put the line signal directly in the circuit of the line in series with the central-office battery, and so to arrange the jack of the corresponding line that the circuit through the line signal will be open when the operator inserts a plug into that jack. This arrangement is shown in Fig. 307 where the subscriber's station at the left is indicated in the simplest of its forms. It is well to repeat here that in all common-battery manual systems, the subscriber's station equipment, regardless of the arrangement or type of its talking and signaling apparatus, must have these features: First, that the line shall be normally open to direct currents at the subscriber's station; second, that the line shall be closed to direct currents when the subscriber removes his receiver from its hook in making or in answering a call; third, that the line normally, although open to direct currents, shall afford a proper path for alternating or varying currents through the signal receiving device at the sub-station. The subscriber's station arrangement shown in Fig.

307, and those immediately following, is the simplest arrangement that possesses these three necessary features for common-battery service.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 307. Direct-Line Lamp]

Considering the arrangement at the central office, Fig. 307, the two limbs of the line are permanently connected to the tip and sleeve contacts of the jack. These two main contacts of the jack normally engage two anvils so connected that the tip of the jack is ordinarily connected through its anvil to ground, while the sleeve of the jack is normally connected through its anvil to a circuit leading through the line signal--in this case a lamp--and the common battery, and thence to ground. The operation is obvious. Normally no current may flow from the common battery through the signal because the line is open at the subscriber's station. The removal of the subscriber's receiver from its hook closes the circuit of the line and allows the current to flow through the lamp, causing it to glow. When the operator inserts the plug into the jack, in response to the call, the circuit through the lamp is cut off at the jack and the lamp goes out.

This arrangement, termed the direct-line lamp arrangement, is largely used in small common-battery telephone systems where the lines are very short, such as those found in factories or other places where the confines of the exchange are those of a building or a group of neighboring buildings. Many of the so-called private-branch exchanges, which will be considered more in detail in a later chapter, employ this direct-line lamp arrangement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 308. Direct-Line Lamp with Ballast]

_Direct-Line Lamp with Ballast._ Obviously, however, this direct-line lamp arrangement is not a good one where the lines vary widely in length and resistance. An incandescent lamp, as is well known, must not be subjected to too great a variation in current. If the current that is just right in amount to bring it to its intended degree of illumination is increased by a comparatively small amount, the life of the lamp will be greatly shortened, and too great an increase will result in the lamp's burning out immediately. On the other hand, a current that is too small will not result in the proper illumination of the lamp, and a current of one-half the proper normal value will just suffice to bring the lamp to a dull red glow. With lines that are not approximately uniform in length and resistance the shorter lines would afford too great a flow of current to the lamps and the longer lines too little, and there is always the danger present, unless means are taken to prevent it, that if a line becomes short-circuited or grounded near the central office, the lamp will be subjected to practically the full battery potential and, therefore, to such a current as will burn it out.

One of the very ingenious and, we believe, promising methods that has been proposed to overcome this difficulty is that of the iron-wire ballast, alluded to in Chapter III. This, it will be remembered, consists of an iron-wire resistance enclosed in a vacuum chamber and so proportioned with respect to the flow of current that it will be subjected to a considerable heating effect by the amount of current that is proper to illuminate the lamp. As has already been pointed out, carbon has a negative temperature coefficient, that is, its resistance decreases when heated. Iron, on the other hand, has a positive temperature coefficient, its resistance increasing when heated. When such an iron-wire ballast is put in series with the incandescent lamp forming the line signal, as shown in Fig. 308, it is seen that the resistance of the carbon in the lamp filament and of the iron in the ballast will act in opposite ways when the current increases or decreases. An increase of current will tend to heat up the iron wire of the ballast and, therefore, increase its resistance, and the ballast is so proportioned that it will hold the current that may flow through the lamp within the proper maximum and minimum limits, regardless of the resistance of the line in which the lamp is used. This arrangement has not gone into wide use up to the present time.

_Line Lamp with Relay._ By far the most common method of a.s.sociating the line lamp with the line is to employ a relay, of which the actuating coil is in the line circuit, this relay serving to control a local circuit containing the battery and the lamp. This arrangement and the way in which these parts are a.s.sociated with the jack are clearly indicated in Fig. 309. Here the relay may receive any amount of current, from the smallest which will cause it to pull up its armature, to the largest which will not injure its winding by overheat. Relays may be made which will attract their armatures at a certain minimum current and which will not burn out when energized by currents about ten times as large, and it is thus seen that a very large range of current through the relay winding is permissible, and that, therefore, a very great lat.i.tude as to line resistance is secured. On the other hand, it is obvious that the lamp circuit, being entirely local, is of uniform resistance, the lamp always being subjected, in the arrangement shown, to practically the full battery potential, the lamp being selected to operate on that potential.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 309. Line Lamp with Relay]

_Pilot Signals._ In the circuits of Figs. 307, 308, and 309, but a single line and its a.s.sociated apparatus is shown, and it may not be altogether clear to the uninitiated how it is that the battery shown in those figures may serve, without interference of any function, a larger number of lines than one. It is to be remembered that this battery is the one which serves not only to operate the line signals, but also to supply talking current to the subscribers and to supply current for the operation of the cord-circuit signals after the cord circuits are connected with the lines.

In Fig. 310 this matter is made clear with respect to the a.s.sociation of this common battery with the lines for operating the line signals, and also another important feature of common-battery work is brought out, viz, the pilot lamp and its a.s.sociation with a group of line lamps.

Three subscribers' lines only are shown, but this serves clearly to ill.u.s.trate the a.s.sociation of any larger number of lines with the common battery. Ignoring at first the pilot relay and the pilot lamp, it will be seen that each of the tip-spring anvils of the jacks is connected to a common wire _1_ which is grounded. Each of the sleeve-contact anvils is connected through the coil of the line relay to another common wire _2_, which connects with the live side of the common battery. Obviously, therefore, this arrangement corresponds with that of Fig. 309, since the battery may furnish current to energize any one of the line relays upon the closure of the circuit of the corresponding line. Each of the relay armatures in Fig. 310 is connected to ground.

Here we wish to bring out an important thing about telephone circuit diagrams which is sometimes confusing to the beginner, but which really, when understood, tends to prevent confusion. The showing of a separate ground for each of the line-relay armatures does not mean that literally each one of these armatures is connected by a separate wire to earth, and it is to be understood that the three separate grounds shown in connection with these relay armatures is meant to indicate just such a set of affairs as is shown in connection with the tip-spring anvils of the jacks, all of which are connected to a common wire which, in turn, is grounded. Obviously, the result is the same, but in the case of this particular diagram it is seen that a great deal of crossing of lines is prevented by showing a separate ground at each one of the relay armatures. The same practice is followed in connection with the common battery. Sometimes it is very inconvenient in a complicated diagram to run all of the wires that are supposed to connect with one terminal of the battery across the diagram to represent this connection. It is permissible, therefore, and in fact desirable, that separate battery symbols be shown wherever by so doing the diagram will be simplified, the understanding being, in the absence of other information or of other indications, that the same battery is referred to, just as the same ground is referred to in connection with the relay armatures in the figure under discussion.

Each line lamp in Fig. 310 is shown connected on one hand to its corresponding line relay contact and on the other hand to a common wire which leads through the winding of the pilot relay to the live side of the battery. It is obvious here that whenever any one of the line relays attracts its armature the local circuit containing the corresponding lamp and the common battery will be closed and the lamp illuminated.

Whenever any line relay operates, the current, which is supplied to its lamp, must come through the pilot-relay winding, and if a number of line relays are energized, then the current flow of the corresponding lamps must flow through this relay winding. Therefore, this relay winding must be of low resistance, so that the drop through its winding may not be sufficient to interfere with the proper burning of the lamps, even though a large number of lamps be fed simultaneously through it. The pilot relay must be so sensitive that the current, even through one lamp, will cause it to attract its armature. When it does attract its armature it causes illumination of the pilot lamp in the same way that the line relays cause the illumination of the line lamps.

The pilot lamp, which is commonly a.s.sociated with a group of line lamps that are placed on any one operator's position of the switchboard, is located in a conspicuous place in the switchboard cabinet and is provided with a larger lens so as to make a more striking signal. As a result, whenever any line lamp on a given position lights, the pilot lamp does also and serves to attract the attention, even of those located in distant portions of the room, to the fact that a call exists on that position of the board, the line lamp itself, which is simultaneously lighted, pointing out the particular line on which the call exists.

Pilot lamps, in effect, perform similar service to the night alarm in magneto boards, but, of course, they are silent and do not attract attention unless within the range of vision of the operator. They are used not only in connection with line lamps, but also in connection with the cord-circuit lamps or signals, as will be pointed out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 311. Battery Supply Through Impedance Coils]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 312. Battery Supply through Repeating Coils]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 313. Battery Supply with Impedance Coils and Condensers]

=Cord Circuit.= _Battery Supply._ Were it not for the necessity of providing for cord-circuit signals in common-battery switchboards, the common-battery cord circuit would be scarcely more complex than that for magneto working. Stripped of all details, such as signals, ringing and listening keys, and operator's equipment, cord circuits of three different types are shown in Figs. 311, 312, and 313. These merely ill.u.s.trate the way in which the battery is a.s.sociated with the cord circuits and through them with the line circuits for supplying current for talking purposes to the subscribers. It is thought that this matter will be clear in view of the discussion of the methods by which current is supplied to the subscribers' transmitters in common-battery systems as discussed in Chapter XIII. While the arrangements in this respect of Figs. 311, 312, and 313 ill.u.s.trate only three of the methods, these three are the ones that have been most widely and successfully used.

_Supervisory Signals._ The signals that are a.s.sociated with the cord circuits are termed supervisory signals because of the fact that by their means the operator is enabled to supervise the condition of the lines during times when they are connected for conversation. The operation of these supervisory signals may be best understood by considering the complete circuits of a simple switchboard and must be studied in conjunction with the circuits of the lines as well as those of the cords.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 314. Simple Common-Battery Switchboard]