Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1899 — “To Wake Up Central” [ARTICLE]

“To Wake Up Central”

As a.matter of information to the people of an irascible temper who grinde away viciously at the telephone crank , for the sake of waking “central” up, it should be* said that the sound of the bell is never heard. No sound mars the quietness of the telephone exchange. The story that there is a bell which rings and clangs in the ears of the telephone girl is simply a scheme that the company has to allow its more excitable subscribers to, work off. some, of their surplus haste and ill temper in grinding away at the telephone crank., When one turns the crank of his ’phone all that happens in the office is that a little metal disks falls or !a tiny electric light flashes. It doesn’t make any difference whether the subscriber whirls away fifty times or once or twice, the result is the same.