Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/236

232 for publication, while the replies of the operator partook of the same lurid nature. For there were no sissy-boys and no girls among the pioneer operators of 1878-1880.

Finally, subscriber No. 5 would make the operator understand whom he desired to be connected with. Then the connection was given by turning the lever of one circle to the peg to which the calling-line was attached (Fig. 6), and placing the lever of the other circle on the peg or post connected to the line of the calling subscriber. The boy would then go back to his other work and probably forget all about the two subscriber-lines connected together, until an infuriated individual would rush into the office and demand the reason why some blithering idiot failed to answer his bell. Then the boy would have to pacify the subscriber as best he could by explaining that when two subscriber lines were connected together, the call-bell and the battery-connection on each line were cut out to improve the talking qualities, and each subscriber was connected straight through to each other's telephone;