The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

Photo Clarke & Hyde. THE TELEPHONE DETECTIVE. The observation table at the great telephone exchange at the General Post Office. An observer is sitting with a split second stop watch in front of him. He records the exact time taken by operators to establish connection between subscribers, together with their treatment of subscribers. At the meeting of the British Association in the same year, Sir William Thomson gave his experiences at the Philadelphia Exhibition. “In the Canadian Department I heard 'To be or not to be ... there's the rub' through an electric wire: but scorning monosyllables, the electric articulation rose to higher flights, and gave me passages taken at random from the New York newspapers. 'S.S. Cox has arrived' (I failed to make out the S.S. Cox). 'The City of New York,' 'Senator Morton,' 'the Senate has resolved to print a thousand extra copies.' 'The Americans in London have resolved to celebrate the coming 4th of July.' All this my own ears heard spoken to me with unmistakable distinctness by the then circular disc-armature of just such another little electro-magnet as I hold in my hand.” Mr. William Preece, who was in after years knighted, and who was at the time Divisional Engineer to the General Post Office, exhibited at this same meeting Bell's telephone, which he had brought from the United States, and Graham Bell himself gave further illustrations.