2.
From the telegraph we turn naturally to the telephone, and visualise the days of the old Bell telephone system. When ponderous-looking instruments were erected. Later these gave place to smaller apparatus, but the "coffee-mill" handle turning persisted, and lasted in Hongkong until 1929, when the automatic system came into operation.
It is interesting to find that telephones were first introduced to Hongkong in 1881-1882. In 1881 no fewer than three different companies applied for permission to erect and operate a public telephone system here, but one concern was eventually selected for the service, and in an advertisement dated November 11, 1881, we find a request for subscribers to the new Telephone Exchange (erected on the old site between Ice House Lane, as the upper part of Ice House Street was then known, and Duddell Street).
Permission had been granted by the Government to the Great Northern Telegraph Company (amalgamated with the Oriental Telephone Company, Limited) as regards telephone lines in Hong Kong and China. In this advertisement, the following boundaries were taken as terminating the town, viz.: West, the Gas Works; East, No. 2 Police Station; South, Caine Road and Kennedy Road.
The China and Japan Telephone Co. was later formed and the Hongkong Telephone Co. replaced the local concern.
The Hongkong Telegraph must have been the first telephone exchange subscriber in this Colony, for it was given Number One, a telephone number which it retained until the recent introduction of the automatic system. The advantages of a call such as Central No. 1 for all purposes, hardly requires to be emphasised, and perhaps we can see in the change to the five numerals of the present system another of those instances where progress does so not necessarily mean convenience!
And apropos the introduction of telegraphs and telephones, and the modernising of business methods, one might read the following comment from an old chronicle with an indulgent smile:
In the Fifties, apparently telegrams were posted part of the way and despatched to England, via Trieste or Gibraltar. When the P. & O. Company increased the frequency of communication by mail steamer with India in 1853 the facilities for these more speedy business transactions were of course increased, but these "were not much relished by Hongkong merchants, because they accentuated the keenness of competition: the leisure with which business was formerly conducted in the time of monthly mails was now supplanted by an annually increasing high-pressure rate of communication with all parts of the world".
That comment is mild nowadays, when the keen competition necessary in retaining a share of trade during world-wide depression puts the competition of the Fifties entirely in the shade.
Long
2.
From the telegraph we turn naturally to the telephone, and visualise the days of the old Bell telephone system. When ponderous-looking instruments were erected. Later these geve place to emeller apparatus, but the "coffee-mill" handle turning persisted, and lasted in Hongkong until 1929, when the automatic system came into operation.
It is interesting to find that telephones were first introduced to Hongkong in 1881-1882. In 1881 no fewer than three different companies applied for permission to erect and operate a public telephone system here, but one concern was eventually selected for the service, and in an advertise- ment dated November 11, 1881, we find a request for subscribers to the new Telephone Exchange (erected on the old site be tween Ice House Lane, as the upper part of Ice House Street was then known, end Duddell Street).
Permission had been greated by the Government to the Great Northern Telegraph Com-any (amalgamated with the Oriental Telephone Company, Limited) as regards telephone lines in Hong Kong and China. In this advertisement, the following bounderies were taken as terminating the town, viż: West, the Gas Works; Jast, No. 2 Folice Station; South, Caine Road and Kennedy Road.
The China and Japan Telephone Co. was later formed and the Hongkong Telephone Co. replaced the local concern.
The Hongkong Telegraph must have been the first telephone kals subscriber in this Colony, for it was given Number One, a tele- phone number which it retained until the recent introduction of 30 the automatio system. The advantages of a call such as Central No. 1 for all purposes, hardly requires to be emphasised, and perhaps we can see in the change to the five numerals of the present system another of those insteno es where progress does so no necessarily mean convenience!
And appropos the introduction of telegraphs and telephones, and the modernising of business methods, one might read the following comment from an old chronicle with an indulgent smile:
In the Fifties, apparently telegrams were posted part of the way and debled to England, via Trieste or Gibraltar. When the F. end 0. Company increased the frquenoy of communication by mail steamer with India in 1853 the facilities for these more speedy business transactions were of course increased, but these "were not much relished by Hongkong merchants, because they accentuated the keenness of competition: the leisure with which business was formerly conducted in the time of monthly meils wae - now supplanted by an ennuslly increasing high-pressure rate of communiostion with all parts of the world".
That comment is mild nowadays, when the keen competition necessary in retaining a share of trede during world-wide depression puts the competition of the Fifties entirely in the etode.
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