STATISTICS At December 31, 1892, the date of the last published return, the position of Spanish telephones was as follows:-- XXIII. SWEDEN HISTORY AND PRESENT POSITION IN Sweden at the present day one may gain a glimpse of what telephony in the future will be everywhere, and an inkling of the kind of problem which awaits the coming telephone engineers. In population Stockholm is about 11,000 souls behind Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1891, 263,646; Stockholm, 1892, 252,574). Both are capitals. In Stockholm at the end of 1894 there were 11,534 exchange instruments in operation; in Edinburgh about 1,000. In Stockholm each hundred inhabitants, including women, children, and babies, had 4'57 instruments between them-one and a fraction over to every twenty-five souls. In Edinburgh each hundred inhabitants had 37 a little more than a third part of a telephone between them. Taking the population of London as 5,600,000, and imagining that London telephonically were on a par with Stockholm, what should we find? Why, that London would then possess 255,920 exchange instruments ! What is the present number? About 8,000, or 14 per hundred inhabitants. The credit of the Swedish development is unquestionably due in a large measure to Mr. H. T. Cedergren, the managing director of the Allmänna Telefonaktiebolag (General Telephone Company) of Stockholm. He has truly been the Hotspur of telephonic warfare-ever in the front with extensions and improvements; ever devising new uses and applications for the telephone; ever appealing to the public for support, and, what is a great deal Mr. Cedergren was more to the purpose, ever deserving it. amongst the first to perceive the sufficiency of a low rate of subscription, and to appreciate its fostering power on the telephonic industry. At first a theory only, the keen competition which ensued in Stockholm when the original monopoly of the International Bell Telephone Company was attacked, provided the opportunity for its practical demonstration. The result of the low rates and Mr. Cedergren's unceasing energy has been to place Sweden in the foremost telephonic position in the world. And what,' the advocates of high rates will ask, and what about the poor unfortunate shareholders?' Well, as will be seen further on, those commiserated personages have received year after year better dividends than telephone shareholders in the United Kingdom ever did, or are ever likely to. But,' say the advocates, 'Cedergren had everything his own way-no opposition-free way-leaves-low-priced labour--a benevolent corporation-a freehanded and complaisant Government.' Nothing of the kinda mere collection of red herrings. The pioneer in Sweden was the International Bell Telephone Company, which opened in Stockholm and Gothenburg in 1880 and soon afterwards in a few other towns. But the rates were high and development was slow until opposition appeared in Stockholm in 1883 in the guise of a local-Mr. Cedergren's-company, and in Gothenburg in the form of a co-operative telephone society, the idea of which was that each member should pay for the cost of his line, instrument, and proportion of switch-room apparatus, and contribute 37. 6s. 8d. per annum towards the working and upkeep of the system, which contribution would be reduced, after the formation of an adequate reserve fund, whenever circumstances permitted. The idea was found to work out well in practice, and Sweden was soon dotted with co-operative telephone exchanges, even villages with names undiscoverable in the best gazetteers indulging in what was at first looked upon partly as a scientific curiosity and partly as a luxury, but which soon proved to be a useful adjunct of everyday life. The extent of the mine waiting to be worked was soon demon 1 With the exception, perhaps, of those of the Dundee and District Telephonic Company, Limited (see page 7), which worked on a 57. 105. rate. strated by Mr. Cedergren's methods. Instead of a yearly rental of 87. 175. 9d. (the Bell Company's rate) the new competitor asked 27. 155. 7d. down on connection, and thereafter an annual inclusive subscription of 57. 11s. 1d. The Bell Company was, of course, convinced that Mr. Cedergren had simply discovered a royal road to ruin for himself and friends, and that all that was necessary to bring about his self-immolation was to allow him sufficient room to caper about in. So when at the end of 1883, after seven months' working, his exchange had 785 instruments connected, as many as the Bell had after three years, it was felt that he was advancing towards his inevitable goal with satisfactory rapidity. But when at the end of 1884 he had 2,288 against the Bell's 900 or so, and was moreover paying dividends, it was perceived that there was a certain--or rather uncertain, for it was not easily understood-method in his madness. Then the Bell Company began to wake up, but it was too late; and it never afterwards played but a secondary part in the telephonic game. Ultimately its Stockholm system, with the exception of the Östermalms. district in the north-east of the town, was bought and incorporated by the General Company. The Ostermalms exchange has preserved a separate organisation, but practically it forms part of the General system, since free intercommunication between the two prevails. As early as 1884 the General Company began to extend its operations to other towns in the neighbourhood of Stockholm and to erect trunk lines between them. This was found to be a remunerative undertaking, and in the next succeeding years was pushed to such an extent that the Government began to take alarm for its telegraph revenue, more especially after an application by the General Company for a concession to run trunk lines to Gothenburg, Malmö, and other of the principal towns. The question of the proposed concession became a burning topic in Parliament; special committees took it in hand; and deputations headed by Mr. Cedergren carried it even to the foot of the throne. Ultimately, it was decided to give the State post and telegraph department the exclusive right to erect intertown wires except within a radius of seventy kilometers (43 miles) around Stockholm, within which area the General Telephone Company was left free to do as it liked. Mr. Cedergren's long distance ambition was thus baulked; but the inhabitants of the 70-kilometer radius have no reason to lament the fact, for his energies, being concentrated within that circle, have led to its becoming, without any exception, the best-telephoned bit of country in the world. But the jealousy of the telegraph department had now been thoroughly aroused. It was no longer content to erect trunks for the use of local companies and co-operative societies. It was felt that by doing so and nothing more it was taking most of the expense and risk and least of the profit, profit moreover gained (as was then imagined) by competing with, and murdering, its own telegraph revenue. So the State determined to go in for the better paying part-the local exchanges also; and began by purchasing the Gothenburg and other provincial exchanges of the International Bell Telephone Company. In Stockholm there was already existing at the central telegraph office a small telephone exchange for the use of the Government departments, and this was made the nucleus of a public system. The Swedish State telegraph department having definitely entered the lists, determined to do its work well. It made metallic circuits an inexorable rule, and underground work an end to be aimed at wherever possible. The experience of the General Company had demonstrated the feasibility and potency in developing custom of low rates, and the State started in Stockholm with a first payment of 27. 155. 7d. on connection, and an annual subscription thereafter of 47. 8s. 11d., or 1l. 25. 2d. below that of the General Company, which was to cover free communication not only in Stockholm, but within a radius of seventy kilometers around! It was a programme-metallic circuits against single wires, underground wires against overhead, direct connection with the long-distance trunks, all combined with an appreciably lower rate and a free 70-kilometer radius--that deserved success and was calculated to alarm the General Company. But Cedergren was used to competition. He had at this period over 5,000 subscribers working in Stockholm alone, and his service was as good as is compatible with single wires. But that was not enough; and the State had scarcely got its exchange in operation before the General Company began to convert its system to metallic circuit, |