The nation . oor, ina box of a room ten feet by twelve,is the result-flashing center. Urnare a switchboard and switchboardoperator; in the center of the room,a table; and at the table, usually,Albert Tollin and a girl the table are three curiouslyrigged wooden boxes. The boxes areplain wooden crates, about Wi feetsquare, padded with foam hey are placed facing Tollin. Asrace time nears and calls begin com-ing in, Tollins girl assistant placesjust the mouthpieces of telephonesin these padded boxes, where theywill instantly catch Tollins shoutedannouncement of the winner as
The nation . oor, ina box of a room ten feet by twelve,is the result-flashing center. Urnare a switchboard and switchboardoperator; in the center of the room,a table; and at the table, usually,Albert Tollin and a girl the table are three curiouslyrigged wooden boxes. The boxes areplain wooden crates, about Wi feetsquare, padded with foam hey are placed facing Tollin. Asrace time nears and calls begin com-ing in, Tollins girl assistant placesjust the mouthpieces of telephonesin these padded boxes, where theywill instantly catch Tollins shoutedannouncement of the winner as hisvoice echoes off the foam-rubbersounding boards. About two or three minutes be-fore a race is run, why there is quitea calamity, Detective Wassmertold the New York commission. Thetelephones are jumping and himself would be holding atelephone in one hand, one in theother. His girl on the other side willbe taking the telephone calls. Thephones are just jingling. When all the phone mouthpieces. that can be accommodated have beenplaced in the sounding boxes, theswitchboard girl puts a hold key oneach of the other incoming calls. Shedraws the hold keys up in a line, aruler in her hand, and waits. Tollin,on the open telephone line to hiscatcher outside the race track, getsthe winner, shouts the name. In-stantly, all the bookie calls danglingin the sound boxes are taken cueof; instantly, the switchboard girlrelays the winners name to allthose waiting on the first row ofhold keys on her switchboard. Withone sweep of her ruler, she flips offthis line of keys, flips n a new incredible dispatch, the Tol-lins frantic clientele receive theirbread-and-butter information. Twilight Zone Telephone and Western Unionrecords clearly establish the tre-mendous volume of the Tollin busi-ness. Walsh estimated that the Tol-lins Delaware Sports Service mustchalk up a profit of at least $500,-000 a year. There is no secret aboutit. But neither is anything beingdone about it.
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License: Licensed
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookidnation191jul, bookyear1865
