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1891
The addresses of the West India and Panama Telegraph Company and the Telephone Company appear in the business directory for 1891 -
KINGSTON BUSINESS DIRECTORY 1891
PORT ROYAL STREET - EAST AND WEST 6, West India and Panama Telegraph Co., J. Arambarry, Manager. 14, Telephone Co., C. Lambdin, General Manager. |
Daily Gleaner
April 1, 1891 REMOVAL OF THE TELEPHONE EXCHANGE. Some Interesting Particulars. In a tropical country everything which lessens the necessity and trouble of moving about in the sun is sure of a hearty welcome. Nothing has contributed so much to the relief of citizens in this respect as the telephone, and it is but to be expected thereforethat wherever an exchange is established it flourishes, if under competent management. These remarks are applicable to the Kingston Telephone Exchange which we have pleasure in referring to to-day, as an instance of a private company which does its very best to meet the wishes of the public, against whom a complaint is rarely made; and, as is evinced in its latest development, achieves the reward it deserves. The development we refer to is the removal of the central office of the exchange from its present location to more commodious premises in East Street. This was to have taken place to-day but circumstances have altered the original plan, and it will be a week or so yet before the exchange gets domiciled in its new quarters. The cause which has necessitated the change is the increase of subscribers, the value of the telephone being every day more generally recognised by business and professional men. There can be no doubt, however, that much of the success of the enterprise is due to the indefatigable exertions, the sound practical knowledge and the never-failing courtesy of Mr. C. Lambdin, the General Manager, who has succeeded in bringing the exchange to as near perfection as it can be. Within the last two years he has doubled the number of subscribers and increased the value of the business a hundred per cent. Such a fact speaks volume for his energy and business capacity. It may interest our readers if we give a few details concerning the removal of the Central Station, which is at present, going on. The new premises which the Coy. have leased are situated at No, 2 East Street below Harbour Street, and comprise the whole building of three stories, yard &c., thus providing ample accommodation for their present wire, and allowing sufficient margin for a healthy increase in the business. The process of removal is a very arduous one, for unlike other enterprises in Jamaica which have their hours for closing and re-opening, the telephone service is continuous, and goes on forever. To remove the station and its switch board &c., would be rather a problem to most men. But in Mr. Lambdin's experienced hand the task is being accomplished. At present there are 265 wires, terminating at the Central Office, and everyone of these must first be "tapped" and "runned" — to use the technical expressions -- to the new office before the old ends can be taken down or disconnected. In other words everything has to be duplicated at the new office before the existing arrangements can be disturbed. It is Mr. Lambdin's express object not to interrupt the service more than a few minutes, and these few minutes will occur on a Sunday or at midnight so that practically no interruption will take place. Most of the preliminary work is finished. Several long poles—the largest ever erected in Jamaica—have been put up in Port Royal Street, between East Street and Mark Lane. The tallest of these is 60 feet high and the others are only a few feet less. The new wires are being run on these, and are supported on about 20 cross-pieces. The poles are of pitch pine, and are bolted to others of cashaw in the earth. The cashaw, Mr. Lambdin informed us, is admirably adapted for the purpose, and is extremely lasting. Each pole is bolted to the cashaw and the former is also kept firm by a clamp through which the bolt passes—a device of Mr, Lambdin's, the necessity for which he has learned from experience. When these lofty poles, |
bearing their innumerable wires, are dressed up, and painted, they will present quite a handsome appearance. It may be well here to mention that a pole inclined to one side is not an evidence of weakness but rather of strength, and the inclination being purposely given and scientifically justifiable.
The undertaking is an expensive one to the Company, but as it was necessary to be accomplished Mr. Lambdin believed in doing it well and thoroughly. From 12 to 14 men are working at it, and 15 miles of additional wire have been required. The wire is steel wire, and is chosen because it does not slack so much as other wires. From the last "office pole" to the switchboard the wires are covered with okonite* and the first cost of these alone was $240. But this is a small item in the total cost of the undertaking. A word regarding the new premises themselves. They are not situated in the most central part of the city for a telephone office—which would be at the corner of King and Port Royal Streets. Were it placed there 15 miles less of wire, would be required. But the premises are very commodious, and the best that could be procured. The rooms are light, airy and cool. The best has been kept for the operating room, and there will be others, for the linemen, stock, &c., as well as manager's office, retiring rooms, &c., &c. The premises are certainly a great improvement on the existing office and are in every way suitable for a company which fills so important a function in the business, and private life of the city. *okonite = A vulcanized mixture of ozocerite or mineral wax and resin with caoutchouc and sulphur, used as an insulating material for covering electrical conductors. The Okonite Company is still in business Daily Gleaner,
April 8, 1891 The Atlas Company steamer Adirondack which arrived here on Friday from New York brought a supply of wire, insulators and other materials for Mr. Lambdin, the manager of the Telephone Company. The business of the Company has immensely increased under the management of Mr. Lambdin, who expects to complete the removal of the head office by the latter end of this month. June 12, 1891 We are informed by the Manager of the Telephone Company, that the wires are being extended to Gordon Town and will be completed in a fortnight's time. The Company also contemplates connecting New Castle if sufficient inducement be offered. |
1892
However, things were about to change, as, apparently, a group of local businessmen were deciding that the telephone service should be under local control. It is not entirely clear how this all came about, but an attempt will be made at setting out the course of events.
The first indication the public received of a coming change was probably this item in the press:
The first indication the public received of a coming change was probably this item in the press:
- Daily Gleaner, January 14, 1892
'City Council
A letter was read from Mr. P. E. Vendryes asking for permission to erect Telephone Poles and wires in the city. It was proposed that a committee be appointed to investigate the matter and after some discussion this was agreed to.'
Two weeks later the committee made its report, and the Council accepted its recommendations:
- Daily Gleaner, January 28, 1892
City Council
NEW TELEPHONE EXCHANGE
The report of the. Committee on Mr. P. E. Vendryes' Telephone Exchange was next read. The report recommended giving Mr Vendryes the same privileges as were accorded to the present Telephone Company. Mr. Nathan moved that the Report be adopted and was seconded by Mr. Callendar. After an extended discussion the report was adopted, the Mayor and Councillors Brandon and Wales recording their protests.
The following day the Gleaner published the text of the Committee's report:
Daily Gleaner, January 28, 1892
City Council THE PROPOSED NEW TELEPHONE EXCHANGE. THE COMMITTEE REPORT. The following is the text of the report by the Committee appointed by the City Council to enquire into the application of Mr. Vendryes for permission to establish a new telephone service in the city:-- Your Committee beg leave to report to the Council that they have investigated the subject of Mr. Vendryes' application for liberty to erect Telephone Poles in and about the City of Kingston and to carry out Telephone communications as are now prevailing by the Company at present operating therein. (1). Your Committee in the first place desire to bring to the consideration of the Council the fact that there is no statute law regulating the construction of Telephone poles and laying of wires of communication overhead on them in the thoroughfares of this city. (2). It has come to the knowledge of the members of your Committee and they believe it to be true that by the mere personal assent of the late Mr. Custos Kemble who was at the time the chairman of the Municipal Board of the City and Parish of Kingston under a system of Government which has been since somewhat changed, the Telephone Co. alluded to, was permitted by him to carry out some vague and undefined plan of Telephone communication in the city without any specific arrangement as to details, and without any provision for the safety and comfort of the citizens, or any defined scale of charges to be laid on the community. (3). The result has been that huge and unwieldy poles with heavy top hampers of wires have been planted on the thoroughfares of Kingston without regard to possible dangers, in case of storms and hurricanes, and without any the least reference to the Surveyor of the City for guidance or approval in respect to the sites and positions of the unsightly poles. (4). At present the company referred to whose shareholders and directors are foreigners residing far away from this island would seem to be carrying on their business and operation on the streets of Kingston by mere sufferance without any legal authority, for Mr. Custos Kemble's assent could not, and cannot now override the regulations of the city. In regard to the application of Mr. Vendryes for liberty to follow the course of the Telephone Company in Kingston by erecting poles, and building up a Telephone Plant similar to those of said company, overhead in the thoroughfares in the city, your committee with views and opinions already expressed consider that the same privilege granted by Mr. Custos Kemble, as before stated, to the West India and Colombia Telephone Company may be granted to Mr. Vendryes subject to the control and supervision of the plant, etc., of the City Surveyor. (Signed) D. P. Nathan Charles T. Burton W. deB Hodge J. Callender R. M. Nicholas. |
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Members of the committee:
Daniel Phillip Nathan - a prominent Kingston lawyer and political figure, being Mayor of Kingston in the 1890s; he was the son of a Jewish father and a Coloured mother, who may have had Scottish ancestry, born probably in the 1820s.
J Callender
Charles Theophilus Burton, who was born in Kingston on the 23rd of October, 1843, was educated at Wolmer's School, and became a watch-maker, was for a period of seventeen years a member of the Mayor and Council of Kingston (1885-1902), during which time he was more than once Vice-Chairman. He later became in 1902 Assistant Clerk to the City Council and Secretary to Wolmer's Trustees. He died on the 18th of January, 1915. He was a prominent Free Mason.
Walter deBeltgens Hodge
Robert Mitchell Nicholas - a prominent Black businessman, was born in Kingston in the 1830s into a staunchly Methodist family. He went to the Wesley Day School at Coke Chapel, and then to the Mico Juvenile School. After school he entered the building trade and later ranked as one of the leading master builders in the city. He was frequently employed on government building contracts. Through-out his life he was a devoted member of Wesley Chapel, serving the church in many capacities. He was also a member of two Friendly Societies, the Odd Fellows and the Foresters. In 1891-2 he was elected to the City Council of Kingston.
He had four sons and two daughters, and the death of his wife, Charlotte, in 1886, brought to an end what had apparently been a very happy marriage. When he died in 1893 a considerable congregation paid their tribute to a devoted family man, churchman and Jamaican citizen. |
Mr. Lambdin responded, as manager of the company then operating the telephone system:
Letter from the Manager of the Telephone Company.
The following letter was addressed to the Chairman of the Committee and to each member, by Mr. Lambdin, Manager of the West India and Colombia Telephone Coy. Dear Sir,—As the application of Mr. Vendryes for permission from the City Council isbefore the honorable committee of which you are a member and without going into details, of which you, no doubt, are cognizant, I would merely say in excuse for addressing you, that my Company is of all others most interested in the outcome of Mr. Vendryes' petition. I confess to a hesitancy in attempting to influence your judgment in the matter, but as I think I can give legitimate and plausible reasons why Mr. Vendryes' application should be refused, I would be failing in duty to my Company in neglecting to do so. It is one of the good traits of human nature to give all businesses equal rights, and not to favour one enterprise to the injury of another and to encourage opposition in business enterprises, rather than to allow one Company to monopolize any particular branch to the exclusion of another firm or corporation. This, as a rule, is no more than right, but to most every rule, there is an exception, and why the business of a Telephone Exchange, and this Exchange especially, should be an exception, I flatter myself I can prove. In every line of business excepting a Telephone Company, two or more firms or Companies can exist, and divide a particular trade or business between or among themselves, and each one may make a fair profit out of it. In a city where two Exchanges are running the telephone subscribers must be patrons of both Exchanges to be able to communicate with all other telephone subscribers. He must have two telephone instruments, pay two telephone rentals, and be subject to annoyance and trouble in finding out to which Exchange a party he wishes to speak with belongs; or when he is rung up he is apt to answer on the instrument which did not signal, &c. &c. Or if he subscribes to only one Exchange, he only gets a part of the telephone subscribers to converse with. Two Exchanges cannot exist for any length of time; one at least, must succumb, but as the dying of one is a slow process, the subscribers during the time must put up with a deranged service. And as in the fight for existence, considerable money will be sunk, even the surviving Exchange will be crippled and unable to give as good service as the old Exchange had; and to recoup themselves the Exchange will either raise the rates higher than ever or continue to give miserable service. The preceding is as it would affect the subscribers and the Telephone Exchange. The City would be encumbered with twice the number of poles, as would be required for one Exchange. Even granting the above, you may be inclined to ask why riot allow an opposition to start as in time only one will succeed, and let the best win. In addition to the above reasons, I further note that my Company commenced operations in Jamaica when they could not get the community to invest one penny in the enterprise. My Company took the risk of a new business, when the people here were unwilling themselves to do -- after being invited. After building up the business, spending all the profits of the Exchange, to still further increase its usefulness in extending our area of telephone communication, and now that we are on the eve of introducing new, costly and better appliances to keep up with the times, we are threatened with opposition. We were first in the field, and as such we should be rather encouraged in our desire to have a Model Telephone Exchange. In many other places the Telephone Exchange is not only given sole right to operate, but also subsidized, so that the best service can be maintained. We do not ask that, we only beg for protection and encouragement. It has been said that we never had permission to erect poles but I would say that if the permission we received from the late Custos was not legal, it was not my Company's fault, and that we acted in good faith, and thought the permission good and sufficient. Some members of the community have exaggerated impressions of the amount of money taken in by this "foreign corporation," and remitted to America. Whatever is possible to buy we purchase in Jamaica. Figures I believe, would be the best argument to prove my statement, that our profits are extremely small as compared with most Companies. It is only within the last year that this exchange has had 250 subscribers, who pay an average of 15s. per month, which is £187½ monthly gross receipts. Out of that comes salaries of 9 employees, rent, light, water, &c., &c. also, and lumber for renewing poles, leaving about ⅓ of receipts to be remitted or say £65, per month—about equal to one of Jamaica's high official's salary. From that £65 supplies are bought in America, thus leaving a small margin to pay interest on investment here. It is the future this Company is working for. If we are assured of protection, my Company will not hesitate to spend money in painting its poles, and other improvements, and as I just said looking to the future and to the honorable treatment of us by the City Authorities for our recompense. You do Mr. Vendryes no harm in refusing his application. He has no money at stake which he can lose. There are numerous other enterprises crying out for capital, in which he can invest his surplus (!)—for instance the Jamaica Fisheries. My Company has expended considerable money in this Exchange, which Mr. Vendryes by hook or by crook has always been trying to rake in. Mr. Vendryes' application to erect poles, reminds me of one person trying to shove another one off of a chair, when there are numerous other seats vacant which he may choose to occupy. In conclusion, Mr. Vendryes of all persons should be the last one to ask for permission to string wires. Kingston has already had a sample of his manner of running lines, on broken bottle necks for supports for wire, and when the wire became detached on account of the unsubstantial manner of construction, and took the top off of a gentleman's trap, Mr Vendryes disclaimed all ownership in the line. The gentleman to whom this happened is a member of your committee. I have written each member of the committee the same words I write you. For fear of being tedious I will leave unwritten other matters I might mention about my Company being willing under certain conditions to reduce rates and their willingness of disposing of their shares to the community here in Jamaica. After my explanation I do not think you will try to nip in the bud an enterprise that appeals to your sense of justice, With much respect I am Sir, Very truly yours, C. LAMBDIN, General Manager. Lambdin's statement was speedily followed by a letter supporting the Vendryes' propoasal:
January 30, 1892 The Proposed New Telephone Exchange. To the Editor of the Gleaner. Sir,—It was certainly to be hoped that the petition of Mr. Vendryes for permission to establish another Telephone Service, should have been granted at once by our City Council without any need of your columns being used to call attention to what everybody, except interested parties, believes to be a public necessity. The members of our City Council are elected for the purpose of furthering the interests of the public and not for the protection of friendly interests, or the blocking of public interests for the gratification of a personal animus. The actions of the gentlemen who opposed Mr. Vendryes' application are not above criticism and it may be as well spoken as thought, that, if the interests of the public that they are sent there to represent are not studied more and personal interests less they may be elected to stay at home and re-present themselves when they again (shortly I think) have to seek the suffrages of our citizens. Not succeeding in blinding the eyes of the other Councillors, as to the best interests of the public, they still succeeded in securing the passage of a foolish, contradictory resolution, entailing unnecessary delay to the carrying out of Mr. Vendryes' proposal. Foolish and contradictory, inasmuch as a committee was appointed to draft roles and regulations to guide not only the new proposed Telephone Exchange but for the guidance of the existing, present Company, who, any intelligent person knows, has long passed the period when any rules can be carried into effect unless made retro-active. They ought to know they can make no retro-active rules, which the existing Telephone Company can carry out, and as permission had already been accorded, by a large majority of the Council, to Mr. Vendryes to commence and carry out his proposed exchange under the same conditions as the old company what style of rules and regulations can they inaugurate ? Verily, "whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad." The objection made by the wiseacres, which the majority of the Council had the good sense to override, was that Mr. Vendryes might use the privilege so accorded him as a means of blackmailing the present Company. Now Mr, Vendryes may not be as wealthy as any of those who dissented but his reputation, his personal standing in the community, his family prestige and connections are certainly as good and great many of the gentlemen mentioned and their reported imputations towards a gentleman born and raised in our midst were certainly not very manly and decidedly uncalled for. If it was an impossibility on Mr. Vendryes' part to otherwise raise the necessary money, his own family could put up as much as the others together and more. But, can any one of those who objected, or anybody else show where there is a possibility of "blackmailing'' anybody, much less the present Company? Mr. Vendryes in his petition offered to commence work in sixty days and complete his exchange as far as the city is concerned in 12 months. Failing to carry out said stipulations the City Council has the privilege of withdrawing its sanction and things remain as they were before. Under these circumstances who or what can Mr. Vendryes blackmail? It is sincerely to be hoped that no further obstacle will be allowed to stand in the way of the Council carrying out the citizen's wishes, to give us a new and improved service.—I am, &c., ONE WHO WANTS A GOOD TELEPHONE |
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