Where a switchboard must accommodate more lines than can be handled by a single operator, the cabinet is made wider so as to afford room for more than one operator to be seated before it. Sometimes this is accomplished by building the cabinet wider, or by putting two such switchboard sections as are shown in Figs. 294 or 299 side by side. A two-position switchboard section is shown in front and rear views in Figs. 301 and 302.
Fig. 302. Rear View of Dean Two-Position Switchboard
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Sectional Switchboards. The problem of providing for growth in a switchboard is very much the same as that which confronts one in buying a bookcase for his library. The Western Electric Company has met this problem, for very small rural exchanges, in much the same way that the sectional bookcase manufacturers have provided for the possible increase in bookcase capacity. Like the sectional bookcase, this sectional switchboard may start with the smallest of equipment—a single sectional unit—and may be added to vertically as the requirements increase, the original equipment being usable in its more extended surroundings.
Fig. 303. Sectional Switchboard—Wall Type
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This line of switchboards is illustrated in Figs. 303 to 306. The beginning may be made with either a wall type or an upright type of switchboard, the former being mounted on brackets secured to the wall, and the latter on a table. A good idea of the wall type is shown in Fig. 303. Three different kinds of sectional units are involved in this: first, the unit which includes the cords, plugs, clearing-out drops, listening jacks, operator's telephone set and generator; second, the unit containing the line equipment, including a strip of ten magneto line signals and their corresponding jacks; third, the finishing top, which includes no equipment except the support for the operator's talking apparatus.