17 SEPTEMBER 1904, Page 23

The Telephone Service. By Herbert Laws Webb. (Whittaker and Co.

ls. net.)—Mr. Webb is informing on the past and present of the telephone, and sanguine as to its future. "I look forward confidently," he writes, " to the day when the telephone service will be considered as indispensable a part of the equip- ment of every office, of every shop, and of every house, with the most modest pretensions to comfort and convenience, as the arrangements for light, heat, and water supply." Present systems of working are criticised, especially as to the charges (of which the item should be, Mr. Webb thinks, the message). Finally, there are various amusing stories of the use and abuse of the apparatus.