The Telephone: Direct Line for Emergencies

In countless emergencies, the pay telephone is the one way to reach help. But the pay phone is mute and deaf until it has been fed its dime. To clear the line, Southern New England Telephone Co. is converting its pay telephones in Hartford so that the caller can get the operator without a coin.

Operators, who were instructed to stay with the call until it had been relayed to the police or fire department, logged 48 emergency calls in the first three days. A motel owner rushed to a pay booth to report that a guest had left without paying his parking fee; teen-agers were fighting in a street; suspected robbers were seen breaking into a store; and one, fire was spotted.

Telephone officials were not dismayed. Said one: "Some of the calls may turn out to be pretty low-key emergencies, but we'll have to accept them in all fairness to the ones which may really save a life, prevent a hold up, or get aid faster to an accident." If the six-month experiment works out, other Bell systems across the country are expected to follow suit. If so, they will only be catching up. Paris has already begun installing pay phones direct access to the operator in emergencies, and Londoners have long able to get help by simply dialing 999.