atter of nickel service; and no one has ever shown yet just what
degree of complexity will prevent a telephone system from working.

It is safe to say that, if other things are equal, the simpler a machine
is, the better; but simplicity, though desirable, is not all-important.
Complexity is warranted if it can show enough advantages.

If one takes a narrow view of the development of things mechanical and
electrical, he will say that the trend is toward simplicity. The
mechanic in designing a machine to perform certain functions tries to
make it as simple as possible. He designs and re-designs, making one
part do the work of two and contriving schemes for reducing the
complexity of action and form of each remaining part. His whole trend is
away from complication, and this is as it should be. Other things being
equal, the simpler the better. A broad view, however, will show that the
arts are becoming more and more complicated. Take the implements of the
art of writing: The typewriter is vastly more complicated than the pen,
whether of steel or quill, yet most of the writing of today is done on
the typewriter, and is done better and more economically. The art of
printing affords even more striking examples.

In telephony, while every effort has been made to simplify the component
parts of the system, the system itself has ever developed from the
simple toward the complex. The adoption of the multiple switchboard, of
automatic ringing, of selective ringing on party lines, of
measured-service appliances, and of automatic systems have all
constituted steps in this direction. The adoption of more complicated
devices and systems in telephony has nearly always followed a demand for
the performance by the machinery of the system of additional or
different functions. As in animal and plant life, so in mechanics--the
higher the organism functionally the more complex it becomes physically.

Greater intricacy in apparatus and in methods is warranted when it is
found desirable to make the machine perform added functions. Once the
functions are determined upon, then the whole trend of the development
of the machine for carrying them out should be toward simplicity. When
the machine has reached its highest stage of development some one
proposes that it be required to do something that has hitherto been done
manually, or by a separate machine, or not at all. With this added
function a vast added complication may come, after which, if i