t was invented, built,
and installed by the Lorimer Brothers--Hoyt, George William, and
Egbert--of Brantford, Ontario. These young men without previous
telephonic training and, according to their statements, without ever
having seen the inside of a telephone office, conceived and developed
this system and put it in practical operation. With the struggles and
efforts of these young men in accomplishing this feat we have some
familiarity, and it impresses us as one of the most remarkable inventive
achievements that has come to our attention, regardless of whatever the
merits or demerits of the system may be.

The Lorimer system is interesting also from the fact that, in most
cases, it represents the mechanical rather than the electrical way of
doing things. The switches are power driven and electrically controlled
rather than electrically driven and electrically controlled, as in the
system of the Automatic Electric Company.

The subscriber's station apparatus consists of the usual receiver,
speech transmitter, call bell, and hook switch, and in addition a signal
transmitter arranged to be manipulated by the subscriber so as to
control the operation of the central-office apparatus in connecting with
any desired line in the system.

The central-office apparatus is designed throughout upon the principle
of switching by means of power-driven switches which are under the
control of the signal transmitters of the calling subscriber's station.
The switches employed in making a connection are all so arranged with
respect to constantly rotating shafts that the movable member of such
switches may be connected to the shafts by means of electromagnets
controlled directly or indirectly by relays, which, in turn, are brought
under the control of the signal transmitters.

The circuits are so designed in many instances that the changes
necessary for the different steps are brought about by the movement of
the switches themselves, thus permitting the use of circuits which are
rather simple. The switches employed are all of a rotary type; the
co-ordinate selection, which is accomplished in the Automatic Electric
Company's system by a vertical and rotary movement, being brought about
in this system by the independent rotation of two switches.

=Subscriber's Station Equipment.= A subscriber's desk-stand set, except
the call bell, is shown in Fig. 401, and a wall set complete in Fig.
402. In both of these illustrations may be seen the f