Methods of Associating Jacks and Drops. There are two general methods of arranging the drops and jacks in a switchboard.  One of these is to place all of the jacks in a group together at the lower portion of the panel in front of the operator and all of the drops together in another group above the group of jacks.  The other way is to locate each jack in immediate proximity to the drop belonging to the same line so that the operator’s attention will always be called immediately to the jack into which she must insert her plug in response to the display of a drop.  This latter practice has several advantages over the former.  Where the drops are all mounted in one group and the jacks in another, an operator seeing a drop fall must make mental note of it and pick out the corresponding jack in the group of jacks.  On the other hand, where the jacks and drops are mounted immediately adjacent to each other, the falling of a drop attracts the attention of the operator to the corresponding jack without further mental effort on her part.

The immediate association of the drops and jacks has another advantage—­it makes possible such a mechanical relation between the drop and its associated jack that the act of inserting the plug into the jack in making the connection will automatically and mechanically restore the drop to its raised position.  Such drops are termed self-restoring drops, and, since a drop and jack are often made structurally a unitary piece of apparatus, they are frequently called combined drops and jacks.

Manual vs.  Automatic Restoration..  There has been much difference of opinion on the question of manual versus automatic restoration of drops.  Some have contended that there is no advantage in having the drops restored automatically, claiming that the operator has plenty of time to restore the drops by hand while receiving the order from the calling subscriber or performing some of her other work.  Those who think this way have claimed that the only place where an automatically restored drop is really desirable is where, on account of the lack of space on the front of the switchboard, the drops are placed on such a portion of the board as to be not readily reached by the operator.  This resulted in the electrically restored drop, mention of which will be made later.

Others have contended that even though the drop is mounted within easy reach of the operator, it is advantageous that the operator should be relieved of the burden of restoring it, claiming that even though there are times in the regular performance of the operator’s duties when she may without interfering with other work restore the drops manually, such requirement results in a double use of her attention and in a useless strain on her which might better be devoted to the actual making of connections.

Until recently the various Bell operating companies have adhered, in their small exchange work, to the manual restoring method, while most of the so-called independent operating companies have adhered to the automatic self-restoring drops.