that would ultimately result in a setback for the company. In that decade, dial service, which replaced the services of an operator at a switchboard with automatic routing of calls to their destination, was first introduced. After conducting a study, the company decided against undertaking the costly conversion to the new technology. In the 1930s and 1940s, while other telephone companies across the nation were implementing the new, more efficient service, Rochester Telephone, unable to raise the necessary capital for the conversion because of the effects of the Great Depression and the war effort, was forced to continue using archaic equipment. The 1930s proved to be a difficult decade for Rochester Telephone. Strapped for cash in the midst of the Great Depression, many of the company's customers gave up their phone service, and cancellations exceeded new orders for several years in the early part of the decade. As revenues and earnings fell, Rochester Telephone began to cut its work force in an effort to keep costs down. Remaining employees were put on shortened hours, and their wages were reduced. The company's darkest hour had passed by 1934, however, and its count of telephones in service and revenues began to creep upward that year. Three years later, the company got further relief when it received its first rate increase from the commission that regulated public utilities in its area. This boon produced over $60,000 in additional annual revenues for Rochester Telephone. Despite the Depression, Rochester Telephone expanded its facilities during the 1930s, adding new central office space in downtown Rochester and outlying communities. By 1941, Rochester Telephone's revenues had climbed back to their highest point ever. That same year, however, the United States entered World War II, and the economy was converted to a wartime footing. Resources were diverted to the military effort, leaving widespread shortages in the civilian world. With the gear-up for the war effort, demand for telephone services increased dramatically. The ranks of company employees to meet that demand, however, were thinned by military call-ups. Caught without dial equipment in a situation where new equipment was impossible to procure, Rochester Telephone had difficulty handling the growing volume of calls. Customers were asked to limit the duration of their calls, and tones sounded every three minutes on the line to remind them to get off the phone. On long-distance calls, operators broke in every five minutes to tell callers