78 
THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
Machinery of the Floor.—Two of the walls of the lofty- 
ceilinged main Board Room contain enormous windows beneath 
which the visitors’ galleries run. On the other two walls are 
the large black annunciator or signal boards upon which white 
numbers are constantly appearing and disappearing; they syn- 
chronize with other similar boards in the other trading rooms 
on the floor. These annunciator boards provide a system for 
“paging” the members; each member on the floor has his own 
number, and by flashing it on the various signal boards, his 
telephone clerk can quickly call him to his telephone from the 
“crowds” around the posts. On the south wall, below one of 
the annunciator boards, a small rostrum projects in mid air; it 
is from here that the opening of the market at 10 A.M. and its 
closing at 3 p.m. (Saturdays 12 M.) are announced each day 
by a large brazen gong, and that official announcements are 
sometimes made to the members of the Exchange. On the 
floor are also the stations from which quotations printed on 
the stock tickers are originally dispatched. The floor is pro- 
vided with tickers for the use of members, and ingenious reflect- 
ing devices throw the magnified quotations from the tape on 
large screens visible to everyone. Numerous other mechanical 
devices—such, for example, as the pneumatic tube system— 
have also been introduced on the floor to facilitate its opera- 
tions.1® 
The New Floor and Bond Room.—The above description 
of the Exchange floor has been confined to the old Board 
Room, not only because it is the largest and most traditional 
trading hall in the Exchange, but also because it is the one 
which visitors usually see. The smaller trading hall in the 
extension toward Wall Street, being devoted entirely to shares, 
very closely resembles the old Board Room, and duplicates its 
mechanical facilities, such as the stock post, annunciator board, 
ticker dispatch station, telephone booth, etc. The bond room 
in the extension toward Exchange Place, although resembling 
7 Avpnadic IIIg.