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Almon Strowger patented the first automatic telephone exchange switch in 1891

Electromechanical rotary stepping switches allowed callers to dial numbers without human operators

Kansas undertaker Almon Strowger invented the electromechanical rotary switch in 1889 after suspecting telephone operators were diverting business calls to a rival undertaker. His patented stepping switch responded directly to pulses generated by rotary telephone dials. The Strowger switch automated telephone exchanges globally for nearly a century before digital electronic switching.

Strowger switches TMW.agr
ArnoldReinhold ยท CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

IEEE History Center

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Tags: telecoms, switching, telephone

Almon Strowger patented the first automatic telephone exchange switch in 1891: the short answers

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Electromechanical rotary stepping switches allowed callers to dial numbers without human operators. The figure is taken from IEEE History Center, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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