Dresden Plate

 

Almon Brown Strowger was an undertaker in Kansas City, Missouri in the late 1800’s. As the story goes, his business was doing poorly. Almon suspected it was because the wife of the town’s other undertaker was a telephone operator. In those days, telephones didn’t have dials. To make a call, you’d pick up the receiver and tell the operator the party you wanted, and you’d be physically connected. Almon was convinced whenever anyone asked to speak with an undertaker, they’d be connected to his competition. Complaints to the phone company were ignored, so Almon took matters into his own hands. He invented the automatic telephone exchange and the rotary dial. Almon formed the Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange Company in 1892, with a capacity of 99 subscribers. If you were one of them, you could direct dial any of the other 98. A far cry from being able to pick up a phone and call anyone in the world!