In 1889, American undertaker Almon Brown Strowger faced an unusual competitive advantage. His enemy wasn't another business, but a man who was literally "breaking" his calls. This problem radically changed...
In 1889, American undertaker Almon Brown Strowger faced an unusual competitive advantage. His enemy wasn't another business, but a man who was literally "breaking" his calls. This problem radically changed the world of telecommunications.
Strowger, a Kansas City, Missouri man, noticed that calls to his funeral home were constantly being rerouted. The culprit was the operator at the local PBX. She was deliberately connecting clients to her husband's competitor, also an undertaker.
This injustice angered Strowger so much that he decided to eliminate the human factor. He conceived a system where subscribers could dial directly, without the need for an operator. Thus was born the fundamental principle of automatic telephone communication.
In 1891, Strowger received a patent for his step-by-step telephone exchange. The first commercial exchange, the Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange Company, opened in 1892 in La Porte, Indiana. This ended the monopoly of manual telephone operators.
Thanks to a greedy switchboard operator who "split" other people's calls, the world got the automated telephone exchanges we still use today. Next time you dial a number, remember Almon Strowger and his fight for honest business.
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