Extraordinary Tales Of Network Pioneers

Stories of the inventors behind the telecom network.
Transcript:
Lauded throughout history for their genius and charm, the inventors of the telecom network created what is revered as the largest and most reliable machine ever built.
These are the Extraordinary Tales of Network Pioneers!
In 1888, one unlikely telecom hero emerged
Almon Strowger was an undertaker.
He was also a bit of a tinkerer,
and a talented part-time inventor.
Strowger began to notice that business at his funeral home was starting to decline.
It wasn't because the death rate had dropped.
His business was just getting fewer calls.
At that time, all calls had to go through the town's operator.
So, when a call for a funeral home came in, she would say, "I'm so sorry. Let me connect you to the undertaker,"
But! Where she connected the call was completely up to her.
As it turned out the town's operator. was married to Strowger's competitor.
And when a call came in for the undertaker, she connected the person to her husband, and not to Strowger.
Well, Strowger looked at that and said, "That's not fair!?"
So he set out to create a device that would take control out of the hands of the operator.
Ingenious and simple, the automatic telephone exchange was the first mechanical device that allowed a customer to dial a number directly, prying control from the operator, allowing the customer to have "choice",
and, catapulting Strowger to the top of the undertaker industry!

[@mjswans]

Strowger is legendary in the undertaker-telecom circles....

[@jjbentley9]

Guy from forensic files