| In this next part in our series on the history of the | | | | given a patent in 1891 for his first automatic |
| telephone, we're going to pick up with the | | | | telephone exchange.The very first exchange that |
| construction of the first regular telephone line.After | | | | used the Strowger Switch was set up in La Porte, |
| Bell's completion of the telephone in 1876 the next | | | | Indiana in 1892. At first, subscribers to the service |
| step was making it so that this invention could be | | | | had a button on their telephone that produced the |
| used by everybody. So in 1877, construction of the | | | | required number of pulses by tapping on it. It wasn't |
| first regular telephone line, which ran from Boston to | | | | until 1896 that one of Strowger's assistants invented |
| Somerville, Massachusetts, was finished. By the end | | | | the rotary dial. This ultimately replaced the button |
| of 1880 there were over 47,900 telephones in the | | | | and is still in use on telephones today, mostly for |
| United States and in 1881 a telephone service from | | | | novelty purposes. In 1943, Philadelphia was the last |
| Boston to Providence was set up. Then in 1892, they | | | | city to give up dual service for both button and pulse |
| started a service between New York and Chicago. | | | | dialling.The first touch tone system, which used tones |
| Two years later, in 1894, a service began between | | | | in the voice frequency range instead of pulses used |
| New York and Boston but it wasn't until 1915 that | | | | by rotary dials, was installed in Baltimore, Maryland in |
| transcontinental service by overhead wire was | | | | 1941. Operators in a central switching office pushed |
| created. Backtracking a bit, the first switchboard, | | | | the buttons to make this work. The problem was, it |
| what we now call 411 service, was set up in Boston | | | | was just too expensive for general use by the public, |
| in 1877. Then on January 17, 1882, Leroy Firman got | | | | but the Bell Telephone Company, named after the |
| his first patent for a telephone switchboard.The first | | | | man credited with the invention of the phone, was |
| telephone exchange was set up in New Haven in | | | | still interested in the touch tone system because it |
| 1878. The first telephones were leased to people in | | | | increased the speed of dialling.The answer to this |
| pairs. Each person was required to put up his own line | | | | problem came in the 1960s when low cost transistors |
| in order to connect with another. Finally, in 1889, a | | | | and circuit components made the cost effective use |
| Kansas City undertaker by the name of Almon B. | | | | of touch tone telephones in a person's home a real |
| Strowger invented a switch that could connect one | | | | possibility. Through much testing, positioning of the |
| line to any one of 100 lines using a series of relays | | | | buttons limited errors and increased dialling speed |
| and sliders. This switch came to be known as the | | | | even more. The touch tone phone got its big |
| Strowger Switch and it was still being used by | | | | preview at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, where it |
| telephone offices over 100 years later. Strowger was | | | | was a huge success. |