
Strowger Telephone Switch (1891) - walterbell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strowger_switch
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eltoozero
"He was said to be convinced that she, as one of the manual telephone exchange
operators, was sending calls "to the undertaker" to her husband."

Wonderful tidbit.

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kbob
I have seen Strowger switches in the wild.

In 1965-66, my first grade class visited the local AT&T Central Office. We saw
a wall of what I later identified as Strowgers. I thought they looked like
mailboxes on end at the time.

The MIT dorm phone system used Strowgers at least through 1980, and could be
seen by curious students.

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dankm
I played with one tonight at a local museum. Had 4 lines on it.

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theoh
There's an art project from a few years ago which made a feature of running
Strowger switches. The art aspect deals with migration and conflict minerals.

[http://yoha.co.uk/tantalum](http://yoha.co.uk/tantalum)

"The first thing that visitors see is a towering rack consisting of
electromagnetic Strowger telephony switches. The undertaker Almon Brown
Strowger patented this design in 1891, the first automated telephone system of
its kind. The switches are triggered by a computer..."

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joshaidan
The museum of science and technology in Ottawa had a working demo of a stepper
switch. When you hear one in action you quickly realize how a rotary telephone
works and why it makes the noise it does.

I've heard people say it's quick the sound to hear a CO full of them in
action.

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jamiewildehk
My dad was a telephone engineer in the 80s and 90s in the UK. He took me to
the exchange a few times and I can still recall the impressive noise of the
Strowger (or maybe they were Director) units.

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mwally
Great video about it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZePwin92cI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZePwin92cI)

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a3n
I went to a telephone maintenance school in the Navy in Virginia, 1976. We
studied these things, but I never encountered one in the wild.

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Zigurd
Until the mid 80's MIT Dormline ran on a Strowger switch. It was replaced by a
5ESS dedicated to, and IIRC, owned by MIT.

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dsr_
cstross is fond of a tale that the Mexico City telephone exchange continued
working from underneath an earthquake-collapsed building, because it was
running on Strowger switches. I haven't been able to track down a reference
elsewhere, though.

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CamperBob2
Still the best way to explain net neutrality to a layman.

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Animats
A few percent error rate, but no single point of failure.

