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Museums 301: Dial telephones (photo diary) [1]
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Date: 2025-07-27
The telephone dial was invented by Almon Brown Strowger (1839-1902) in 1891. Strowger felt that his undertaking business was losing business because telephone calls intended for his business were being routed to a competitor. With this motivation, he invented the first automatic telephone dialing exchange in 1889 and received a patent for it in 1891. The Strowger Automatic Telephone exchange was installed in La Porte, Indiana in 1892 with 75 subscribers and a capacity for 99. He sold his patents in 1896 and Bell Systems acquired them in 1916.
Dial telephones became common during the twentieth century. For those unfamiliar with using a dial telephone, it works like this: (1) insert finger into the finger hole corresponding to the first number you want to call; (2) rotate the dial clockwise until you reach the finger stop; (3) pull finger out of the finger hole and a spring in the dial will return the dial to the resting position; (4) repeat steps 1-3 for the rest of the numbers.
Shown below are some dial telephones displayed in museum exhibits.
Lustron House, Ohio History Center, Columbus, Ohio
Museum of Mental Health, Salem, Oregon
La Center Historical Museum, La Center, Washington
Shown above is a “candlestick” telephone.
Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Missoula, Montana
East Benton County Museum in Kennewick, Washington
Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum Hood River, Oregon
San Bernardino County Museum, Redlands, California
Dumas Brothel Museum, Butte, Montana
More museums
Museums 301: Handcrank telephones (photo diary)
Museums 301: Player Pianos (photo diary)
Museums 401: Gas stations and garages (photo diary)
Museums 401: Locomotives (photo diary)
Museums 401: The Caboose (photo diary)
Museums 401: Quilts (photo diary)
Museums 501: Kitchens (photo diary)
Museums 501: Wood-fired kitchen ranges (photo diary)
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