Telephone timeline

HOME

Telephone - a timeline

1900: There are over one million telephones in the U.S. at the turn of the century -- still, this works out to fewer than two phones for every 100 people. To make a call, an operator manually plugs wires into a switchboard to connect two phones.

1905: Almon Brown Strowger, an undertaker, develops a switching system that is controlled by a dial on the telephone. Users can now dial directly to another phone without the assistance of an operator. Although Bell Telephone Laboratories installs Strowger's new system in many locations, switchboard operators are still used well into the second half of the century.

1937: Introduced in 1937, the "300" model telephone offered a built-in bell in its base.

1967: Telephones with push buttons and touch-tone dialing appear in homes in selected areas around 1967.

This modern cordless phone is a lot more convenient than the old wall phone!

Why don't you talk to some of the older teachers on the staff, and see if you can find someone to tell you about what it was like being on a party line? And what a party line was (because it wasn't anything to do with having a party!!)

BACK TO TOP

	1900: There are over one million telephones in the U.S. at the turn of the century -- still, this works out to fewer than two phones for every 100 people. To make a call, an operator manually plugs wires into a switchboard to connect two phones.
	1905: Almon Brown Strowger, an undertaker, develops a switching system that is controlled by a dial on the telephone. Users can now dial directly to another phone without the assistance of an operator. Although Bell Telephone Laboratories installs Strowger's new system in many locations, switchboard operators are still used well into the second half of the century.
	1937: Introduced in 1937, the "300" model telephone offered a built-in bell in its base.
	1967: Telephones with push buttons and touch-tone dialing appear in homes in selected areas around 1967.

	This modern cordless phone is a lot more convenient than the old wall phone!
Why don't you talk to some of the older teachers on the staff, and see if you can find someone to tell you about what it was like being on a party line? And what a party line was (because it wasn't anything to do with having a party!!)