Almon Strowger Transformed the Telecom Industry with Strowger Switch

Not many people know that there lived an innovator who revolutionized the telephone industry with a dialing system that used an electromechanical switch or Strowger Switch. His name was Almon Brown Strowger and his innovation still inspires the modern telecom industry. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) September 05, 2012 - Penfield, New York - The system of automatic telephone dialing system using an electromechanical switch had remained widely in service until the seventies. But the legacy that Almon Strowger left after his departure from this world continues to inspire the innovators of modern times. He made his way to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the year 2006. Despite his brief foray as an inventor, his work had won the interest of public and the investors. He was the reason behind the transformation of the entire telephone industry and the way a common man used the device. People do not know much about this great inventor, but his work had drawn the ire of a dominant telephone company.

Born on October 19, 1839, in Penfield, New York, he was one of the 14 children and was raised in a small house on Whalen Road. The aptitude of Almon Brown Strowger for invention was evident in his attempt to devise machines with the help of his brothers to do the routine chores. He joined the military at the age of 22, and had an honorable discharge on December 8, 1864, after receiving a commission as second lieutenant. He became a teacher and then eventually a principal of a school in Penfield, New York. His first wife, Rosaltha, died at the time he had bought an undertaking business in Kansas, resulting in his marriage to Anna Condon. While it is not known whether his second wife died or the two divorced, he married Alice Marie Hill in 1886. He had two daughters, Harriet Malvine and Mary Rosaltha from the first marriage and John Almon Strowger from his third marriage.

He was still working as an undertaker in Kansas City when one day he discovered that a friend died and Strowger was not called to inform about the funeral services. He believed that a telephone operator was diverting his calls to a rival undertaker. This led him to create a device which could allow the users of telephone to make calls without the need of any operators. He and his business partners formed a company known as Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange in La Porte, Indiana, in the year 1891. Its operations spread to the European markets later on, after which, he retired from the telephone business. After selling his stake in Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange, he moved to Florida, where he died at the age of 62 in 1902. For more information, visit http://www.almonstrowger.com

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