I found this story fascinating and wanted to share...
Almon Brown Strowger was an undertaker and was losing business to a competitor a competitor'...
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He was not happy with the plugin so he made his own. Sounds familiar 😉
Strowger's idea, in the form of the Step by Step switch and the Community Dial Office could be found in service until at-least the early 1990s in certain more out of the way places.
"essentially putting an end to the telephone operator altogether."
Not even close, sir. Manual switchboards were the rule in private establishments like hotels and hospitals and quite normal in lower-traffic areas well into the 20th century. Bryant Pond, Maine was a manual switchboard until 1982.