Thanks for that bit of history. I seem to remember form previous conversations with people that this was not the standard for all of America. Probably something related to east cost vs west coast.
More likely population density/growth in the region. Most of the US was all Bell System at the time.
If the area was urban, or growing quickly (adding new phone subscribers), they'd get the newer electronic (ESS) switches first, starting around the early 1970s.
If the area was suburban and population-stable, the electromechanical crossbar switches would live on for another 20+ years.
There were some rural parts of the US using even older Strowger/SxS switches until the mid 1980s at least, probably later!
There's a great story about the development, by a Mr. Strowger, of the first electromechanical telephone exchange switch. Previously, calls were connected manually, by operators. Mr. Strowger was an undertaker, and he believed that the operators were sending callers to his competition unfairly. So he invented an automatic switch to remove the human element.
> There's a great story about the development, by a Mr. Strowger, of the first electromechanical telephone exchange switch. Previously, calls were connected manually, by operators. Mr. Strowger was an undertaker, and he believed that the operators were sending callers to his competition unfairly. So he invented an automatic switch to remove the human element.
I’ve heard this one before. Wasn’t the wife of one of his competitors actually the operator in question?
