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Strowger Automatic finger wheel

Started by unbeldi, March 13, 2016, 07:15:17 PM

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unbeldi

The finger wheel pictured changed hands recently for a cool $1,244.

I saw it when it was first listed, and it struck me that it had only TEN finger positions. The instruments that this wheel belongs to are usually referred to as the 11-digit system and I can't be sure whether I have ever seen an example with only ten finger holes.

Is this why it sold so high?

Technically I don't think there was any difference between the 10- and 11-hole dial, the extra position had the identical function as the '0' position, which was to alert the long distance desk.  The Strowger Automatic  numbering plan did not have a zero as the first digit of a telephone number. It started at number 1000 (or 1001?).   The extra position was simply added to avoid subscriber confusion.

So, was this dial the early version or a later version after everybody understood the system?
Perhaps it was the smart version:-\


unbeldi

#1
Mr. Kempster Miller first discussed the Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange in considerable detail in 1905, in the fourth edition of his treatise American Telephone Practice.  In the third edition of 1900, he only felt compelled to add a chapter about automatic switching, because "..the book seemed incomplete without it".

What is interesting is that he shows a wall instruments with only a 10-hole dial, and describes it as such, but goes on to show a detailed view of this dial with the eleventh hole already present.  However, he did later mention the operator hole, but the question remains whether the eleventh hole was added based on subscriber feedback.

I found the 11-hole version of this dial shown here on the forum, when it sold for about $600 (last picture).
I'll post a link when I find it again.

PS:  here is the link:  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5482.msg66768#msg66768


Jack Ryan

#3
It is correct that the "operator" hole generates 10 pulses just as the "0" hole does. The designers believed (or perhaps had evidence) that subscribers would be confused "dialling the operator" in the middle of dialling a subscriber's number as would be the case dialling any number containing a zero. By the way, originally there was no zero on the dial at all. The number zero was not in common use at that time and most typewriters did not have one - if needed, the letter Oh was used. The Strowger dial was originally marked 1 to 10 using a Roman X for the 10.

[Edit] - When I say "The number zero was not in common use at that time" I mean by the general public. They would use "none", "no" etc.

This finger wheel, from the original "sunburst" dial is from 1903 (first picture). The 11 digit dials are from 1905 (second picture). The last picture has the 11th hole blocked.

Jack

AE_Collector

#4
Of course these are the oldest automatic phones for use with the very first phone switching systems. Logically 10 digits are all that is needed. The way I heard it told is that the 11th Hole labelled Long Distance (which still just dials a 0) was added to try to avoid customer confusion. Large numbers of people with phones in the very late 1800's and very early 1900's were used to asking for subscribers by name up until their new automatic system was installed. They were told to dial 0 for Long Distance calls which the cost of likely scared customers to death that they might accidentally make an expensive LD call. Some People then mistakenly thought that any number with a 0 in it might be a LD call. Thus they added the 11th hole to differentiate dialing 0 for Long Distance from a number that had a 0 in it.

Again, this is just how I heard the story told but it makes some sense to me.

Terry

unbeldi

Thanks, Gentlemen, for your input.

The question of age/sequence I could have answered myself, actually, if I had just read my materials less carelessly.

In the 1900 edition, Miller actually showed the wall instrument that I posted from another thread in the forum, and it too had the 10-position wheel, albeit apparently without the rays, having an instruction card in the center instead.