Just because someone made an invention doesn't mean it was actually immediately used everywhere. Maybe it had an important flaw, was actually more expensive than human workers until decades later, or telephone companies were just stubborn.

I firmly believe that we need to bring back the directory operator as a proper customer service position. The number of times I have quietly stewed in my own hatred while an automatic phone system requires me to dance like a puppet on a string only to be deadended at a prompt has probably shortened my life somehow. I would easily make purchasing decisions based on whether a business allowed me an actual person to direct my call.

But it’s a fun story and that’s all that matters to the internet.