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submitted 10 months ago by Stamets@lemmy.world to c/tumblr@lemmy.world
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[-] infeeeee@lemm.ee 85 points 10 months ago

His name was Almon Brown Strowger, not Stronger... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almon_Brown_Strowger

And there is no source for this story on wiki, it cites another wiki, where there isn't any more source either. So it's possible that this story is made up, or at least not exactly how it happened.

[-] theKalash@feddit.ch 21 points 10 months ago

There is actually a link to the patent in the article you linked:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US447918

[-] infeeeee@lemm.ee 26 points 10 months ago

I didn't question that part, but the tale about the wife of the other undertaker, seems like it was only his imagination: https://lemm.ee/comment/7360184

[-] wander1236@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago

"Stronger" is probably an autocorrect mistake

[-] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

What source are you referring to? One of the first citations is to this paper clipping https://www.newspapers.com/article/sioux-city-journal-originator-sought-rev/111684147/

[-] infeeeee@lemm.ee 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Have you read this? It tells a different story. Strowger didn't get the calls because some tin plate shorted the phoneline, it was his imagination that the phone girls were the culprit. So yeah, the story is not exactly the same, as I expected, it tells it from Stowgers point of view.

And where is this linked on wiki? I can't find it.

[-] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

I did read - I agree its not the exact same story

Where was this linked

Also, apologies. I had actually clicked into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strowger_switch from the originally linked page

[-] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 10 months ago

Doubt. Operators that literally patched your calls were the norm well into the 1960s.

[-] ichmagrum@feddit.de 10 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website 3 points 10 months ago

100%

The electric car predates internal combustion. Electric carriages were around long before the internal combustion engine made a car move, yet here we are nearly 200 years (from the first electric motors moving people) later and only now are technologies compatible, reasonably priced, and produced in large enough quantities to be viable for the average person.

[-] Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 10 months ago

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

[-] VelvetStorm@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Nah she destroyed it not him. Had she done her job he would never had made it.

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

HE TERK ER JERBS!

[-] SapphironZA@lemmings.world 1 points 10 months ago

Dammit Mary!

[-] tacosanonymous@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

Necessity is the mother of invention.

[-] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

I know this is a common phrase, but I have such a strong association with it and the Lucky Seven Punk House skit from Portlandia.

[-] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago

No, laziness is.

[-] therealjcdenton@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 months ago

The spur in innovation

[-] littlebluespark@lemmy.world -3 points 10 months ago

I mean, the holiday celebration statue of Baphomet was recently vandalized in a certain state building (ofc nothing happened to the walleyed dipshit), so Jesus' daddy is proven once again to be petty AF. "Divine" by definition, and so very butthurt, yep.

this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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