Strowger Dial Candlestick Antique Phones The Western Electric and Northern

The Western Electric and Northern Electric 102/202 series telephones were the first widely distributed phones which adopted the use of a single handset rather than a separate transmitter and receiver

Created by famed industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss

Internal Ringer

Both the 500s and 554’s became so popular that the designer

Automatic Electric Type 21 dial wall phone

Strowger Dial Candlestick Antique Phones The Western Electric and NorthernStrowger 11 digit desk telephone 1905 The Strowger Potbelly Candlestick was the first commercially available dial telephone. Almon Brown Strowger was an undertaker in Kansas City in the late 1800s. He believed the local telephone operator was directing all business calls to his competitor, who also happened to be her husband. In order to give subscribers total control over their calls, Strowger invented the automatic telephone exchange a. k. a. dial