When did direct dialing become mainstream?

Question

I'm not sure the technical name for it, but when people phoned each other in 50's and before, many told the operator a place name and followed by four digits. This was in place of our modern 10-digit direct dialing system. Back then a number in New York City might by "Murray Hill 1093." When did the change happen? How and why?

Answer 1

The telephone dial and automatic switching was invented by Almond Strowger somewhere around 1890 and the Automatic Electric Company was formed. Western Electric and the Bell Telephone system attempted to squash this competitor. Automatic dialing equipment was slow to catch on until about the 1920's. Direct dialing was introduced slowly as telephone central offices were upgraded to automatic switching and toll routing was implemented. Initially all calls had to be connected by an operator. Then a community could dial direct within the community but not long distance...the operator had to connect the long distance call.

The name in front of the numbers is a separate issue. The first two letters of the name actually correspond to digits on the dial, i.e. MUrray2 1093 would be 682-1093. This system was displaced in 1951 when the North American Numbering Plan was introduced.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/north_ameri...