Strowger switch

Step by step
Switching
(SXS)
REPORT BY: WELVIC B. CUSTODIO
 WHAT IS STROWGER SWITCHING?

 is the first commercially successful

electromechanical stepping switch telephone
exchange system.

 It was developed by the Strowger Automatic

Telephone Exchange Company founded in 1891
by Almon Brown Strowger. Because of its operational
characteristics it is also known as a step-by-
step (SXS) switch.
STROWGER SWITCHING MACHINE
 He conceived his invention in 1888, and was
awarded a patent for an automatic telephone
exchange in 1891. The initial model was
made from a round collar box and some
straight pins.
 What is SATEC?

 The Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange

Company
 While Almon Strowger devised the initial concept, he
was not alone in his endeavors and sought the
assistance of his brother Arnold, nephew William,
and others with a knowledge of electricity and
financing to realize the concept. The Strowger
Automatic Telephone Exchange Company was
founded in 1891.
 The company(SATEC) was installed and opened the
first commercial exchange in his then-home town
of La Porte, Indiana on November 3, 1892, with
about 75 subscribers and a capacity for 99.
 Selector Theory

 A selector starts in the 'home' position and with each

'impulse' the wiper contacts would progress round
the output bank to the next position. Each output
would be connected to a different subscriber, thus
the caller could connect to any other subscriber who
was connected to that bank, without any manual
assistance from an operator.
2 types of selector in Strowger Switch

Uni-Selector

Two Motion Selector

 What is UNI-SELECTOR?

 the selector has 10 outputs, so a caller can choose to

connect to any of 10 different subscribers by dialling
any digit from 1 to 0 (0=10). This sort of automatic
selector is known as a Uniselector, as it moves in
just one plane (rotary).

 This is called Uni-Selector because the rotary motion

of this switch is in one direction, i.e., the wiper
assembly moves only in one direction.
 UNI-SELECTOR

 Wipers it is consists of moving contacts.

 Bank contacts is an electrical connections with any
one of several contacts, in an arc around it.
 The arc, in most cases it consists of ten wipers. The
wipers assembly is divided into three sets of wipers
so that the switch has to turn through only one third
of a full circle when operated.
 driving magnet is an electromagnet that operates
the wipers. with the help of a ratchet and pawl
mechanism.
 What is TWO-MOTION SELECTOR?

 the two- motion selector is a type of rotary

switch, in which the motion of the wiper assembly is
in two directions, vertical as well as horizontal.
 In the vertical direction the wipers move upward to
the desired level and make no connections with the
bank contacts.
 While in the horizontal direction the wipers make
connection with the bank contacts. The two-motion
selector has 10 levels; each having 10 contacts, thus a
total of 100 contacts are accessible.
 EXAMPLE FOR TWO-MOTION SELECTOR

 VIDEO PRESENTATION FOR TWO-MOTION SELECTOR

 The Rotary Dial
In Strowger's system, selecting digits to dial was done by a
complicated system involving five separate wires. Later,
the system of Timed Pulse (TP) dialing was invented using
a rotary dial.

 Progress Tones
With manual switching systems, there had always been an
operator to advise the caller of the current status. Having
removed the need for an operator, a system was required to
indicate call progress to the caller. A series of distinctive
tones was developed which were produced by a machine
called a Ring Generator.
 The ring generator was entirely
electromechanical; different cadences and tones
were produced by rotating cams connected to a
generator. As well as generating the tones,
 Kinds of progress tones were as follows:

 Dial Tone (DT).

 Busy Tone (BT).
 Number Unobtainable Tone (NUT).
 Ring Tone (RT).
 Dial Tone (DT). This is a 33 c/s continuous note
and is applied to the line after the subscriber has
lifted his handset and the switching equipment has
allocated him an available outlet for this call to
proceed. There would have been a physical limit on
the number of calls an exchange could handle so if all
equipment was already in use, the subscriber would
not get dial tone. The actual pitch of the dial Tone
varied from exchange to exchange depending on the
adjustment of the ring generator.
 Busy Tone (BT). A higher pitched note of 400 c/s
interrupted to give a cadence of 0.75 seconds on,
0.75 seconds off. Busy tone indicated either that the
called subscriber is already off-hook (busy) or that
the route to the called subscriber is congested. In
later systems, a slightly different cadence was
introduced in order to distinguish between these two
scenarios.
 Number Unobtainable Tone (NUT). Identical
pitch to the busy tone but continuous. This tone is
used to indicate that a number is out of service,
faulty or that a spare line has been dialed.

 Ring Tone (RT). A tone of 133c/s which

interrupted in the same cadence as the ring current
which rings the telephone's bell at the called party's
end : 0.4 seconds on, 0.2 seconds off.
 Almon Brown Strowger’s life

 In the late 1890's Almon B. Strowger retired and

eventually died in 1902. In 1901, Joseph Harris
licenced the Strowger selectors to the Automatic
Electric Co. (AE); the two companies merged in
1908. The company still exists today as AG
Communications Systems (www.agcs.com), having
undergone various corporate changes and buyouts
along the way.
STROWGER
SWITCH
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