early 12c., one of the ecclesiastical princes who constitute the sacred college (short for cardinalis ecclesiae Romanae or episcopus cardinalis), from Latin cardinalis principal, chief, essential (see cardinal (adj.)). Ecclesiastical use began for the presbyters of the chief (cardinal) churches of Rome.
In 1889, the rotary telephone dial was invented by Almon B. Strowger , a Kansas City undertaker. The first dial exchange was installed at La Porte, Indiana, in 1892. In 1943, Philadelphia was the last major area to give up dual service.
Elisha Gray was an electrical engineer considered by some to be the true inventor of the telephone, despite losing out the patent to Alexander Graham Bell. Gray was born in 1835 in a Quaker family in Ohio. He went to Oberlin College but he did not graduate. However, he experimented with and taught electricity in the science departments.