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.
The AE Strowger Dial Candlestick. 11-digit dial telephone, circa 1905. A Kansas City (Kansas) inventor named Almon Strowger invented the first automatic dial telephone system in 1889. This system used rotary relay switches that followed pulses in the central office when a subscriber moved a dial on the telephone. This type of system was called step-by-step or simply step. (See How Phones Work in the Science wing for more about Strowger.) By 1892, the first Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange was in service in La Porte, Indiana.