The disks produce a better quality of sound, are more durable, and are easier to mass produce than the wax cylinder. They quickly replace all cylinders. The records, made of plastic, are more durable than the clay and shellac 78s. To make a call, an operator manually plugs wires into a switchboard to connect two phones. Almon Brown Strowger, an undertaker, develops a switching system that is controlled by a dial on the telephone.
Users can now dial directly to another phone without the assistance of an operator.
Although Bell Telephone Laboratories installs Strowger's new system in many locations, switchboard operators are still used well into the second half of the century. Telephones with push buttons and touch-tone dialing appear in homes in selected areas around 1967. An icebox is used in 1900 to keep food cool. Your friendly local iceman delivers blocks of ice several times a week. The first electric refrigerators are sold to the home market in 1913, although their sales won't climb until the 1920s.