22 SWITCHING SYSTEMS
motions, here vertical and rotary, by means of the control circuits V and
H. Thus, pulsing V caused a vertical shaft movement in increments raising
the wiper to the selected contact bank. Then pulsing H! and H2 caused
rotary shaft movement in increments bringing the wiper to the selected
bank contact. Since every exchange subscriber was connected to a bank
contact somewhere in the stack, the proper succession of V and HI H2
pulses caused a connection between calling and selected subscriber via
M - SUBSCRIBER LINE
Hi -, o
' * HORIZONTAL Z |H
'
r <z
V - VERTICAL ZD
R - RESET j 55
CONTROL SWITCH
CIRCUITS
FIGURE 1-14. Original Strowger step by step automatic exchange.
subscriber line M. Alert was accomplished by ring-through from the call-
ing party. The element was reset on call completion by pulsing the wire
R and its associated control circuit.
Trie Strowger step-by-step switch was to some extent an automated
version of the dial wiper board of Figure 1-9. However, the dial mecha-
nisms were stacked, and wiper motion was activated automatically and
extended to two dimensions. Several characteristics of great importance
to switching evolution were incorporated in this early design. These in-
volved the following features: the manner of connective element control,
the configuration of the control equipment, and the characteristics of
element motion.
Manner of Control. The early Strowger design invested the direct control
over circuit exchange connective element motion in the subscriber. The
EVOLUTION AND SYNOPSIS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS SWITCHING 23
consequent elimination of the interpretive capability of the exchange
operator required the subscriber to generate the address or connective
information in a machine language. Initially the language consisted of a
•sequential series of current pulses on control wires, generated by a push-
button set, as shown in Figure 1-14. This was to evolve rapidly to coded
line interruptions on a single wire generated by a subscriber rotary dial
mechanism, as anticipated by the ADT system call box. The required
increase in complexity of the subscriber instrument and the additional
burden of dialing placed on the subscriber sparked a major controversy
between the respective proponents of manual and automatic boards during
the early development of the latter. Among the means developed to ease
the subscribers task was the so-called semiautomatic equipment, in which
the subscriber gave verbal instruction as in manual board operation to an
operator, the "A" operator, who then dialed into an automatic board.
This technique is still sometimes used on manual to automatic interface
working. However, the use of the fully automatic switch retaining sub-
scriber dialing was to persist and expand. It is interesting to note that
push-button or touch tone dialing has reappeared in conjunction with
current effort in electronic circuit switch design.
The Strowger step-by-step switch extended the subscriber generated
pulses directly into the driving mechanism of the switch. No interim
storage was provided; the generated pulses delivered power for the two-
level motion. The subscriber dial arrangement, providing from one to ten
dial pulses, thus dictated a decadic switch structure. A representative
Strowger switch under direct drive is shown in Figure 1-15. The basic
connective element has 10 vertical banks of 10 contacts each, and the
sequential vertical and rotary incremental motion as activated by two-
digit dialing to contact "03" is indicated. One hundred subscribers were
accessible from this switch. The exchange could be expanded to 10,000
iiub.scribers where each subscriber was allocated one selector switch giving
him access to 100 connector switches. The 100 connector switches were
c.'Kili also of 100-point capacity giving the subscriber access to 100 X 100
or 10,000 subscribers. However, in order to keep the number of connector
.'iwitclics to 10,000 total, the outlets for a group of 100 selector switches or
subscribers were connected together or multipled providing only one
cross-office path to a connector switch for 100 subscribers. The consequent
Inflexibility, combined with the multiplicity of equipment, of this straight-
forward expansion of the decadic structure was a substantial restriction
on its subsequent use.
Configuration of Control Equipment. A requirement concomitant with
direct, subscriber dial pulse control of switch motion was the employment