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 first use of a dial phone was in 1892 in La Porte, Indiana based on a 1891 patent by Almon Brown Strowger. In 1919, the American Bell Telephone Company began national service for user controlled rotary dial phones.pecifications. The standard form of the rotary dial is a disk three inches in diameter with 10 holes, numbered in one of four forms 1-9 then 0, 0-9, 9-0 or 0 then 9-1. Despite the different numberings, when the first number was dialed, 1 pulse was sent and when the last number was dialed, 10 pulses.