Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

Today in 1892 a phone system that made automated calls - no switchboard operator - began operating in Laporte, Indiana. The first automatic dial network happened, as the story goes, because of a business dispute between two undertakers. Plus: today in 1882, the birthday of John Baxter Taylor, Jr, the first Black American to win an Olympic gold medal. Almon B. Strowger: The undertaker who revolutionized telephone technology (Spark Museum of Electrical Invention) First African American Olympic gold medalist was a Penn grad (University of Pennsylvania)  Help us invent hundreds more episodes of our show as a backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/support