as an undertaker in Kansas City. The local operator happened to be the wife of a rival undertaker. Whenever someone asked to be put through to an undertaker, the operator would connect them to her husband. Strowger was frustrated at losing customers to this unfair competition. He created his device explicitly to bypass the need of an operator. His system "required users to tap out the number they wanted on three keys to call other users directly. The system worked with reasonable accuracy when the subscribers operated their push buttons correctly and remembered to press the release button after a conversation was finished, but there was no provision against a subscriber being connected to a busy line." Strowger would found the Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange in 1891. 1889: Elihu Thomson of Manchester, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland creates a motor-driven Wattmeter. 1889: Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky of Gatchina, Russian Empire created the first squirrel-cage induction motor. He was at the time working for AEG. Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobiles were undertaken by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach The first commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings occurred. Steel frame construction of "sky-scrapers" happened for the first time. February 16, 1880: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers was founded in New York City. Construction began on the Panama Canal by the French. This was the first attempt to build the Canal; it would end in failure. Lewis Ticehurst invented the drinking straw. 1884: Smokeless powder was brought from France. 1885: Thomas Edison invents the first ever movie in Menlo Park, New Jersey. 1886: Earliest commercial automobile is invented. 1887: As the Prohibition movement gained nationwide prevalence, a "liquor-free" drink was brewed, known now as Coca-Cola. 1888: Infrastructure reform movements begin when many cities are devastated by the Great Blizzard of '88. Science Heinrich Hertz discovered the photoelectric effect. The Michelson–Morley experiment was undertaken, which suggested that the speed of light is invariant. The James–Lange theory of emotion was produced. William James publishes numerous articles on human thought, leading to the 1890 publication of his The Principles of Psychology. Society About 600,000 Swedes Emigrated to America. Chinese, Scandinavians and Irish immigrants laid of Railroad tracks in America. Syrian Canadians started immigrating to the Americas. Popular culture Literature and arts Friedrich Nietzsche published Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Mark Twain published Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Carlo Collodi published The