George A. Long attended the Arsenal School at Hartford and then Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University. He left Yale after only a few months however to become an apprentice pattern-maker at Pratt & Whitney.
Pay Telephone
At Pratt & Whitney, Amos Whitney assigned Long, age 16, the task of building a pay telephone model for William Gray. He did, producing the first practical coin operated telephone, which was installed in a bank building in Hartford in 1889.
Internal-Combustion Engine
In 1891, at age 21, Long was a foreman at the National Machine Company. There he built one of the first internal-combustion engines in the western hemisphere under license from Daimler of Germany. The engine was later used in Pope-Hartford automobiles.
Businessman & Inventor
Long joined the Gray Telephone Pay Station Company in 1901, eventually becoming president and general manager. He held almost 200 patents for pay-telephone equipment. One invention included a lock with a million combinations used for coin boxes.
Location:
Section 12, Lot 45
References:
Hartford Courant, “George A. Long Dies; Telephone Pioneer, 89,” November 21, 1958
Hartford Courant, Stoeckel, Hebert J., “How Pay Telephones Were Born,” January 26, 1958
New York Times, “George Long, 89, Held 200 Patents,” November 21, 1958
Photo Credit:
George Long, Public Domain