William Gray

1850 – 1903

William Gray

William Gray enjoyed tinkering at an early age. He apprenticed at a machine shop before working at Pratt & Whitney. While at Pratt & Whitney, he came up with several inventions which he patented. This included a belt shifter and an inflatable torso protector for baseball players.

First Pay Phone

When Gray had trouble finding a telephone to call a doctor for his ailing wife, he came up with the idea of a coin-operated public phone. He developed and sold the invention to Southern New England Telephone Company who installed the first pay telephone at a bank in Hartford, Connecticut in 1889. It was a “postpay” machine meaning coins were deposited after the call was placed.

The pay phone was such a success that Gray founded his own business – the Gray Telephone Pay Station Company. It operated from 1891 until 1948 when the company was acquired by Automatic Electric.

Location:
Section 7, Lot 144

References:

Answerbag.com. Who Made the First Pay Phone? Accessed at
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/70548

Baseball Biography Project. http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&pid=19540&bid=1573


Radio Museum. History of the radio manufacturer Gray Manufacturing Co., Inc. Hartford, CT.
http://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_hersteller_detail.cfm?company_id=11120


Photo Credit:

William Gray, Gray Telephone Pay Stations: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (1935)