Elisha Gray

Elisha Gray (August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901) was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. He is best known for developing a telephone prototype in 1876 in Highland Park, Illinois. Some people believe Gray should be recognized as the true inventor of the telephone because there were claims that another inventor took his idea. However, the official decision supported the other inventor's patent.

In addition to his work on the telephone, Gray made important contributions to music technology. He is often called the father of the modern music synthesizer. Throughout his career, Gray received over 70 patents for his many inventions. His work helped shape both communication and music technology.

Biography and early inventions

Elisha Gray was born in Barnesville, Ohio, the son of Christiana (Edgerton) and David Gray. His family were Quakers. He was raised on a farm and spent several years at Oberlin College, where he experimented with electrical devices. Although he did not graduate, he taught electricity and science there and built laboratory equipment for its science departments.

In 1865, Gray invented a self-adjusting telegraph relay that automatically adapted to varying insulation of the telegraph line. In 1867, he received a patent for this invention. In 1869, Gray and his partner Enos M. Barton founded Gray & Barton Co. in Cleveland, Ohio, to supply telegraph equipment to the Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1872, Western Union bought one-third of Gray and Barton Co. and changed the name to Western Electric Manufacturing Company of Chicago. Gray continued to invent for Western Electric.

Gray developed many useful inventions, including a needle annunciator for hotels and elevators, and a stock-ticker-printer. In 1874, he retired to do independent research and development. He gave the first public demonstration of his invention for transmitting musical tones on December 29, 1874. In 1888, Gray patented the telautograph, an early version of the modern fax machine.

Telephone

Elisha Gray worked on a way to send voice sounds, but because of some problems, he didn’t share his idea until February 11, 1876. He made a drawing of his invention that day. Gray asked his lawyer, William D. Baldwin, to prepare something called a "caveat" to protect his idea at the US Patent Office. A caveat was like a temporary patent with drawings and a description.

On Monday, February 14, 1876, Gray signed and got his caveat notarized. His lawyer then sent it to the US Patent Office that same morning. That very same morning, a lawyer for Alexander Graham Bell sent Bell’s patent application to the Patent Office. It is debated which one arrived first, but Gray thought his caveat came a few hours before Bell’s application. Bell’s lawyers had been waiting to file the application in the USA until it was filed in Britain first.

Later, the patent examiner noticed that Bell’s application included an idea that matched Gray’s caveat. This caused a delay while they checked the details. In the end, Bell’s application was approved, and he received the patent on March 7, 1876. Bell and his assistant, Watson, tested a liquid transmitter and successfully sent clear speech. Although some people thought Bell took Gray’s idea, records show Bell had been working with liquid transmitters for years before this. Gray later tried to get a patent for the same invention, but the Patent Office decided Bell should keep the credit for the invention.

Further inventions and death

In 1887, Gray invented the telautograph, a device that could send handwriting over wires from far away. Banks used it to sign documents, and the military used it to send messages during loud gun tests. Train stations also used it for changing schedules.

Gray showed his invention at the 1893 Columbian Exposition and later sold his share in the company. He also helped lead a big meeting of scientists called the International Congress of Electricians that same year. Gray even thought up an early way to send moving pictures through wires, calling it the "telephone".

In 1899, Gray moved to Boston and kept inventing. He worked on a way to send messages underwater to ships. He tested one of these devices at the end of 1900. Sadly, three weeks later on January 21, 1901, Gray passed away from a heart problem in Newtonville, Massachusetts.

Some people mistakenly think a type of computer code called the Gray code is named after him, but it is actually named after another scientist named Frank Gray.

Publications

Elisha Gray wrote several books about his work. One book, Experimental Researches in Electro-Harmonic Telegraphy and Telephony, 1867–1876, was published in 1878. He also wrote Telegraphy and Telephony in 1878, and two books in 1900: Electricity and Magnetism and Nature's Miracles, which explained science in a way that everyone could understand.