Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!nucsrl!telecom-request From: 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: And He's Probably Rolling Over in His Grave Now Message-ID: Date: 11 Mar 91 03:58:00 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 21 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 196, Message 9 of 12 In article , Jeff Sicherman posts: > From L. M. Boyd's March 1 column: > "William Gray wanted to call his sick wife, but his foreman wouldn't > let him use the company phone. That's why Gray invented the pay phone > in 1889." This sounds like one of those colorful bits of early telecom history. However, I carry the notion that the Gray Paystation was simply a product line name of the Automatic Electric Company, which became th repository of Gray's and Strowger's patents. I have some authoritative history of non-Bell telephone interests, which are quick to claim any telephonic invention _not_ made by Bell, and I don't recall the paystation being among their claims of a non-Bell invention. Anybody out there have more on this?