[Milsurplus] Dating the term "Walkie Talkie"

[Convoy Magazine]

When Al Gross died in Arizona on Dec 21 2000 at age
82, there was a write up about him in some Canadian
newspapers.
I paraphrased these in CONVOY magazine issue 3
"related news" 

<<"Al Gross often said he was born 35 years too soon.
Born in Toronto, he earned his degree in electrical
engineering in Cleveland. Seeing a need for simple
communication devices, he was recruited by the US
Office of Strategic Services (OSS-later CIA). There he
developed a ground to air battery operated radio that
could transmit up to 50 miles. Its credited with
saving many lives during the war.
 In the late 40's Dick Tracy cartoonist Chester Gould
visited Mr Gross' workshop where the inventor was
working on a special project. Gould asked if he could
use one of the ideas and shortly afterward, Dick Tracy
was communicating through a wireless wrist
transciever. Mr Gross invented the wireless pager in
1949 and the wireless phone in 1951, the precursors to
todays pagers and cell-phones....">>

I remember in the newspaper write up was a photo of
him holding a small kinda square device with a floppy
antenna like a measuring tape folded over into rabbit
ear kinda shape..

Meanwhile, somewhere in the CBC audio archives is in
fact a recording made using one of thes wireless
telephones, and it must have been in the early 50's. A
reporter was in a car driving around Toronto calling
into the studio. Everyone at the time must have
thought it was kind of a mildly amusing gizmo with no
real practical future..surprise ;-)

Meanwhile as to who invented radio, well you could say
marconi (using Tesla and others patents)with his faint
clicks, or you could really say it was Cdn Reginald
Fessenden who actually transmitted voice, a year
earlier with a public demonstration a few years
afterward.

cheers
Marc
PS- that being said, I personally did not do the
research on Mr Gross, the newspapers (hopefully) did
that..and I agree with Hue though:  
<<<<These claims illustrate the need to be careful
when
> writing
> history based on anecdote and personal accounts.
> Hue Miller>>>>>


--- Hue Miller <kargo_cult@msn.com> wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dave Hollander" <n7rk@cox.net>
> 
> > I worked for Motorola for 25 years and I always
> thought that Motorola
> > had invented the Walkie Talkie until I met Al
> Gross, W8PAL who lived in
> > the Phoenix area until becoming a silent key 3
> years ago. Gross spoke at
> > many ham club meetings in this area and claimed
> that he invented and
> > patented the walkie talkie although I don't know
> if he trademarked the
> > name "Walkie Talkie"
> 
> Everybody wants to be the first.
> If the US Army already had as standard equipment in
> 1938,
> a man-carried mobile radio set, how could Mr. Gross
> or
> Mr. Hings "invent" it? Furthermore, if truly
> portable man-
> carried radios were demonstrated, and portrayed in
> radio
> magazines, in the mid-1930s, how could these
> gentlemen 
> "invent" such?  Reminds me of the continuing claims
> about
> who invented radio first, who did the first
> broadcast, etc.
> Al Gross didn't invent the handie-talkie either:
> Motorola
> did that, and invented it first. 
> I guess you have to specify that now: "Invented it
> first!"
> These claims illustrate the need to be careful when
> writing
> history based on anecdote and personal accounts.
> Hue Miller
> 

--- Hue Miller <kargo_cult@msn.com> wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dave Hollander" <n7rk@cox.net>
> 
> > I worked for Motorola for 25 years and I always
> thought that Motorola
> > had invented the Walkie Talkie until I met Al
> Gross, W8PAL who lived in
> > the Phoenix area until becoming a silent key 3
> years ago. Gross spoke at
> > many ham club meetings in this area and claimed
> that he invented and
> > patented the walkie talkie although I don't know
> if he trademarked the
> > name "Walkie Talkie"
> 
> Everybody wants to be the first.
> If the US Army already had as standard equipment in
> 1938,
> a man-carried mobile radio set, how could Mr. Gross
> or
> Mr. Hings "invent" it? Furthermore, if truly
> portable man-
> carried radios were demonstrated, and portrayed in
> radio
> magazines, in the mid-1930s, how could these
> gentlemen 
> "invent" such?  Reminds me of the continuing claims
> about
> who invented radio first, who did the first
> broadcast, etc.
> Al Gross didn't invent the handie-talkie either:
> Motorola
> did that, and invented it first. 
> I guess you have to specify that now: "Invented it
> first!"
> These claims illustrate the need to be careful when
> writing
> history based on anecdote and personal accounts.
> Hue Miller
> 


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