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From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: 100th Anniversary of the Pay Phone
Message-ID: 
Date: 14 Aug 89 05:24:00 GMT
Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US
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Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us

Sunday, August 13 marked the 100th anniversary of the invention of the pay
phone. In 1889, William Gray obtained United States Patent # 408,709 for
his invention, "A Coin Controlled Apparatus for Telephones".

The first payphone was installed in January, 1890 at the Hartford Bank,
in Hartford, CT. Today, a century later, there are an estimated two million
payphones throughout the United States.

So the story goes, Gray's inspiration came of necessity. He had asked someone
to allow him to use their phone to make an urgent call to his sick wife,
and they refused, even when he offered to pay for the call.

He had a hard time convincing people that his invention would be useful
or profitable. When Grand Central Terminal in New York City placed its
first order in the early nineties, the management was only willing to
purchase one instrument, and then only a consignment basis, after Gray
offered to take it back with no obligation in two months if the new type
phone did not prove itself.

Now there are payphones everywhere. There are payphones in the White House,
and payphones in the middle of Death Valley, CA. Until the middle 1950's
one might still see a very old "Gray Electric Company" payphone in service
somewhere. The price has changed as well: For the first 59 years, until
1948, a local call cost a nickle. In that year, most telcos raised their
price for a call to a dime. Some, like New Orleans, LA, remained at the
five cent rate for several more years. In the late sixties, most payphones were
charging fifteen or twenty cents per call. The price has been twenty-five
cents in most places now for several years.

Happy Birthday!


Patrick Townson