Alfred J. Gross
Encyclopedia
Alfred J. Gross a.k.a. Irving J. Gross was a pioneer in mobile wireless communication
. He created and patent
ed many communications devices, specifically in relation to an early version of the walkie-talkie
, Citizens' Band radio
, the telephone pager
and the cordless telephone. Despite the successes of these inventions, his patent
s expired too early to make any amount of money from them.
, Ontario
, Canada
in 1918, the son of Romanian
immigrants, he grew up in Cleveland, Ohio
, in the United States
.
His lifelong enthusiasm for radio
was sparked at age nine, when traveling on Lake Erie
by a steamboat. While sneaking around the boat he ended up in the radio transmissions room. The ship's operator sat him on his lap and let him listen in on transmissions. Later, Gross turned the basement of his house into a radio station, built from scavenged junkyard parts.
At sixteen he earned his amateur radio
license, and he used his call sign
(W8PAL) his whole life.
program at Cleveland's Case of Applied Sciences (now a part of Case Western Reserve University
).
He was determined to investigate the unexplored frequency region above 100 MHz
. Between 1938 and 1941, soon after the invention of the walkie talkie in 1937 by Donald Hings
, he created and patented his own version of the "walkie-talkie
".
, Gross had some limited involvement in building a two-way air-to-ground communications system for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services
(OSS, a forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency
) for use in military operations, known as the Joan-Eleanor system
. It comprised a hand-held SSTC-502 transceiver
("Joan") and a much larger aircraft-based SSTR-6 transceiver ("Eleanor"). Gross' actual contribution to the project is unclear (he was not an OSS member), but the main developers on the project were Dewitt R. Goddard and Lt. Cmdr. Stephen H. Simpson (Goddard's wife's name was Eleanor, and reportedly Joan was an acquaintance of Simpson). The system operated at frequencies above 250 MHz, which was at a much higher frequency than the enemy had thought conceivable. This allowed operatives using "Joan" to communicate with high altitude bombers carrying "Eleanor" for times of 10 to 15 minutes without the use of code words, eliminating the need for decryption. It was developed beginning in late 1942, was highly successful and very difficult to detect behind enemy lines at the time. It was marked Top Secret
by the U.S. military until it was declassified and made public in 1976.
allocated the first frequencies for personal radio services; the Citizens' Radio Service Frequency Band
(1946). Gross formed Gross Electronics Co to produce two-way communications system to utilize these frequencies, and his
company was the first to receive FCC approval in 1948. He sold more than 100 thousand units of his system, mostly to farmers and the U.S. Coast Guard.
system. His intention for this system was to be used by medical doctors, but was met with skepticism by doctors who were afraid the system would upset patients and interrupt them during golf. He invented the pager in New York. This same technology is used in one-way radio signaling devices such as garage door openers.
was uninterested, and other companies were afraid of Bell's monopoly on transmission lines.
Gross continued inventing, and began working as a specialist in microwave and other communications systems for companies such as Sperry Corporation
and General Electric
. He continued working until his death at age 82.
too early for him to capitalize on them. He responded with a smile, saying: "I was born thirty-five years too soon. If I still had the patents on my inventions, Bill Gates would have to stand aside for me."
comic strip. Gross said yes, and in January, 1946, the Dick Tracy cartoon was changed forever with the introduction of the iconic two-way wrist radio.
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
. He created and patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed many communications devices, specifically in relation to an early version of the walkie-talkie
Walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...
, Citizens' Band radio
Citizens' band radio
Citizens' Band radio is, in many countries, a system of short-distance radio communications between individuals on a selection of 40 channels within the 27-MHz band. Citizens' Band is distinct from the FRS, GMRS, MURS and amateur radio...
, the telephone pager
Pager
A pager is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then requested to call...
and the cordless telephone. Despite the successes of these inventions, his patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s expired too early to make any amount of money from them.
Biography
Gross was born in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1918, the son of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
immigrants, he grew up in Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
His lifelong enthusiasm for radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
was sparked at age nine, when traveling on Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
by a steamboat. While sneaking around the boat he ended up in the radio transmissions room. The ship's operator sat him on his lap and let him listen in on transmissions. Later, Gross turned the basement of his house into a radio station, built from scavenged junkyard parts.
At sixteen he earned his amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
license, and he used his call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
(W8PAL) his whole life.
The walkie-talkie
His interest and knowledge in radio technology had grown considerably by the time he in 1936 entered the BSEEBSEE
BSEE may stand for:* Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, an undergraduate degree.* Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, an agency of the U.S. Department of Interior....
program at Cleveland's Case of Applied Sciences (now a part of Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
).
He was determined to investigate the unexplored frequency region above 100 MHz
Radio frequency
Radio frequency is a rate of oscillation in the range of about 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which corresponds to the frequency of radio waves, and the alternating currents which carry radio signals...
. Between 1938 and 1941, soon after the invention of the walkie talkie in 1937 by Donald Hings
Donald Hings
Donald Lewes Hings, was a Canadian inventor. In 1937 he created a portable radio signaling system for his employer CM&S, which he called a "packset", but which later became known as the "Walkie-Talkie"....
, he created and patented his own version of the "walkie-talkie
Walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...
".
World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Gross had some limited involvement in building a two-way air-to-ground communications system for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
(OSS, a forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
) for use in military operations, known as the Joan-Eleanor system
Joan-Eleanor system
The Joan-Eleanor system was a very high frequency radio system developed during World War II for use by agents working behind enemy lines to relay information and replaced the earlier S-Phone system used by agents....
. It comprised a hand-held SSTC-502 transceiver
Transceiver
A transceiver is a device comprising both a transmitter and a receiver which are combined and share common circuitry or a single housing. When no circuitry is common between transmit and receive functions, the device is a transmitter-receiver. The term originated in the early 1920s...
("Joan") and a much larger aircraft-based SSTR-6 transceiver ("Eleanor"). Gross' actual contribution to the project is unclear (he was not an OSS member), but the main developers on the project were Dewitt R. Goddard and Lt. Cmdr. Stephen H. Simpson (Goddard's wife's name was Eleanor, and reportedly Joan was an acquaintance of Simpson). The system operated at frequencies above 250 MHz, which was at a much higher frequency than the enemy had thought conceivable. This allowed operatives using "Joan" to communicate with high altitude bombers carrying "Eleanor" for times of 10 to 15 minutes without the use of code words, eliminating the need for decryption. It was developed beginning in late 1942, was highly successful and very difficult to detect behind enemy lines at the time. It was marked Top Secret
Classified information
Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...
by the U.S. military until it was declassified and made public in 1976.
Citizens' Band (CB)
After the war the FCCFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
allocated the first frequencies for personal radio services; the Citizens' Radio Service Frequency Band
Citizens' band radio
Citizens' Band radio is, in many countries, a system of short-distance radio communications between individuals on a selection of 40 channels within the 27-MHz band. Citizens' Band is distinct from the FRS, GMRS, MURS and amateur radio...
(1946). Gross formed Gross Electronics Co to produce two-way communications system to utilize these frequencies, and his
company was the first to receive FCC approval in 1948. He sold more than 100 thousand units of his system, mostly to farmers and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Telephone pager
Another breakthrough came in 1949 when he adapted his two-way radios to one-way for cordless remote telephonic signaling. He had effectively invented the first telephone pagerPager
A pager is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then requested to call...
system. His intention for this system was to be used by medical doctors, but was met with skepticism by doctors who were afraid the system would upset patients and interrupt them during golf. He invented the pager in New York. This same technology is used in one-way radio signaling devices such as garage door openers.
Later years
In 1950 he tried in vain to interest telephone companies in mobile telephony. Bell TelephoneBell Telephone
Bell Telephone may refer to:* Bell Telephone Company, several telephone companies with similar names* Bell Telephone Building , various* The Bell Telephone Hour, a long-running radio and television concert program...
was uninterested, and other companies were afraid of Bell's monopoly on transmission lines.
Gross continued inventing, and began working as a specialist in microwave and other communications systems for companies such as Sperry Corporation
Sperry Corporation
Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the twentieth century...
and General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
. He continued working until his death at age 82.
Quotes
In an interview by the Arizona Republic Newspaper, he was asked about his many patents that expiredtoo early for him to capitalize on them. He responded with a smile, saying: "I was born thirty-five years too soon. If I still had the patents on my inventions, Bill Gates would have to stand aside for me."
In popular culture
Cartoonist Chester Gould once visited Gross and saw his wristwatch-radio prototype. After the visit, Gould called up Gross and asked if he could use this concept for his Dick TracyDick Tracy
Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate...
comic strip. Gross said yes, and in January, 1946, the Dick Tracy cartoon was changed forever with the introduction of the iconic two-way wrist radio.
Awards
- 1992: Fred B. Link Award from the Radio Club of America
- 1984: IEEE Centennial MedalIEEE Centennial MedalThe IEEE Centennial Medal was a medal minted and awarded in 1984 to celebrate the Centennial of the founding of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1884.The medal obverse shows 1884 in calligraphic writing and 1984 in an LCD font...
from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersInstitute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersThe Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...
, for his work in VHF and UHF mobile radio. - 1997: Marconi Memorial Gold Medal of Achievement from the Veteran Wireless Operators Association
- 1998: Eta Kappa NuEta Kappa NuEta Kappa Nu is the electrical and computer engineering honor society of the IEEE, founded in October 1904 by Maurice L. Carr at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The organization currently has around 200 student chapters and about 3,000,000 members and is headquartered in Chicago,...
's Vladimir KarapetoffVladimir KarapetoffVladimir Karapetoff was a Russian-American electrical engineer, inventor, professor, and author.-Life:He was the son of Nikita Ivanovich Karapetov and Anna Joakimovna Karapetova...
Eminent Members' Award - 1999: Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award from the IEEE Communications SocietyIEEE Communications SocietyThe IEEE Communications Society is a professional society of the IEEE. It is also known by the abbreviation ComSoc. The Society focuses on two principal areas: the science of, and education about, communications engineering with the goal of advancing the state of the field; and professional...
- 2000: IEEE Millennium Medal
Honors
- 2000: Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for Invention and Innovation
External links
- In Memoriam, from IEEE (requires login)
- VirginaTech images of Al Gross and exhibitions
- Inventor of the Week — Article on Al Gross from MIT
- Al Gross - father of Walkie Talkies — Short article on Al Gross from a PMR446PMR446PMR446 is a part of the UHF radio frequency range that is open without licensing for personal usage in most countries of the European Union. It has roughly the same use as FRS or GMRS in the United States and Canada. Depending on surrounding terrain range can vary from a few hundred metres to a...
website. - Interview with Al Gross from 1999
- About.com article on walkie-talkie
- Al Gross recorded interviews and extensive biography
- Al Gross Obituary — Audio interview
- Hamgallery.com tribute
- Al Gross — Prominent Member of EMC Society
- ARLX014 Personal Communications Pioneer Al Gross, W8PAL, SK
- Patents filed to Irving A. Gross from Google patents
- articles about Al Gross