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by Randy CassinghamRandy Cassingham's Honorary Unsubscribe Recognizes the Unknown, the Forgotten and the Obscure People who Had an Impact on Our Lives
Al Gross
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An amateur radio operator ("ham") since age 16, Gross was very interested in radio communications. While still in high school in Cleveland, Ohio, he invented the "walkie-talkie", or portable two-way radio. Dick Tracy cartoonist Chester Gould was impressed enough to ask permission to adapt the device to his comic -- and the detective's "two-way wrist radio" was born. During World War II, Gross worked with U.S. Office of Strategic Services and helped invent a portable two-way radio for ground troops to communicate with aircraft. After the war, he turned to the medical field, helping bring doctors to emergencies -- by inventing the pager. "If you have a cordless telephone or a cellular telephone or a walkie talkie or beeper, you've got one of my patents," Gross once said. But he was a man before his time: his key patents expired in 1971, so he never saw great riches from today's widespread uses of his inventions. Gross died December 21 at age 82.
From This is True for 24 December 2000
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