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William Gray (inventor)
William Gray (1850 – January 24, 1903) was an American inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known for inventing the coin-operated payphone and an improved chest protector for baseball catchers. He founded the highly successful Gray Telephone Pay Station Company, which became one of the largest employers in the Hartford, Connecticut, area. Early life and employment William Gray was born in Tariffville, Connecticut, in December 1850 to Scottish immigrants Neil and Mary Gray. When Gray was young, his family relocated to Boston. His father found a job for him at a local drug store, but the druggist found he preferred tinkering to working, so he was placed in a machine shop. He moved to Hartford and found employment as a polisher in an armory, where he proved to be a good worker. He then worked for Pratt & Whitney, where he rose to head of the polishing department, a position he occupied for 15 years. Inventing Manufacturing Gray tried to improve the manufacturing proce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Payphone
A payphone (alternative spelling: pay phone or pay telephone or public phone) is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or in high-traffic public areas. Prepayment is required by inserting coins or telephone tokens, swiping a credit or debit card, or using a telephone card. The company that operates the payphone generally pays either rent or a revenue share to the owner of the property where the phone is installed. Invented in the late 19th century, payphones became ubiquitous worldwide in the 20th, enough to contribute to the notion of universal access to basic communication services. The charge for a call may be a flat rate, or dependent on call duration. Following the explosive growth of mobile telephony, the use of payphones, and the number installed, has decreased greatly. Countries Canada Most payphones in Canada are owned and operated by large telecom providers such as Bell, Telus Communications, and SaskTel. In the last 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional baseball league in the world. Each team plays 162 games per season, with Opening Day traditionally held during the first week of April. Six teams in each league then advance to a four-round Major League Baseball postseason, postseason tournament in October, culminating in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions first played in 1903. MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. Formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903, making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the world. They remained le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Businesspeople From Hartford, Connecticut
A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) to generate cash flow, sales, and revenue by using a combination of human, financial, intellectual, and physical capital to fuel economic development and growth. History Medieval period: Rise of the merchant class Merchants emerged as a social class in medieval Italy. Between 1300 and 1500, modern accounting, the bill of exchange, and limited liability were invented, and thus, the world saw "the first true bankers", who were certainly businesspeople. Around the same time, Europe saw the " emergence of rich merchants." This "rise of the merchant class" came as Europe "needed a middleman" for the first time, and these "burghers" or "bourgeois" were the people who played this role. Renaissance to Enlightenment: Rise of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inventors From Connecticut
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an idea is unique enough either as a stand-alone invention or as a significant improvement over the work of others, it can be patented. A patent, if granted, gives the inventor a proprietary interest in the patent over a specific period of time, which can be licensed for financial gain. An inventor creates or discovers an invention. The word ''inventor'' comes from the Latin verb ''invenire'', ''invent-'', to find. Although inventing is closely associated with science and engineering, inventors are not necessarily engineers or scientists. The ideation process may be augmented by the applications of algorithms and methods from the domain collectively known as artificial intelligence . Some inventions can be patented. The system of patents was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Businesspeople
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label that was previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and business failures around the world. The economic contagion began in 1929 in the United States, the largest economy in the world, with the devastating Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929 often considered the beginning of the Depression. Among the countries with the most unemployed were the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Weimar Republic, Germany. The Depression was preceded by a period of industrial growth and social development known as the "Roaring Twenties". Much of the profit generated by the boom was invested in speculation, such as on the stock market, contributing to growing Wealth inequality in the United States, wealth inequality. Banks were subject to laissez-faire, minimal regulation, resulting in loose lending and wides ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smithsonian (magazine)
''Smithsonian'' is a magazine covering science, history, art, popular culture and innovation. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' magazine, was asked by then-Secretary of the Smithsonian, S. Dillon Ripley, to produce a magazine "about things in which the Smithsonian nstitutionis interested, might be interested or ought to be interested." Thompson later recalled that his philosophy for the new magazine was that it "would stir curiosity in already receptive minds. It would deal with history as it is relevant to the present. It would present art, since true art is never dated, in the richest possible reproduction. It would peer into the future via coverage of social progress and of science and technology. Technical matters would be digested and made intelligible by skilled writers who would stimulate readers to reach upward while not turning them off with jargon. We would fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Bennett
Charles Wesley Bennett (November 21, 1854 – February 24, 1927) was an American professional baseball player from 1875 or 1876 through the 1893 season. He played 15 years in Major League Baseball, principally as a catcher, with the Milwaukee Grays (49 games, 1878), Worcester Ruby Legs (51 games, 1880), Detroit Wolverines (625 games, 1881–1888) and Boston Beaneaters (337 games, 1889–1893). He played on four pennant-winning teams, one in Detroit and three in Boston, and is one of only two players (the other being Ned Hanlon (baseball), Ned Hanlon) to play with the Detroit Wolverines during all eight seasons of the club's existence. Bennett compiled a .256 batting average (baseball), batting average and a .340 on-base percentage during his major league career with 549 Run (baseball), runs scored, 203 Double (baseball), doubles, 67 Triple (baseball), triples, 55 home runs and 533 run batted in, runs batted in (RBIs). His greatest value, however, was as one of the greatest def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch (baseball), plays, with each play beginning when a player on the fielding team (baseball), fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a Baseball (ball), ball that a player on the batting team (baseball), batting team, called the Batter (baseball), batter, tries to hit with a baseball bat, bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the Base (baseball), bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "Run (baseball), runs". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming Base running, runners, and to prevent runners base running ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deacon White
James Laurie "Deacon" White (December 2, 1847 – July 7, 1939) was an American baseball player who was one of the principal stars during the first two decades of the sport's professional era. The outstanding catcher of the 1870s during baseball's barehanded period, he caught more games than any other player during the decade, and was a major figure on five consecutive championship teams from 1873 to 1877 – three in the National Association (NA), in which he played throughout its five-year existence from 1871 to 1875, and two in the National League (NL), which was formed as the first fully recognized major league in , partially as a result of White and three other stars moving from the powerhouse Boston Red Stockings to the Chicago White Stockings. Although he was already 28 when the NL was established, White played 15 seasons in the major leagues, completing a 23-year career at the top levels of the sport. In 1871, White was the first batter to come to the plate in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spalding (company)
Spalding is an American sports equipment manufacturing company. It was founded by Albert Spalding in Chicago in 1876 as a baseball manufacturer, and is today headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It sells softballs through its subsidiary Dudley Sports. In the past, Spalding has manufactured balls for other sports, including ball (gridiron football), American football, ball (association football), soccer, volleyball, tennis, and golf. For a brief period in the 1980s, Spalding was also a designer of Automotive aftermarket, aftermarket Custom wheel, automotive wheels. History The company was founded in 1876 when Albert Spalding was a pitcher and manager of an early professional baseball team in Chicago, the Chicago White Stockings (1870–89), Chicago White Stockings. The company standardized early Baseball (ball), baseballs and developed the modern baseball bat, a derivation of the cricket bat. The Spalding "League Ball" was adopted by the National League (baseball), Nation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
