Pager
The invention that I chose to do is the pager. A pager is a wireless device that receives and displays text messages, or receives and announces voice messages. There are One-way pagers that can only receive messages and there two-way pagers that can also acknowledge, reply to, and originate messages using an internal transmitter. In 1921, the first pager-like system was in use by the Detroit Police Department. However, it was not until 1949 that the very first telephone pager was patented. The inventor's name was Al Gross and his pagers were first used in New York City's Jewish Hospital. He also invented the walkie talkie and the cordless phone. Al Gross' pager was not a consumer device available to everyone. The FCC( federal communications commission) did not approve the pager for public use until 1958. The name pager was first used in 1959 when Motorola made a personal radio communications product they called a pager. The Motorola pager was a small receiver that delivered a radio message individually to those carrying the device. The first successful consumer pager was Motorola's Pageboy, first introduced in 1974. It had no display and could not store messages, however, it was portable and notified the individual using it that a message had been sent. By 1980, there were 3.2 million pager users worldwide. At that time pagers had a limited range and were used mostly in on-site situations for example when medical workers communicate with each other within a hospital.