So to resume my run of content on this blog, I’ve planned to share one of our favorite content pieces this week. I was cautious to add it to this blog as I really didn’t wish to offend the initial author, but I trust he/she is glad that I enjoyed reading their work and planned to share it with my readers.
The original inventor of the walkie-talkie is actually the focus of some dispute. The same three names come up again and again, but which of those names deserves the most credit? I have to admit, I had a hard time deciding.
The first name to emerge is Canadian inventor Donald L. Hings. According to his website,
“The “walkie-talkie” is Don Hings’ most well-known invention. The earliest versions of this device were designed as portable field radios for the bush pilots of Consolidated Mining and Smelting (now Cominco), who had to fly their planes between remote sites in the far north of Canada. The first true walkie-talkie was built by Hings in 1937, but it was not called a walkie-talkie at the time. In Hings’ notes, it was simply a two-way field radio. They were also called wireless sets, or “pack sets”. The term “walkie-talkie” (sometimes “talkie-walkie”) was coined by journalists reporting on these new inventions during the war”.
The site maintains (correctly, I believe) that Walkie Talkies weren’t particularly well known until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.
Another name that is frequently mentioned is US inventor Al Gross. Gross seemingly patented the name ‘walkie talkie’ in 1938, after which, the term was apparently used by the press as a ‘catch all’ name for any/all portable two-way radios. Certainly, Gross worked on the technology and was instrumental in its design, but did he invent the walkie-talkie? Lemelson-MIT seem to think so, as their website says of Gross:
“The pioneer nonpareil of wireless telecommunications is Al Gross. In 1938, he invented the walkie-talkie. In 1948, he pioneered Citizens’ Band (CB) radio. In 1949, he invented the telephone pager. His other inventions include the basics of cordless and cellular telephony. (…) Determined to exploit the unexplored frequencies above 100 MHz, Gross set about inventing a mobile, lightweight, hand-held two-way radio. In two years, Gross had invented and patented the “walkie-talkie” (1938)”.
If Hings invented the walkie-talkie back in 1937, then that means that Gross essentially re-invented the same device in 1938. If that is indeed the case, then surely Hings is the guy most responsible, right?
Well, before you male your minds up, let Wiki Answers throw up a few more names; their account of the walkie-talkie’s creation states that,
“The first DP4400 2 way radio (drthomasroberts.org) receiver/transmitter to be nicknamed “Walkie-Talkie” was the backpacked Motorola SCR-300, created by an engineering team in 1940 at the Galvin Manufacturing Company (forerunner of Motorola). The team consisted of Dan Noble, who conceived of the design using FM technology, Henryk Magnuski who was the principal RF engineer, Bill Vogel, Lloyd Morris, and Marion Bond”.
This Motorola team, headed up by Dan Noble, apparently created the walkie-talkie in 1940, a full three years after Hings allegedly invented it and two years after Gross apparently patented it. Ugh. This is giving me a headache!
So, perhaps we can clear this up a bit now. The term ‘walkie-talkie’ was commonly applied to the WW2-era Motorola model, which led to Dan Noble’s team being credited with its invention. This is true, Noble and co DID invent that particular model, but the technology itself had obviously existed beforehand.
Now, Hings’ model was considerably more portable, and pretty different to the Motorola model. Hings called his invention a ‘packset’ so it was therefore entirely possible for Gross to have patented a similar invention (under the name ‘walkie-talkie’) in 1938 and for that name to migrate over to the Motorola version, via the wartime press (1939 – 1945 was not a famous period of journalistic accuracy, lest we forget).
According to Wikipedia, Hings’ model didn’t get used by the military until 1942, the result of which would be Don Noble and co being credited with the invention, with Hings being relegated to the position of just another engineer (Hings was employed by the allies during WW2) who was working on military equipment.
Overall, I’d say that Hings is probably the likeliest inventor of the earliest technology and certainly of the portable system we recognize today. However, with so many talented inventors working at around the same time, it seems just as feasible to claim Gross as inventor of the walkie-talkie as well. Hings pioneered it, Gross patented it and Noble’s team brought it into mass production and regular usage. There. Simple, right?