GRAY, ELISHA

(1835-1901), inville, Ma . He was a competitor of Alexander Graham Bell in inventing devices for the _ telephone. While studying at Oberlin College he supported himself by carpentry, and later designed a number of electrical appliances, in | cluding the self-adjusting telegraph relay, the telegraphic switch and annunciator for hotels, the telegraph repeater, the private telegraph line printer, and the tel autograph, by which written me ages could be sent over the telephone or telegraph. He challenged the claim of Bell as the inventor of the telephone, claiming priority on the specifications for a speaking telephone filed by him in 1876, but the Supreme Court awarded the patent to Bell. He manufactured electrical apparatus at Chicago and Cleveland and _ founded the Gray Electric Company at Highland Park,