Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/398

 GRAY

GRAY

(1888); William G. Farlow's Mnnnrial (1888); Letters edited by Jane Loring Gray (1893). Gray received a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New York university, 1900. Qui- iUus- tration is drawn from the Harvard tablet in bronze, executed by Augustus St. Gaudens in 1884. He iliel in Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 30, 1888.

QRAV, EJgar Harkness, chaplain, was born in Bridport, \'t., Nov. 28, 181.5; son of Daniel and Amy (Bosvvorth) Gray. He was early left an orphan, worked for a farmer, learned the printer's trade, determined to become a Baptist minister and paid his way through Waterville college by teaching a primary school. He was graduated in 1838 and alter studying theology under President Pattison was ordained in 1839, was pastor at Freeport, Maine, 1839-44, at Shel- burne Falls, Mass., 1844-47; Bath, Maine, 1847- 00, and again at Shelburne Falls, Mass., 1850-63. He went to Washington, D.C.. as pastor of the E Street Baptist chm-ch, serving there 1863-70; was again in Shelburne Falls, Mass., 1870-73; in Washington, D.C., as pastor of the North Bap- tist church, 1873-78; and in religious extension work in California, 1878-94. In California he was pa.stor of the First Baptist church, San Fran- cLsco, 1878-80: Vallejo, Cal., 1880-82; and of the First Baptist church, Oakland, 1882-94. He was chaplain of the U.S. senate, 1865-69, and officiated at the funeral of President Lincoln and that of Representative Thaddeus Stevens. He was married in 1840 to Mary J. Rice, and after her death to Sirs. Mercy M. Fay in 1876. After Dr. Gray"s death his widow gave §30.000 to the Pacific Baptist theological seminary, Oakland, Cal., of which her husband was dean; §30, 000 to the Baptist mission society; §100,000 to foreign missions and §25,000 to California college. Mrs. Gray died in Oakland, Cal., May 20, 1898. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferj-ed on Mr. Gray in 1864 by Rochester university, and in 1897 a window inscribed to his memory was placed In his first church at Freejiort, Maine. He died in Oakland, Cal., in 1894.

QRAV, Elisha, inventor, was born in Barnes- ville, Ohio, Aug. 2, 1835; son of David and Chris- tiana (Edgerton) Gray; gi'andson of Samuel and Mary (Moore) Gray, and of Richard and Mary (Hall) Edgerton; and a descendant of Andrew Moore. His father died in 1847, and the son re- ceived a limited district school education, learned the trades of blacksmith, carpenter and boat builder, and while engaged in the prosecution of a course of studies at Oberlin college, earned his Jiving and tuition by working as a cai-penter and by oonstiiicting appai-atus for class-room exjieri- ments. He later devoted his entire attention to telegraphy, patenting in America and elsewhere over one Limdred devices for telegraphic and

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telephonic apparatus between i865 and 1877. On Feb. 14, 1876, he tiled specifications for a speak- ing telephone, reproducing articulate speech by varying the resistance of a battery current. His multiplex telegraph, capable of transmitting various tones simultaneously over the same wire and subject to analj-- sis by the receiver, was secured by caveat in November, 1874, and by a patent in January, 1877. He engaged in manufac- turing telegraphic and telephonic appa- ratus in Chicago and Cleveland, 1869-71, and was electrician of the Western electric manufacturing com- pany, 1871-74. He in- vented a device for turning paper over when it came from the press; an electric needle annunciator for hotels; an ele- vator anmmciator; the telegraphic switch; and a dial telegraphic instrument for reading from an alpliabet dial, a pointer indicating each letter, succeeded by his printing telegraphic receiver which survived in the "tape machine" and " ticker." One of Professor Gray's most remark- able inventions is the telautograph, first patented in 1888, to reproduce at long distances written messages or drawings in facsimile. In 1900 he was engaged in experimenting on a system of sub-marine signalling between ships at sea and ships and the shore. In 1878 the French govern- ment made him a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He received a gold medal for research in telegraphy in Paris in 1878, and another in issi, also a gold medal from the Franklin institute in 1887 for the telautogiaph. He was elected an honorary member of the American philosophical society, a fellow of the American association for the advancement of science and a member of the American institute of electrical engineers and of the Society of telegraph engineers, London. He became professor of dynamic electricity in Ober- lin college in 1880, also holding the same chair in Lake Forest imiversity. He organized the World's congress of electricians which met in Chicago in 1893, and was its chairman. He was married to Delia M. Shepard of Oberlin, Ohio. He received the degree of A.M. from Oberlin in 1878, and thatof LL.D. from Blackburn univer- sity. He published Experimental Rcxearelies in Elcctro-Hiirmonic Telec/rcipliy and Tehjiliony (1878): Nidiire's Mimcles (1899); and numerous scientific articles contributed to periodicals. He died in Newtonville. Mass., Jan. 21, 1901.