George A. Long

George A. Long is widely known as the maker of the first telephone pay box. He was born in Montreal in 1870. By the age of 16, Long served a four-year apprenticeship in the model department at the Pratt & Whitney Company. He worked there for 8 years, then several machine companies in the Hartford area before joining the Gray Telephone Pay Station Company in 1901.

At the Gray Telephone Pay Station Company, he started as a draftsman, worked his way up to shop foreman, general manager, and eventually secretary of the corporation. While working at Gray Telephone, he invented and patented many components of the pay telephone, particularly the telephone toll apparatus (the coin box). His most notable inventions include: the first single-slot coin collector, the first three-slot coin collector, and the first portable coin collector.