Who invented 'pagers', which wreaked havoc in Lebanon? | KNOW HERE

Thousands of pagers in Lebanon exploded on Tuesday, killing nine people and injuring nearly 3,000 others, including members of the armed militant group Hezbollah.

A pager is a small, wireless device widely used in the 1990s that receives and displays messages. Hezbollah uses pagers to shield their communications from being tracked by Israel.

Pagers revolutionised personal and professional communication standards before cellphones, and they use physical hardware and basic technology that makes them difficult to monitor.

The 'pager' was invented by American engineer Irving 'Al' Gross, who was known as the 'founding father' of wireless communications.

Al Gross was the son of Romanian-Jewish immigrants and was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1918 but grew up in Cleveland, United States. He died in 2000.

Having a lifelong enthusiasm for radio from a young age, Gross is credited for inventing the 'walkie-talkie' in 1938, the cordless telephone and the Citizens' Band radio.

In a major breakthrough, Gross adapted his two-way radios for cordless remote telephonic signalling - inventing and patenting the 'telephone pager' in 1949. Gross used circuitry into a pocket-sized wireless receiver that responded to specific signals.

Gross intended for the pager to be used by doctors, but nearly all healthcare professionals warned that the device would upset their patients. The pager was first used by New York’s Jewish Hospital in 1950.

Pagers became a very useful tool in various industries, including healthcare, journalism and high-security government settings.

However, the 2000s ushered in the era of smaller and more affordable cellphones, and the use of pagers was largely discarded save some countries like Lebanon.