Who Was Major General George O. Squier?

"In 1908 he became the first passenger to fly in an airplane, and subsequently helped set up the Air Service, forerunner of today's US Air Force, within the Army's Signal Corps."

"Shortly before his retirement in 1924, Squier turned his attention to a new application of the transmission technologies he helped to develop: piped-in music. His idea led to the establishment in 1922 of the music service Wired Radio, which is much better known by its present name, given it by Squier shortly before his death: Muzak."

"George Owen Squier was born in Dryden, Mich., 21 March 1863 and graduated from the Military Academy in 1877. After first entering the Army as an artillery officer, Squier joined the Signal Corps, rising to Major by 1903. He commanded cable-ship Burnside during the laying of the Philippine cable from 1900 to 1902. He was appointed Chief Signal Officer of the Army 14 February 1917, and was promoted to Major General 6 October. He also served as Chief of the Army Air Service 1916 to 1918. General Squier was the author of numerous articles and papers on technical subjects, and is credited with several important inventions in the fields of radio and electronics. He took part in his later life in several international conferences on communications and attended the 1921 Washington Conference on Naval Limitations for the War Department. General Squier died 24 March l934."

"By 1897, Squier had proven the military application of radio through experiments that, for example, fired cannons and detonated mines by remote control."

"After completing only the eighth grade and working for two years, Squier entered West Point. Graduating seventh in his class in 1887, Squier went on to complete his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins in 1893."

"George Squier was instrumental in developing radio equipment for field use, such as this World War I spark transmitter, a wireless telegraph. The spark sends radio waves through the air to a receiver, much like an ordinary telegraph sends electrical signals through wires to a receiver" [image]

"George Owen Squier (1865-1934), was still Chief Signal Officer in the U.S. Army when he was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1919. His invention in 1910 of "multiplexing" allowed telephone wires to carry multiple messages for the first time; the carrier frequency principle involved was later adapted to other types of transmission, including FM radio."

"Several European news sources reported significant German efforts at this time to build a fleet of flying machines that could well alter the nature of modern warfare and possibly carry the war to the skies. In response, Congressional appropriations in early 1917 in the neighborhood of $640,000,000 attempted to back the plans of General George O. Squier, the Army's chief signal officer, to 'put the Yankee punch into the war by building an army in the air.'"

"One day in 1917, General George Squier and I were up in a captive balloon as it floated high above an airfield. The commanding officer of the base who was up with us wanted to demonstrate two of his new parachutes that he had brought with him, along with one sandbag to use as a dummy. He then suggested that I -- then a major and a military pilot -- might like the honor of being one of the first pilots to make a parachute jump. Before I put the chute on, General Squier decided to use the dummy first to make some calculations. It was a decision I'll never forget, because that 'chute never opened." -- Stedman S Hanks

"The Signal Corps continued to develop communications equipment during the two world wars. In World War I, Major General George Squier, the Chief Signal Officer, worked closely with private industry to create and perfect radio tubes. General Squier also set up a big signal laboratory at Camp Alfred Vail, now Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. The Army began to use early aircraft radiotelephones the Signal Corps developed in Europe in 1918 during World War I. The Signal Corps also helped develop at the New Jersey lab the superheterodyne circuit, which AM and FM radio had to have to develop."

"But Squier's innovation [wired signal multiplexing] came into its widest use when the original open wire connections were replaced by shielded coaxial cables and adapted to TV signals, resulting in Cable TV."

"Among his notable inventions were the polarizing chronophotograph, the sine-wave system of cable telegraphy, multiplex telephony and telegraphy over open-circuit bare wires laid in earth or sea, and especially the line radio system permitting simultaneously as many as five telephone conversations and 40 telegraph messages over a single wire."