By the time Squier retired from the military as a major general in December 1923, the U.S. Army's aviation efforts had grown under his supervision to a massive operation with 12,000 officers and 135,000 men. When Watkins asked Squier whether it would be practical to stretch a telephone wire between Washington and San Francisco and transmit a dozen conversations simultaneously, Squier upped the ante. As a result, Squier's patents were all "dedicated to the public", which enabled not only the U.S. military but anyone else to use the technology without paying Squier at all. FEATURES In the spring of 1922, George Owen Squier, a major general in the U.S. Army, paused under a large tree in Rock Creek Park, the 1,700-acre preserve that snakes through the nation's capital. [Extracted from the article]
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