In 1883, Adelbert W. Gray, an agent for Tropical American Telephone Company, arrives in the Trinidad colony to introduce the latest technology, the telephone. But he is met with skepticism. Is the telephone just another 'superior telegraph'? Shortly thereafter, an unfortunate legal misunderstanding with Tropical American leads Gray to resign from the Company. But Gray has promised the business community in the colony's capital city that he would establish a pioneering telephone system.

Fourteen years later.

The adoption of the telephone has been slow in the colony's capital, and even slower still in its environs. However, with the arrival of the new Governor, Hubert Jerningham, all this is about to change. Picking up where Gray left off, the Governor now spearheads activities to bring about the diffusion of the telephone throughout much of the island's rural towns and villages, the Colonial Public Service, and even in Tobago, the sister isle. But the road to widespread adoption is not without its challenges.

This book is as much a story about these two men as it is about their legacies in introducing and promoting the telephone service in Trinidad society.

Using a wide array of primary resources and historical methods, Caribbean historian of technology Richard M. Escalante brings a unique perspective to this narrative as he explores the events and challenges surrounding this early history.