[5] In 1922 he became president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and in his presidential address he proposed that Europe should have a long distance telephone system equivalent to that of AT&T in the USA, who ran a service between New York and San Francisco.
[7] They convened a meeting of delegates from six of the western European states to form an international consultative committee (CCIF), to decide on the technical standards required as different countries used different telephone systems.
In this capacity, he had access to new research materials such as Permalloy which he introduced to Alan Blumlein who at that time, worked in the transmission laboratory.
He also held the position of Executive vice president of the Spanish Telephone Company, Compania Telefónica Nacional de Espana who had been part of ITT’s expansion.
[12] In the interests of all parties concerned, it was decided that the initial meeting to discuss the issue would be held on neutral territory and thus the Institute of Electrical Engineers was chosen.
[17] Gill was drawn into controversy in 2003 over who actually invented the telephone when archived documents unearthed by the Science Museum, London suggested that a device made by Johann Philipp Reis and tested by STC in 1947 would pre-date Alexander Graham Bell by 15 years.