These are the heroes who make it possible to study about electricity
Benjamin Franklin
Inventor: Benjamin Franklin
Criteria: First to invent. First practical. Entrepreneur.
Birth: January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Death: April 17, 1790 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Nationality: American.
Benjamin Franklin, American printer, author, diplomat, philosopher, scientist, inventor, and one of America's greatest statesmen.
Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston. His father, Josiah Franklin, a tallow chandler by trade, had 17 children; Benjamin was the 15th child and the 10th son. His mother, Abiah Folger, was his father's second wife. The Franklin family was in modest circumstances, like most New Englanders of the time. After his attendance at grammar school from age eight to ten, Benjamin was taken into his father's business. Finding the work uncongenial, however, he entered the employ of a cutler. At age 13 he was apprenticed to his brother James, who had recently returned from England with a new printing press. Benjamin learned the printing trade, devoting his spare time to the advancement of his education. His reading included Pilgrim's Progress by the British preacher John Bunyan, Parallel Lives, the work of the Greek essayist and biographer Plutarch, Essay on Projects by the English journalist and novelist Daniel Defoe, and the Essays to Do Good by Cotton Mather, the American Congregational clergyman. When he acquired a copy of the third volume of the Spectator by the British statesmen and essayists Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, he set himself the goal of mastering its prose style.
In 1721 his brother James Franklin established the New England Courant, and Benjamin, at the age of 15, was busily occupied in delivering the newspaper by day and in composing articles for it at night. These articles, published anonymously, won wide notice and acclaim for their pithy observations on the current scene. Because of its liberal bias, the New England Courant frequently incurred the displeasure of the colonial authorities. In 1722, as a consequence of an article considered particularly offensive, James Franklin was imprisoned for a month and forbidden to publish his paper, and for a while it appeared under Benjamin's name.
As a result of disagreements with James, Benjamin left Boston and made his way to Philadelphia, arriving in October 1723. There he worked at his trade and made numerous friends, among whom was Sir William Keith, the provincial governor of Pennsylvania. He persuaded Franklin to go to London to complete his training as a printer and to purchase the equipment needed to start his own printing establishment in Philadelphia. Young Franklin took this advice, arriving in London in December 1724. Not having received from Keith certain promised letters of introduction and credit, Franklin found himself, at age 18, without means in a strange city. With characteristic resourcefulness, he obtained employment at two of the foremost printing houses in London. Palmer's and Watt's. His appearance, bearing, and accomplishments soon won him the recognition of a number of the most distinguished figures in the literary and publishing world.
In October 1726, Franklin returned to Philadelphia and resumed his trade. The following year, with a number of his acquaintances, he organized a discussion group known as the Junto, which later became the American Philosophical Society. In September 1729, he bought the Pennsylvania Gazette, a dull, poorly edited weekly newspaper, which he made, by his witty style and judicious selection of news, both entertaining and informative. In 1730 he married Deborah Read, a Philadelphia woman whom he had known before his trip to England.
Franklin engaged in many public projects. In 1731 he founded what was probably the first public library in America, chartered in 1742 as the Philadelphia Library. He first published Poor Richard's Almanack in 1732, under the pen name Richard Saunders. This modest volume quickly gained a wide and appreciative audience, and its homespun, practical wisdom exerted a pervasive influence upon the American character. In 1736 Franklin became clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the next year was appointed deputy postmaster of Philadelphia. About this time, he organized the first fire company in that city and introduced methods for the improvement of street paving and lighting. Always interested in scientific studies, he devised means to correct the excessive smoking of chimneys and invented, around 1744, the Franklin stove, which furnished greater heat with a reduced consumption of fuel.
In 1747 Franklin began his electrical experiments with a simple apparatus that he received from Peter Collinson in England. He advanced a tenable theory of the Leyden jar, supported the hypothesis that lightning is an electrical phenomenon, and proposed an effective method of demonstrating this fact. His plan was published in London and carried out in England and France before he himself performed his celebrated experiment with the kite in 1752. He invented the lightning rod and offered what is called the "one-fluid" theory in explanation of the two kinds of electricity, positive and negative. In recognition of his impressive scientific accomplishments, Franklin received honorary degrees from the University of St. Andrews and the University of Oxford. He also became a fellow of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge and, in 1753, was awarded its Copley Medal for distinguished contributions to experimental science.
Franklin also exerted a great influence on education in Pennsylvania. In 1749 he wrote Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania; its publication led to the establishment in 1751 of the Philadelphia Academy, later to become the University of Pennsylvania. The curriculum he suggested was a considerable departure from the program of classical studies then in vogue. English and modern foreign languages were to be emphasized as well as mathematics and science.
In 1748 Franklin sold his printing business and, in 1750, was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, in which he served until 1764. He was appointed deputy postmaster general for the colonies in 1753, and in 1754 he was the delegate from Pennsylvania to the intercolonial congress that met at Albany to consider methods of dealing with the threatened French and Indian War. His Albany Plan, in many ways prophetic of the 1787 U.S. Constitution, provided for local independence within a framework of colonial union, but was too far in advance of public thinking to obtain ratification. It was his staunch belief that the adoption of this plan would have averted the American Revolution.
When the French and Indian War broke out, Franklin procured horses, wagons, and supplies for the British commander General Edward Braddock by pledging his own credit to the Pennsylvania farmers, who thereupon furnished the necessary equipment. The proprietors of Pennsylvania Colony, descendants of the Quaker leader William Penn, in conformity with their religious opposition to war, refused to allow their landholdings to be taxed for the prosecution of the war. Thus, in 1757, Franklin was sent to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly to petition the king for the right to levy taxes on proprietary lands. After completing his mission, he remained in England for five years as the chief representative of the American colonies. During this period he made friends with many prominent Englishmen, including the chemist and clergyman Joseph Priestley, the philosopher and historian David Hume, and the philosopher and economist Adam Smith.
Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1762, where he remained until 1764, when he was once again dispatched to England as the agent of Pennsylvania. In 1766 he was interrogated before the House of Commons regarding the effects of the Stamp Act upon the colonies; his testimony was largely influential in securing the repeal of the act. Soon, however, new plans for taxing the colonies were introduced in Parliament, and Franklin was increasingly divided between his devotion to his native land and his loyalty as a subject of George III of Great Britain. Finally, in 1775, his powers of conciliation exhausted, Franklin sorrowfully acknowledged the inevitability of war. Sailing for America after an absence of 11 years, he reached Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, to find that the opening engagements of the Revolution—the battles of Lexington and Concord—had already been fought. He was chosen a member of the Second Continental Congress, serving on ten of its committees, and was made postmaster general, an office he held for one year.
In 1775 Franklin traveled to Canada, suffering great hardship along the way, in a vain effort to enlist the cooperation and support of Canada in the Revolution. Upon his return, he became one of the committee of five chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence. He was also one of the signers of that historic document, addressing the assembly with the characteristic statement: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." In September of the same year, he was chosen, with two other Americans, Arthur Lee and Silas Deane, to seek economic assistance in France. His scientific reputation, his integrity of character, and his wit and gracious manner made him extremely popular in French political, literary, and social circles, and his wisdom and ingenuity secured for the U.S. aid and concessions that perhaps no other man could have obtained. Against the vigorous opposition of the French minister of finance, Jacques Necker, and despite the jealous antagonism of his coldly formal American colleagues, he managed to obtain liberal grants and loans from Louis XVI of France. Franklin encouraged and materially assisted American privateers operating against the British navy, especially John Paul Jones. On February 6, 1778, Franklin negotiated the treaty of commerce and defensive alliance with France that represented, in effect, the turning point of the American Revolution. Seven months later, he was appointed by Congress as the first minister plenipotentiary from the U.S. to France.
In 1781 Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay were appointed to conclude a treaty of peace with Great Britain. The final treaty was signed at Versailles on September 3, 1783 During the remainder of his stay in France, Franklin was accorded honorary distinctions commensurate with his notable and diversified accomplishments. His scientific standing won him an appointment from the French king as one of the commissioners investigating the Austrian physician Franz Anton Mesmer and the phenomenon of animal magnetism. As a dignitary of one of the most distinguished Freemason lodges in France, Franklin had the opportunity of meeting and speaking with a number of philosophers and leading figures of the French Revolution, upon whose political thinking he exerted a profound influence. Although he favored a liberalization of the French government, he opposed change through violent revolution.
In March 1785, Franklin, at his own request, left his duties in France and returned to Philadelphia, where he was immediately chosen president of the Pennsylvania executive council (1785-87).
In 1787 the great hero was elected a delegate to the convention that drew up the U.S. Constitution. Franklin was deeply interested in philanthropic projects, and one of his last public acts was to sign a petition to the U.S. Congress, on February 12, 1790, as president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, urging the abolition of slavery and the suppression of the slave trade. Two months later, on April 17, Franklin died in his Philadelphia home at 84 years of age.
Inventor: Benjamin Franklin
Criteria: First to invent. First practical. Entrepreneur.
Birth: January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Death: April 17, 1790 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Nationality: American.
Benjamin Franklin, American printer, author, diplomat, philosopher, scientist, inventor, and one of America's greatest statesmen.
Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston. His father, Josiah Franklin, a tallow chandler by trade, had 17 children; Benjamin was the 15th child and the 10th son. His mother, Abiah Folger, was his father's second wife. The Franklin family was in modest circumstances, like most New Englanders of the time. After his attendance at grammar school from age eight to ten, Benjamin was taken into his father's business. Finding the work uncongenial, however, he entered the employ of a cutler. At age 13 he was apprenticed to his brother James, who had recently returned from England with a new printing press. Benjamin learned the printing trade, devoting his spare time to the advancement of his education. His reading included Pilgrim's Progress by the British preacher John Bunyan, Parallel Lives, the work of the Greek essayist and biographer Plutarch, Essay on Projects by the English journalist and novelist Daniel Defoe, and the Essays to Do Good by Cotton Mather, the American Congregational clergyman. When he acquired a copy of the third volume of the Spectator by the British statesmen and essayists Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, he set himself the goal of mastering its prose style.
In 1721 his brother James Franklin established the New England Courant, and Benjamin, at the age of 15, was busily occupied in delivering the newspaper by day and in composing articles for it at night. These articles, published anonymously, won wide notice and acclaim for their pithy observations on the current scene. Because of its liberal bias, the New England Courant frequently incurred the displeasure of the colonial authorities. In 1722, as a consequence of an article considered particularly offensive, James Franklin was imprisoned for a month and forbidden to publish his paper, and for a while it appeared under Benjamin's name.
As a result of disagreements with James, Benjamin left Boston and made his way to Philadelphia, arriving in October 1723. There he worked at his trade and made numerous friends, among whom was Sir William Keith, the provincial governor of Pennsylvania. He persuaded Franklin to go to London to complete his training as a printer and to purchase the equipment needed to start his own printing establishment in Philadelphia. Young Franklin took this advice, arriving in London in December 1724. Not having received from Keith certain promised letters of introduction and credit, Franklin found himself, at age 18, without means in a strange city. With characteristic resourcefulness, he obtained employment at two of the foremost printing houses in London. Palmer's and Watt's. His appearance, bearing, and accomplishments soon won him the recognition of a number of the most distinguished figures in the literary and publishing world.
In October 1726, Franklin returned to Philadelphia and resumed his trade. The following year, with a number of his acquaintances, he organized a discussion group known as the Junto, which later became the American Philosophical Society. In September 1729, he bought the Pennsylvania Gazette, a dull, poorly edited weekly newspaper, which he made, by his witty style and judicious selection of news, both entertaining and informative. In 1730 he married Deborah Read, a Philadelphia woman whom he had known before his trip to England.
Franklin engaged in many public projects. In 1731 he founded what was probably the first public library in America, chartered in 1742 as the Philadelphia Library. He first published Poor Richard's Almanack in 1732, under the pen name Richard Saunders. This modest volume quickly gained a wide and appreciative audience, and its homespun, practical wisdom exerted a pervasive influence upon the American character. In 1736 Franklin became clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the next year was appointed deputy postmaster of Philadelphia. About this time, he organized the first fire company in that city and introduced methods for the improvement of street paving and lighting. Always interested in scientific studies, he devised means to correct the excessive smoking of chimneys and invented, around 1744, the Franklin stove, which furnished greater heat with a reduced consumption of fuel.
In 1747 Franklin began his electrical experiments with a simple apparatus that he received from Peter Collinson in England. He advanced a tenable theory of the Leyden jar, supported the hypothesis that lightning is an electrical phenomenon, and proposed an effective method of demonstrating this fact. His plan was published in London and carried out in England and France before he himself performed his celebrated experiment with the kite in 1752. He invented the lightning rod and offered what is called the "one-fluid" theory in explanation of the two kinds of electricity, positive and negative. In recognition of his impressive scientific accomplishments, Franklin received honorary degrees from the University of St. Andrews and the University of Oxford. He also became a fellow of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge and, in 1753, was awarded its Copley Medal for distinguished contributions to experimental science.
Franklin also exerted a great influence on education in Pennsylvania. In 1749 he wrote Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania; its publication led to the establishment in 1751 of the Philadelphia Academy, later to become the University of Pennsylvania. The curriculum he suggested was a considerable departure from the program of classical studies then in vogue. English and modern foreign languages were to be emphasized as well as mathematics and science.
In 1748 Franklin sold his printing business and, in 1750, was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, in which he served until 1764. He was appointed deputy postmaster general for the colonies in 1753, and in 1754 he was the delegate from Pennsylvania to the intercolonial congress that met at Albany to consider methods of dealing with the threatened French and Indian War. His Albany Plan, in many ways prophetic of the 1787 U.S. Constitution, provided for local independence within a framework of colonial union, but was too far in advance of public thinking to obtain ratification. It was his staunch belief that the adoption of this plan would have averted the American Revolution.
When the French and Indian War broke out, Franklin procured horses, wagons, and supplies for the British commander General Edward Braddock by pledging his own credit to the Pennsylvania farmers, who thereupon furnished the necessary equipment. The proprietors of Pennsylvania Colony, descendants of the Quaker leader William Penn, in conformity with their religious opposition to war, refused to allow their landholdings to be taxed for the prosecution of the war. Thus, in 1757, Franklin was sent to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly to petition the king for the right to levy taxes on proprietary lands. After completing his mission, he remained in England for five years as the chief representative of the American colonies. During this period he made friends with many prominent Englishmen, including the chemist and clergyman Joseph Priestley, the philosopher and historian David Hume, and the philosopher and economist Adam Smith.
Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1762, where he remained until 1764, when he was once again dispatched to England as the agent of Pennsylvania. In 1766 he was interrogated before the House of Commons regarding the effects of the Stamp Act upon the colonies; his testimony was largely influential in securing the repeal of the act. Soon, however, new plans for taxing the colonies were introduced in Parliament, and Franklin was increasingly divided between his devotion to his native land and his loyalty as a subject of George III of Great Britain. Finally, in 1775, his powers of conciliation exhausted, Franklin sorrowfully acknowledged the inevitability of war. Sailing for America after an absence of 11 years, he reached Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, to find that the opening engagements of the Revolution—the battles of Lexington and Concord—had already been fought. He was chosen a member of the Second Continental Congress, serving on ten of its committees, and was made postmaster general, an office he held for one year.
In 1775 Franklin traveled to Canada, suffering great hardship along the way, in a vain effort to enlist the cooperation and support of Canada in the Revolution. Upon his return, he became one of the committee of five chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence. He was also one of the signers of that historic document, addressing the assembly with the characteristic statement: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." In September of the same year, he was chosen, with two other Americans, Arthur Lee and Silas Deane, to seek economic assistance in France. His scientific reputation, his integrity of character, and his wit and gracious manner made him extremely popular in French political, literary, and social circles, and his wisdom and ingenuity secured for the U.S. aid and concessions that perhaps no other man could have obtained. Against the vigorous opposition of the French minister of finance, Jacques Necker, and despite the jealous antagonism of his coldly formal American colleagues, he managed to obtain liberal grants and loans from Louis XVI of France. Franklin encouraged and materially assisted American privateers operating against the British navy, especially John Paul Jones. On February 6, 1778, Franklin negotiated the treaty of commerce and defensive alliance with France that represented, in effect, the turning point of the American Revolution. Seven months later, he was appointed by Congress as the first minister plenipotentiary from the U.S. to France.
In 1781 Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay were appointed to conclude a treaty of peace with Great Britain. The final treaty was signed at Versailles on September 3, 1783 During the remainder of his stay in France, Franklin was accorded honorary distinctions commensurate with his notable and diversified accomplishments. His scientific standing won him an appointment from the French king as one of the commissioners investigating the Austrian physician Franz Anton Mesmer and the phenomenon of animal magnetism. As a dignitary of one of the most distinguished Freemason lodges in France, Franklin had the opportunity of meeting and speaking with a number of philosophers and leading figures of the French Revolution, upon whose political thinking he exerted a profound influence. Although he favored a liberalization of the French government, he opposed change through violent revolution.
In March 1785, Franklin, at his own request, left his duties in France and returned to Philadelphia, where he was immediately chosen president of the Pennsylvania executive council (1785-87).
Franklin's most notable service to his country was the result of his great skill in diplomacy. To his common sense, wisdom, wit, and industry, he joined great firmness of purpose, matchless tact, and broad tolerance. Both as a brilliant conversationalist and a sympathetic listener, Franklin had a wide and appreciative following in the intellectual salons of the day. For the most part, his literary reputation rests on his unfinished Autobiography, which is considered by many the epitome of his life and character.
Fascinating facts about Alessandro Volta inventor of the Electric Battery in 1800.
Alessandro Volta
AT A GLANCE:Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, known for his pioneering work in electricity. Volta was born in Como and educated in the public schools there. By 1800 he had developed the so-called voltaic pile, a forerunner of the electric battery, which produced a steady stream of electricity. In honor of his work in the field of electricity, the electrical unit known as the volt was named in his honor.
Alessandro Volta
Inventor: Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta
Criteria: First to invent.
Birth: February 18, 1745.in Como, Lombardy, Italy
Death: March 5, 1827.near Como, Lombardy, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Invention: electric battery
Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, known for his pioneering work in electricity. Volta was born in Como and educated in the public schools there. In 1774 he became professor of physics at the Royal School in Como, and in the following year he devised the electrophorus, an instrument that produced charges of static electricity. In 1776-77 he applied himself to chemistry, studying atmospheric electricity and devising experiments such as the ignition of gases by an electric spark in a closed vessel. In 1779 he became professor of physics at the University of Pavia, a chair he occupied for 25 years. By 1800 he had developed the so-called voltaic pile, a forerunner of the electric battery, which produced a steady stream of electricity. In honor of his work in the field of electricity, Napoleon made him a count in 1810. A museum in Como, the Voltian Temple, has been erected in his honor and exhibits some of the original instruments he used to conduct experiments. Near lake Como stands the Villa Olmo, which houses the Voltian Foundation, an organization which promotes scientific activities. Volta carried out his juvenile studies and made his first inventions in Como.
In science and technology, a battery is a device that stores energy and makes it available in an electrical form. A battery converts chemical energy into electric energy. It is a connected bunch (or “battery”) of electro-chemical devices.
Milestones:1775 Volta devised the electrophorus, a device that produced a static electric charge.1777 he studied the chemistry of gases, discovered methane1779 he became professor of physics at the University of Pavia1794 Volta married Teresa Peregrini, daughter of Count Peregrini; the couple had three sons.1800 he developed the so-called voltaic pile, a forerunner of the electric battery1810 In honor of his work in the field of electricity, Napoleon made him a count1815 the Emperor of Austria named him a professor of philosophy at Padova.1816 Volta's works were published in five volumes in Florence1881 an important electrical unit, the volt, was named in his honor.Volta, Alessandro Volta, Count Alessamdro Volta, battery, electric battery, voltic pile, wet cell battery, volt, inventor, biography, profile, history, inventor of, history of, who invented, invention of, fascinating facts.
Fascinating facts about Georg Simon Ohm inventor of Ohm's Law in 1827.
Georg Ohm
AT A GLANCE:In 1827, using equipment of his own creation, Georg Simon Ohm determined that the current that flows through a wire is proportional to its cross sectional area and inversely proportional to its length or Ohm's law. These fundamental relationships are of such great importance, that they represent the true beginning of electrical circuit analysis.
Inventor: Georg Simon Ohm
Career: Author and physicist.
Birth: March 16, 1789 in Erlangen, Germany
Death: July 6, 1854 in Munich, Germany
Nationality: German
Georg Simon Ohm
Georg Simon Ohm was a German physicist born in Erlangen, Bavaria, on March 16, 1787. As a high school teacher, Ohm started his research with the recently invented electrochemical cell, invented by Italian Count Alessandro Volta. Using equipment of his own creation, Ohm determined that the current that flows through a wire is proportional to its cross sectional area and inversely proportional to its length or Ohm's law.
Using the results of his experiments, Georg Simon Ohm was able to define the fundamental relationship between voltage, current, and resistance. These fundamental relationships are of such great importance, that they represent the true beginning of electrical circuit analysis.
Unfortunately, when Ohm published his finding in 1827, his ideas were dismissed by his colleagues. Ohm was forced to resign from his high-school teaching position and he lived in poverty and shame until he accepted a position at Nüremberg in 1833 and although this gave him the title of professor, it was still not the university post for which he had strived all his life.
According to NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally, the 'Arctic is the canary in the coal mine.'
Ohm’s main interest was current electricity, which had recently been advanced by Alessandro Volta’s invention of the battery. Ohm made only a modest living and as a result his experimental equipment was primitive. Despite this, he made his own metal wire, producing a range of thickness and lengths of remarkable consistent quality. The nine years he spent at the Jesuit’s college, he did considerable experimental research on the nature of electric circuits. He took considerable pains to be brutally accurate with every detail of his work. In 1827, he was able to show from his experiments that there was a simple relationship between resistance, current and voltage.
Ohm’s law stated that the amount of steady current through a material is directly proportional to the voltage across the material, for some fixed temperature:
I = V/R
Ohm had discovered the distribution of electromotive force in an electrical circuit, and had established a definite relationship connecting resistance, electromotive force and current strength.
Ohm the Genius! the Mozart of Electricity ...
Ohm and corrosion monitoring.
Ohm was afraid that the purely experimental basis of his work would undermine the importance of his discovery. He tried to state his law theoretically but his rambling mathematically proofs made him an object of ridicule. In the years that followed, Ohm lived in poverty, tutoring privately in Berlin. He would receive no credit for his findings until he was made director of the Polytechnic School of Nüremberg in 1833. In 1841, the Royal Society in London recognized the significance of his discovery and awarded him the Copley medal. The following year, they admitted him as a member. In 1849, just 5 years before his death, Ohm’s lifelong dream was realized when he was given a professorship of Experimental Physics at the University of Munich. On July 7th,1854 he passed away in Munich, at the age of 65.
This belated recognition was welcome but there remains the question of why someone who today is a household name for his important contribution struggled for so long to gain acknowledgement. This may have no simple explanation but rather be the result of a number of different contributory factors. One factor may have been the inwardness of Ohm's character while another was certainly his mathematical approach to topics which at that time were studied in his country a non-mathematical way. There was undoubtedly also personal disputes with the men in power which did Ohm no good at all. He certainly did not find favor with Johannes Schultz who was an influential figure in the ministry of education in Berlin, and with Georg Friedrich Pohl, a professor of physics in that city.
Electricity was not the only topic on which Ohm undertook research, and not the only topic in which he ended up in controversy. In 1843 he stated the fundamental principle of physiological acoustics, concerned with the way in which one hears combination tones. However the assumptions which he made in his mathematical derivation were not totally justified and this resulted in a bitter dispute with the physicist August Seebeck. He succeeded in discrediting Ohm's hypothesis and Ohm had to acknowledge his error.
Michael Faraday
Inventor: Michael Faraday
Criteria: First to invent. First practical.
Birth: September 22, 1791 in Newington, Surrey, England
Death: August 25, 1867 in Hampton Court, Surrey, England
Nationality: British
Michael Faeaday, British physicist and chemist, best known for his discoveries of electromagnetic induction and of the laws of electrolysis.
Fascinating facts about Michael Faraday inventor of the electric motor, the dynamo, the transformer, and the generator.
Faraday was born on September 22, 1791, in Newington, Surrey, England. He was the son of a blacksmith and received little formal education. While apprenticed to a bookbinder in London, he read books on scientific subjects and experimented with electricity. In 1812 he attended a series of lectures given by the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy and forwarded the notes he took at these lectures to Davy, together with a request for employment. Davy employed Faraday as an assistant in his chemical laboratory at the Royal Institution and in 1813 took Faraday with him on an extended tour of Europe. Faraday was elected to the Royal Society in 1824 and the following year was appointed director of the laboratory of the Royal Institution.
In 1833 he succeeded Davy as professor of chemistry at the institution. Two years later he was given a pension of 300 pounds per year for life. Faraday was the recipient of many scientific honors, including the Royal and Rumford medals of the Royal Society; he was also offered the presidency of the society but declined the honor. He died on August 25, 1867, near Hampton Court, Surrey.
Faraday's earliest researches were in the field of chemistry, following the lead of Davy. A study of chlorine, which Faraday included in his researches, led to the discovery of two new chlorides of carbon. He also discovered benzene. Faraday investigated a number of new varieties of optical glass. In a series of experiments he was successful in liquefying a number of common gases.
The research that established Faraday as the foremost experimental scientist of his day was, however, in the fields of electricity and magnetism. In 1821 he plotted the magnetic field around a conductor carrying an electric current; the existence of the magnetic field had first been observed by the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted in 1819. In 1831 Faraday followed this accomplishment with the discovery of electromagnetic induction and in the same year demonstrated the induction of one electric current by another. During this same period of research he investigated the phenomena of electrolysis and discovered two fundamental laws: that the amount of chemical action produced by an electrical current in an electrolyte is proportional to the amount of electricity passing through the electrolyte; and that the amount of a substance deposited from an electrolyte by the action of a current is proportional to the chemical equivalent weight of the substance. Faraday also established the principle that different dielectric substances have different specific inductive capacities.
In experimenting with magnetism, Faraday made two discoveries of great importance; one was the existence of diamagnetism, and the other was the fact that a magnetic field has the power to rotate the plane of polarized light passing through certain types of glass.
Charles F. Brush
Inventor: Charles Francis Brush
Career: inventor, Entrepreneur.
Birth: March 17, 1849 in Euclid Township, Ohio
Death: June 15, 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio
Nationality: American
On April 24, 1877 Charles F. Brush was issued U.S. Patent No. 189,997 for his arc lighting system. There were other arc lamps before Brush's that utilized electromagnets as part of a regulation system but it was the combination of the electromagnet with the ring clutch that made Brush's design superior in regulating the arc. Brush's lamps featured other design improvements including copper plated electrodes, regulators for operation of multiple lamps connected in series to one dynamo, and double carbon arc lamps for extended operation.
Thomas Alva Edison
Inventor: Thomas Alva Edison
Criteria: First practical. Modern prototype. Entrepreneur.
Birth: February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio
Death: October 18, 1931 in West Orange, New Jersey
Nationality: American
Invention: electric light bulb
Thomas Alva Edison, whose development of a practical electric light bulb, electric generating system, sound-recording device, and motion picture projector had profound effects on the shaping of modern society. His greatest invention may not have been his products but the funding and impotence he placed on his company's research and development efforts.
Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847. He attended school for only three months, in Port Huron, Michigan. When he was 12 years old he began selling newspapers on the Grand Trunk Railway, devoting his spare time mainly to experimentation with printing presses and with electrical and mechanical apparatus. In 1862 he published a weekly, known as the Grand Trunk Herald, printing it in a freight car that also served as his laboratory. For saving the life of a station official's child, he was rewarded by being taught telegraphy. While working as a telegraph operator, he made his first important invention, a telegraphic repeating instrument that enabled messages to be transmitted automatically over a second line without the presence of an operator.
Edison next secured employment in Boston and devoted all his spare time there to research. He invented a vote recorder that, although possessing many merits, was not sufficiently practical to warrant its adoption. He also devised and partly completed a stock-quotation printer. Later, while employed by the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company of New York City he greatly improved their apparatus and service. By the sale of telegraphic appliances, Edison earned $40,000, and with this money he established his own laboratory in 1876.
Afterward he devised an automatic telegraph system that made possible a greater speed and range of transmission. Edison's crowning achievement in telegraphy was his invention of machines that made possible simultaneous transmission of several messages on one line and thus greatly increased the usefulness of existing telegraph lines. Important in the development of the telephone, which had recently been invented by the American physicist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell, was Edison's invention of the carbon telephone transmitter.
In 1877 Edison announced his invention of a phonograph by which sound could be recorded mechanically on a tinfoil cylinder. Two years later he exhibited publicly his incandescent electric light bulb, his most important invention and the one requiring the most careful research and experimentation to perfect. This new light was a remarkable success; Edison promptly occupied himself with the improvement of the bulbs and of the dynamos for generating the necessary electric current. In 1882 he developed and installed the world's first large central electric-power station, located in New York City. His use of direct current, however, later lost out to the alternating-current system developed by the American inventors Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse.
In 1887 Edison moved his laboratory from Menlo Park, New Jersey, to West Orange, New Jersey, where he constructed a large laboratory for experimentation and research. (His home and laboratory were established as the Edison National Historic Site in 1955). In 1888 he invented the kinetoscope, the first machine to produce motion pictures by a rapid succession of individual views. Among his later noteworthy inventions was the Edison storage battery (an alkaline, nickel-iron storage battery), the result of many thousands of experiments. The battery was extremely rugged and had a high electrical capacity per unit of weight. He also developed a phonograph in which the sound was impressed on a disk instead of a cylinder. This phonograph had a diamond needle and other improved features. By synchronizing his phonograph and kinetoscope, he produced, in 1913, the first talking moving pictures. His other discoveries include the electric pen, the mimeograph, the microtasimeter (used for the detection of minute changes in temperature), and a wireless telegraphic method for communicating with moving trains. At the outbreak of World War I, Edison designed, built, and operated plants for the manufacture of benzene, carbolic acid, and aniline derivatives. In 1915 he was appointed president of the U.S. Navy Consulting Board and in that capacity made many valuable discoveries. His later work consisted mainly of improving and perfecting previous inventions. Altogether, Edison patented more than 1000 inventions. He was a technologist rather than a scientist, adding little to original scientific knowledge. In 1883, however, he did observe the flow of electrons from a heated filament—the so-called Edison effect—whose profound implications for modern electronics were not understood until several years later. Edison died in West Orange on October 18, 1931.
An electric lamp in which a filament is heated to incandescence by an electric current. Today's incandescent light bulbs use filaments made of tungsten rather than carbon of the 1880's.
Patent: 223,898 (US) issued January 27, 1880
Milestones: 1868 Edison's first invention was a Vote Recorder 1869 Printing Telegraph 1869 Stock Ticker 1872 Automatic Telegraph 1876 Electric Pen1877 Carbon Telephone Transmitter1877 Phonograph1879 Dynamo1878 Thomas Edison founded the Edison Electric Light Company1879 Incandescent Electric Lamp1880 223,898 Thomas Edison 1/27 for Electric Lamp and Manufacturing Process1881 Electric Motor 1881 238,868 Thomas Edison 3/15 for Manufacture of Carbons for Incandescent Lamps1881 251,540 Thomas Edison 12/27 for Bamboo Carbons Filament for Incandescent Lamps1883 he observed the flow of electrons from a heated filament—the so-called "Edison effect"1886 Talking Doll1889 Edison Electric Light Company consolidated and renamed Edison General Electric Company.1890 Edison, Thomson-Houston, and Westinghouse, the "Big 3" of the American lighting industry.1892 Edison Electric Light Co. and Thomson-Houston Electric Co. created General Electric Co.1897 Projecting Kinetoscope 1900 Storage BatterycapS: Edison, Thomas Alva Edison, Incandescent Electric Lamp, electric lamp, electric light bulb, light bulb, General Electric, most U.S. patents, electric industry, inventor, biography, profile, history, inventor of, history of, who invented, invention of, fascinating facts.
Lewis Howard Latimer
Inventor: Lewis Howard Latimer
Criteria: First practical.
Birth: September 4, 1848 in Chelsea, Massachusetts
Death: December 11, 1928 in New York, New York
Nationality: American
Lewis Howard Latimer, a pioneer in the development of the electric light bulb, was the only Black member of Thomas A. Edison's research team of noted scientists. While Edison invented the incandescent bulb, it was Latimer, a member of the Edison Pioneers, who developed and patented the process for manufacturing the carbon filaments.Lewis Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on September 4, 1848, and reared in Boston. Latimer's parents, as runaway slaves in the 1830s, had been assisted by whites as well as blacks. Their case had galvanized the Boston abolitionist community to its first major political activity. Latimer and his brothers had enlisted in the military and served in the Civil War. At sixteen Latimer joined the Union navy as a cabin boy on the USS Massasoit. After an honorable discharge in 1865 Latimer returned to Boston.
In his early career in Boston, Latimer was surrounded by technological communities that subscribed to the American ideal that any poor boy could make his fame and fortune through invention and innovation. The Union victory in the Civil War seemed to open the way for African Americans to participate fully in the American dream, and Latimer set his course accordingly.Skills he had developed in mechanical drawing landed him a position with Crosby and Gould, patent solicitors. While with the company he advance to a chief draftsman and soon began working on his own inventions.While working at the Boston firm, Latimer met Alexander Graham Bell who hired him to draw the plans for a new invention, the telephone. Latimer's detailed descriptions of the geographic proximity of his office to the place where Bell was teaching, and of meeting with Bell add credibility to his claim, although no supporting evidence has been found in either the Bell family papers or the patent applications themselves.His first patent (US 147,363), approved on February 10, 1874, was for a "water closet for railway cars." Reading the application, a modern observer would probably agree that Latimer's "closed-bottom hopper" would have been preferable to the "open-bottom hopper" in use at the time.
Given the superiority of the new design, and Latimer's own ambitions, it would have been exceedingly strange if Latimer and his colleague had indeed made no effort to market their new device. However, there is no record of any such attempt, and Latimer does not mention it in his autobiographical reminiscences.After leaving Boston in 1879, Latimer arrived in Bridgeport, Connecticut shortly after his thirty-first birthday. He immediately set about making himself useful in the technical community of this busy seaport. In 1880 a combination of circumstances led him into the young electrical utility industry as an employee of Hiram Stevens Maxim, then chief engineer at the United States Electric Lighting Company. Within a week Lewis was installed in Mr. Maxim's office busily following his vocation of mechanical draughtsman, and acquainting himself with every branch of electric incandescent light construction and operation.
When the company moved to Brooklyn in 1880, Latimer moved with it and continued to diversify his achievements. In addition to his desk work and shop work, he went out into the field assisting in arc and incandescent installations of Maxim equipment in New York, Philadelphia, and Montreal. In his logbook, he later recalled:
The following year Latimer and fellow inventor Joseph V. Nichols received a patent for their invention of the first incandescent light bulb with carbon filament. Prior to this breakthrough, filaments had been made from paper. Of the numerous inventions Latimer made during his employment with U.S. Electric, three were patented: a new support for arc lights, an improvement to Maxim's method of manufacturing filaments for incandescent bulbs, and a new way to attach the carbonized filament to the platinum wires that brought electricity into the bulb from the base. In addition, Latimer's unpatented inventions improved designs for virtually all the other equipment and steps involved in the lampmaking process: the oven that baked the filaments; the preparation of phosphoric anhydride (a chemical used for drying the inert gas that filled the bulb and prolonged the filament life); glassblowing equipment to produce bulbs; and a new socket and switch.His last assignment for U.S. Electric Lighting was in London, to advise the English on setting up a lamp factory.
He arrived New Year's Day of January 1882. By this time, his mentor Maxim was only minimally associated with the electric business. While in London Latimer began drawings for improvement in elevators. Although the elevator improvement was never patented, Latimer continued to work on it. As late as 1898, Latimer was actively bringing his elevator work to the attention of the Westinghouse, General Electric, and Otis Elevator companies. None of these companies were inclined to pursue the matter. The elevator stands, however, as symbol and evidence of Latimer's continuing pursuit of the American dream of upward mobility via invention.Although Maxim did meet at least once with Latimer in London, his time and interest were increasingly absorbed in developing the machine gun which brought him his greatest fame. Latimer returned to New York later in 1882, but Maxim stayed in London for many years.When Latimer returned to the United States late in 1882, the U.S. Electric Light Company had undergone several corporate changes. Maxim was no longer associated with the company, and Latimer found he had no place in the new organization. There is considerable conflicting evidence regarding the dates and firms of Latimer's employment for the next few years.
The names of the Weston Company, Olmstead Electric Co., Imperial Electric Light Co., Mather Electric Co., and Acme Electric Light Co. all appear in various biographical and autobiographical accounts prepared more than a decade later. Drawings prepared by Latimer for C. G. Perkins at the Imperial Electric Light Co. during 1884 and 1885 are in the Smithsonian's collection.About 1885, Latimer found stable employment with the Edison Electric Light Company of New York (parent company of all the Edison electric utility companies) and related or successor firms. He achieved a respected professional position on the basis of his patent expertise, his encyclopedic knowledge of lamp design and manufacturing, his drafting skills, and his creative intelligence.He entered the Engineering Department of the Edison Electric Light Company and about 1889 was transferred to the Legal Department. He became Edison's patent investigator and expert witness in cases against persons trying to benefit from Edison's inventions without legal permission. Edison encouraged Latimer to write the book, Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System. Published in 1890, it was extremely popular as it explained how an incandescent lamp produces light in an easy-to-understand manner.
When the Edison General Electric Company merged with Thomson-Houston in 1892, Latimer continued to serve in the Legal Department of the newly formed General Electric Company. (After a bitter struggle, Edison's name was dropped, and Edison himself had no more involvement with the company beyond defending his patents.) About 1896, Latimer joined the Board of Patent Control, a joint arrangement between General Electric and the Westinghouse Company,On several occasions Latimer testified regarding his observations while working for Edison's competitors. Since Latimer had worked with or been employed by most of the men who challenged Edison's patents, his testimony as to what was going on in their shops was valuable to the Edison cause. One of the biographical sketches, apparently prepared as a letter of reference, states that while in the Legal Department of "the Edison Company . . . he made drawings for Court exhibits, had charge of the library, inspected infringing plants in various parts of the country, and testified as to facts in a number of cases, without materially encouraging the opposing counsel. He also did considerable searching for which his previous experience, and a moderate knowledge of French and German qualified him, rendering efficient service along these lines in the historical filament case and others of this period, involving basic patents. While working for the Edison and General Electric companies, and thereafter, Latimer continued to invent at a much reduced rate (his last patent was granted in 1905 for a "Book Support"). About 1911, Latimer began work in the private consulting firm headed by Edwin Hammer and Elmer Schwarz.
In 1918, Latimer became a founding member of a rather exclusive social group: the Edison Pioneers. These men were business or technical affiliates, either of Edison's many companies, or of Edison himself. They had all played some part in the development of the electric utility industry; the organizational documents speak vaguely of carrying on the ideals and goals of Thomas Edison, but the primary purpose of the group was probably a mixture of social and professional networking.In 1922 Latimer retired when failing eyesight caused an end to his career as a draftsman.He continued to invent and teach his drafting skills until his death in 1928.In addition to the Edison Pioneers, Latimer treasured his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, a symbol of his service in the Civil War. He became Adjutant of the George Huntsman post of the GAR in Flushing, New York. Latimer was also a founding member of the Flushing Unitarian Church. While these were integrated, predominantly European American organizations, Latimer was also active on behalf of African Americans both locally and nationally.In his personal life, Latimer again worked within nineteenth-century American ideals. He maintained an advanced amateur's gentlemanly pursuit of music, art, and literature, and he promoted these cultural interests in his family. Latimer's literary efforts included poetry, prose, and plays.
Throughout his life, Latimer pursued his objectives with quiet dignity. The testimony of his career, his colleagues, and his family affirms his high level of success. Latimer's other patented inventions include such diverse items as the first water closet (i.e., toilet) for railroad cars (Patent No. 147,363 issued February 10, 1874), a forerunner of the air conditioner (Patent No.334,078 issued January 12, 1886), a locking rack for hats, coats, umbrellas, etc. ( Patent No. 557,076 issued March 24, 1896) and a book support (Patent No. 781,890 issued February 7, 1905).
Although today's light bulbs use filaments of tungsten, which lasts even longer than carbon, Latimer will always be remembered for making possible the widespread use of electric light.
An electric lamp in which a filament is heated to incandescence by an electric current. Today's incandescent light bulbs use filaments made of tungsten rather than carbon,
Patent:
252,386 (US) issued January 17, 1882
Milestones:1848 Lewis Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on September 4, and reared in Boston1864 joins Navy as a cabin boy on the USS Massasoit1865 joins Boston, Massachusetts based Crosby and Gould, patent solicitors, as office boy1879 moves to Bridgeport, Connecticut to work as a draftsman1880 joins United States Electric Lighting Co. as a draftsman working for Hiram Stevens Maxim1880 230,309 Hiram Maxim 7/20 for Process of Manufacturing Carbon Conductors Latimer witnessed1880 230,310 Hiram Maxim 7/20 for Electrical Lamp1881 237,198 Hiram Maxim 2/1 for Electric Lamp (assigned to U.S.E.L.Co.) Latimer witnessed1881 247,097 Lewis Latimer and Joseph V. Nichols 9/13 for Electric Lamp1882 252,386 Lewis Latimer 1/17 for Process of Manufacturing Carbons (assigned to U.S.E.L.Co.)1982 255,212 Lewis Latimer 3/21 for Globe Supporter for Electric Lamps (assigned to U.S.E.L.Co.)1882 left U.S.E.L.Co to work for several companies in the electrical industry1885 Latimer found stable employment with the Edison Electric Light Company of New York1892 Edison Electric Light Company merged with Thomson-Houston to become General Electric1896 Latimer joined the Board of Patent Control, a joint arrangement between GE and Westinghouse1910 968,787 William S. Norton 8/30 for Lamp-Fixture (assigned 50% to Lewis Latimer)1911 began work in the private consulting firm headed by Edwin Hammer and Elmer Schwarz.1918 Lewis becomes a charter member of a rather exclusive social group: the Edison Pioneers1922 Latimer retired when failing eyesight caused an end to his career as a draftsman1928 Lewis Latimer died on December 11, in New YorkCAPs: Latimer, Lewis Latimer, Lewis Howard Latimer, Joseph V. Nichols, Alexander Bell, Hiram Maxim, Thomas Edison, Edison Pioneers, SIPs: carbon filament, light bulb, light bulb making machine.
George Westinghouse
Inventor: George Westinghouse Jr.
Criteria: First to invent. First to patent. Entrepreneur.
Birth: October 6, 1846 in Central Bridge, New York.
Death: March 12, 1914 in New York.
Nationality: American.
The various Westinghouse Companies were the product of the mechanical inventiveness and the business acumen of one man--inventor, manufacturer and entrepreneur George Westinghouse. This prolific inventor influenced the course of history by enabling the growth of the railroads through his inventions and by promoting the use of electricity for power and transportation. As an industrial manager, his influence on industrial history is considerable, having formed and directed more than 60 companies to market his and others' inventions during his lifetime. His electric company became one of the greatest electric manufacturing organizations in the United States, and his influence abroad was evident by the many companies he founded in other countries.In the ninth century the "Westinghausen" family was prominent in Westphalia, Germany, and in the 14th century a branch of the family emigrated to England and later the United States. George Westinghouses’ father in the early part of the nineteenth century moved from Vermont to Ohio and settled at Central Bridge, New York, as a farmer.
It was here at Central Bridge, New York on October 6, 1846 that George Jr. was born to George Westinghouse and his wife, Emmeline Vedder. When George was 10 years old his family moved to Schenectary, New York whee his father started the firm of G. Westinghouse & Company to manufactured farm implements.While working with his father young George acquired a realistic sense of tools, materials, machinery and structures.After three years of military service during the Civil war, he returned to Schenectady, and in September 1865, enrolled as a sophomore at Union College. Within three months, however, he convinced himself and his teachers the college curriculum had little to offer to one with his mechanical learnings. He dropped out of the college at Christmas vacation and returned to his father's factory. One important thing did happen during his short stay in college: on October 31, 1865, at age 19, he obtained his first patent, for a rotary steam engine.While traveling on the trains for his fathers business he observed the problem of derailed cars, and that led to his inventing a device for replacing derailed cars with greater ease and in shorter time. He formed a business in Schenectady with two men who put up $5000 each to finance the manufacture of the car replacer. That same year he married Marguerite Erskine on Aug. 8, in Brooklyn, New York, and had one child, George Westinghouse, 3rd. Later, because of problems with his partners, he visited Pittsburgh to arrange for a steel company to make the car replacer at less cost. During visits to Pittsburgh he made the acquaintances of persons who shared his interests in railroads and his work on inventions and manufacturing for the industry, and who would eventually help him with his Pittsburgh companies. Westinghouse saw that railroads could never live up to their potential until trains had a more effective brake. For three years he worked at improving train brakes. Attempt after attempt failed. But Westinghouse finally hit on the idea that worked. He would place an air compressor in the engine cab and pipes would carry the air to the brakes on each of the cars. The engineer could admit compressed air into the system to stop the train and release the air when he wanted to move. Previously, train accidents were frequent since brakes had to be applied manually on each car by different brakemen following a signal from the engineer.On April 13, 1869, he obtained a patent for the air brake system, and in July, 1869, when he was still only twenty-two years old, the Westinghouse Air Brake Company was organized in Pittsburgh with Westinghouse as President.
The company, with Westinghouse's inventions for braking and signaling systems, helped to revolutionize the railroads. He continued to make many changes in his air brake design and later developed the automatic air brake system and the triple valve. His industry expanded as he opened companies in Europe and Canada. In the United States, he expanded into the railroad signaling industry by organizing the Union Switch and Signal Company in 1881. In this company, devices based on his own inventions and the patents of others were designed to control the increased speed and flexibility which was made possible by the invention of the air brake.Natural gas caught Westinghouse’s attention after a well drilled on his own property produced a large flow of gas, and in 1885 he purchased the charter of the Philadelphia Co. Westinghouse supplied gas to thousands of private houses in Pittsburgh through many miles of pipe lines.
During his development of the braking and signaling systems, in the mid 1880s, Westinghouse became quite interested in electricity. His interest was piqued by the obvious disadvantages of Edison's DC system. He began pursuing the technology of alternating current and he associated with those who were developing AC devices. He obtained the U.S. rights to Gaulard and Gibbs system of distributing AC and hired William Stanley to redesign and improve the Gaulard-Gibbs "secondary converter", or transformer, as the device was later called.Westinghouse organized the Westinghouse Electric Company to manufacture and promote the use of alternating-current system equipment, and became a spirited competitor of Edison and his DC system. He acquired exclusive rights to Nikola Tesla's patent for the polyphase system in 1888 and lured Tesla to join the electric company and continue his work on the AC motor he had been developing.
In 1892 Westinghouse won the contract to light the 1893 Columbian Exposition at Chicago. He manufactured over 200,000 lamps for lighting and replacements. The Westinghouse exhibit also included a complete working model of a polyphase system, including step-up and step-down transformers, a short length transmission line and switch board. At about the same time Westinghouse was negotiating with the Cataract Construction Co. of Buffalo, NY, to supply AC generators to harness the energy of Niagara Falls. Westinghouse became the successful bidder over six other American companies that had been asked to bid. The generator specs called for three 5000 horse-power, two-phase generators, 2200 volts, 250 rpm, complete with switchboard and auxiliaries.
The system was placed in commercial service in the fall of 1895. There followed many successes for Westinghouse's company in the fields of power generation and the application of electricity to industry, rail and marine transportation, the military and to the home.
In 1895, he began the development of gas engines and built high-speed steam engines designed by his brother, Herman. He acquired the American rights of the Parsons steam turbines in 1896, and made many improvements in turbine construction.At the turn of the century, the various Westinghouse companies were worth about $120 million and employed approximately 50,000 workers. By 1904, there were 9 manufacturing companies of his in the U.S., 1 in Canada, and 5 in Europe. Westinghouse made further industrial history by acquiring exclusive rights to manufacture the Parsons steam turbine in America and by introducing the first alternating current locomotive in 1905. The first major application of alternating current to railway systems was in the Manhattan Elevated railways in New York, and later in the New York subway system. The first single-phase railway locomotive was demonstrated in the East Pittsburgh railway yards in 1905, and soon after, the Westinghouse company began the task of electrifying the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad with the single-phase system between Woodlawn, NY, and Stamford, CT. The financial panic of 1907 caused Westinghouse to lose control of the companies he had founded.
In 1910, he found his last major concern, the invention of a compressed air spring for taking the shock out of automobile riding. By 1911, he had severed all ties with his former companies. Spending much of his later life in public service, Westinghouse showed signs of a heart ailment by 1913 and was ordered to rest by doctors. After deteriorating health and illness confined him to a wheelchair, he died on March 12, 1914. With a total of 361 patents to his credit, his last patent was received in 1918, four years after his death. Many honors accrued to him. Union College, where he had spent only three months as a youth, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He was awarded the John Fritz medal and the Franklin Institute's Scott premium and medal. He was one of two honorary members of the American Society for the Advancement of Science. Abroad, he was made a member of Frances' Legion of Honor. King Humbart of Italy decorated him with the Order of the Crown. King Leopold 11 of Belgium decorated him with the Order of Leopold. In Germany he was the first American to receive the Grashof medal, the highest honor bestowed by that country on an engineer.
George Westinghouse
Compressed air pushes on a piston in a cylinder. The piston is connected to a brake shoe which can rub on the train wheel, creating friction and stopping the train.
Patent:
88,929 (US) on April 13, 1869.
Milestones:1865 at age 19, he obtained his first patent, for a rotary steam engine.1867 invented a device for replacing derailed rail-cars with greater ease and in shorter time1867 He married Marguerite Erskine on Aug. 8, and had one child, George Westinghouse, 3rd. 1868 moved to Pittsburgh to obtain cheaper steel and arrange financing for his companies1869 he obtained a patent for an air brake system for railroad cars both passenger and freight1869 the Westinghouse Air Brake Co. was organized in Pittsburgh with Westinghouse as President1881 started a company to build elecrical signal controls for the railroads1885 he began pursuing the technology of alternating current to replace Edison's DC system, 1885 he purchased a company to supply natural gas to thousands of homes in Pittsburgh 1886 founded Westinghouse Electric, foreseeing the possibilities of alternating current1888 acquired exclusive rights to Nikola Tesla's patent for the polyphase electrical system 1892 Westinghouse won the contract to light the 1893 Columbian Exposition at Chicago1893 built 3 huge generators for harnessing the energy of the Niagara Falls into electrical energy1895 he began the development of gas engines and built high-speed steam engines1900 his companies were worth about $120 million and employed over 50,000 workers1905 the first alternating current to railway systems of the Manhattan Elevated railways in New York1910 Invented a compressed air spring for taking the shock out of automobile riding.CAPs: Westinghouse, George Westinghouse, Air Brake, Nikola Tesla, William Stanley, Electricity, shock absorber, three phase alternating-current, transformaer, rotary steam engine, radio station KADA, inventor, biography, profile, history, inventor of, history of, who invented, invention of, fascinating facts.
William Stanley
Inventor: William Stanley Jr.
Criteria: First to invent. First to patent. First practical. Entrepreneur.
Birth: November 28, 1858 in Brooklyn, New York
Death: May 14, 1916 in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Nationality: American
William Stanley, inventor of the induction coil, or what is known today as a transformer, was born on November 28, 1858 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents sent him to private schools when he was young, and he later enrolled at Yale University with plans to become a lawyer, like his father.
Stanley abandoned these plans at the age of 21 when he decided his real passion was invention, particularly in electrical areas. Electricity was an emerging field then, full of promise and excitement. He took a job as an electrician with one of the early manufacturers of telegraph keys and fire alarms. Later he began working for a metal-plating company, and then he got his "big break," accepting a position working with Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun and an electrical industry trailblazer.
As Maxim's assistant, Stanley was presented with a number of opportunities that allowed him to learn and exercise his engineering abilities. He worked with Maxim to direct, for example, one of the country's first electrical installations in a store on Fifth Avenue in New York. Soon, Stanley had a distinguished reputation of his own within the electrical industry and inventor George Westinghouse hired him as his chief engineer at his Pittsburgh factory.
In the 1880s electricity distribution systems used direct current (DC) only, which was impractical for long distances. Transmitting at low voltage required thick wires, but transmitting at high voltage was dangerous and could not be reduced for consumer uses such as lighting. Engineers knew that alternating current, or AC, voltage could be varied by use of induction coils. But so far, no usable system was available. While working for Westinghouse, Stanley began working on ideas that would eventually lead to the creation of the device that would change everything: the transformer. In 1885, however, he became ill and had to move to Great Barrington, Massachusetts for health reasons. There, amid relative peace and quiet, he was able to develop some of his transformer ideas further, and by spring of 1886 he had a prototype.
On March 20, 1886, Stanley demonstrated a system of high voltage transmission via a "parallel connected transformer." The device, combined with high-voltage transmission lines, made it possible to spread electric service over a wide area and allowed alternating current to be available at different voltages. He demonstrated his AC system by lighting stores along Great Barrington's main street. Stanleys transformer design became the prototype for all future transformers.
In 1890, he founded his own company, the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He planned to make transformers, auxiliary electrical equipment and electrical appliances. He joined forces with John J. Kelley, an accomplished designer of motors, and Cummings C. Chesney, a former laboratory worker. The trio worked together to come up with the "SKC" system, which won several early transmission contracts. When the developers of the Blue Falls project in California proposed a 200-mile, 60,000 volt transmission line, it was a version of the SKC system that did the job.
In 1893, General Electric bought Stanley Electric. In 1906, its facilities were renamed the GE Pittsfield Works. GE credits the effort which Stanley began as having formed a basis for the company’s current dominance in the field of power transition. During his lifetime Stanley was granted 129 patents covering a wide range of electric devices including the tranformer, of course, as well as the alternating-current watt-hour meter, which made it possible to measure electricity accurately. He died on May 14, 1916.
Heinrich Hertz
Inventor: Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
Criteria: First to invent. First practical.
Birth: February 22, 1857 in Hamburg, Germany
Death: January 1, 1894 in Bonn, Germany
Nationality: German
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, German physicist, born in Hamburg, and educated at the University of Berlin. From 1885 to 1889 he was a professor of physics at the technical school in Karlsruhe and after 1889 a professor of physics at the University in Bonn. Hertz clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1884. Hertz proved that electricity can be transmitted in electromagnetic waves, which travel at the speed of light and which possess many other properties of light. His experiments with these electromagnetic waves led to the development of the wireless telegraph and the radio.
His name also became the term used for radio and electrical frequencies: hertz (Hz), as in kilohertz (kHz) or megahertz (MHz). The hertz designation has been an official part of the international metric system since 1933. Before Hertz gained professorships in Karlsruhe and Bonn, he had studied under the famous scientist Hermann von Helmholtz in Bonn, and it was Helmholtz who encouraged Hertz to attempt to win the science prize that led to some of Hertz's most important discoveries. From 1885 to 1889 Hertz became the first person to broadcast and receive radio waves, and to establish the fact that light was a form of electromagnetic radiation. (The Italian Marconi didn't begin his own wireless experiments until 1894, based on the earlier work of Hertz, Maxwell, and others.) Hertz probably would have gone on to make many more scientific contributions, but he died quite young, less than a month before his 37th birthday.
Nikola Tesla
Inventor: Nikola Tesla
Criteria: First to invent. First to patent. First practical.
Birth: July 10, 1856 in Smiljan Lika, Croatia
Death: January 7, 1943 in New York, New York
Nationality: Serbian
Nikola Tesla, Serbian-born American physicist, electrical engineer, and inventor, recognized as one of the outstanding pioneers in the electric power field.
Tesla was born to Serbian parents in Smiljan, Croatia (then part of Austria–Hungary), and educated at the Polytechnic School in Graz, Austria, and at the University of Prague. After working for three years as an electrical engineer he immigrated (1884) to the United States, where he later became a naturalized citizen. For a brief period he was employed by Thomas Edison, but he left that position to devote himself exclusively to experimental research and invention.
In 1888 Tesla designed the first practical system of generating and transmitting alternating current for electric power. The American rights to this epoch-making invention were bought by the American inventor George Westinghouse, who demonstrated (1893) the system for the first time at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Two years later Tesla's alternating-current motors were installed at the Niagara Falls power project.
Tesla's many inventions include high-frequency generators (1890) and the Tesla coil (1891), a transformer with important applications in the field of radio communications.
Elihu Thomson
Inventor: Elihu Thomson
Criteria: First to patent. First practical. Entrepreneur.
Birth: March 29, 1853 in Manchester, England
Death: March 13, 1937 in Swampscott, Massachusetts
Nationality: British
Elihu Thomson (1853-1937) was an electrical engineer, inventor, business man, and entrepreneur who figured prominently in the development of early electric light and power systems in the United States. During a long career which spanned the 19th and 20th centuries, Thomson acquired over 700 patents involving dynamos, three-phase generators, repulsion induction motors, electric welding, transformers, meters, lamps, railways, and steam engines. Thomson was responsible for pioneering research in alternating currents and high frequency, as well as the first safety standards for electrical work. Additional studies in astronomy, refracting telescopes, optics, and x-rays enhanced his industrial research. Besides his achievements in early electric technology, Thomson made considerable contributions to the professionalization of engineers through his active involvement in organizations such as the Franklin Institute, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and the International Electrical Congress.
Elihu Thomson was born in Manchester, England on 29 March 1853 to Daniel Thomson and Mary Ann Rhodes Thomson. In 1858, the Thomson family moved to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. At the age of thirteen, Thomson entered Philadelphia's Central High School. Upon graduation in 1870, Thomson was offered a position with the school as an instructor in physics. By 1876, he was honored with the chair in chemistry.
In 1880, Thomson resigned from his professorship to enter the electric industry. He moved to New Britain, Connecticut to accept a position as an electrician with the American Electric Company. While employed with American Electric, Thomson developed his electric lighting system and formed the Thomson-Houston Company in 1882. In 1883, the Thomson-Houston works moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, where the great development of Thomson's electric company took place throughout the 1880s. The Thomson-Houston Electric Company merged with the Edison Electric Company of Schenectady, New York to form the General Electric Company in 1892. Major off-shoots of this company grew in Germany, France, and England and helped spread throughout Europe an electric lighting system based on Thomson's patents. Thomson's work was not restricted to the electric manufacturing business; he acted as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1920 to 1923.
Thomson married his first wife, Mary Louise Peck, in 1884. They had four children: Stuart, Roland Davis, Malcolm, and Donald Thurston Thomson. His first wife died in 1916, and in 1923 he married Clarissa Hovey. Elihu Thomson died on 13 March 1937 after a long illness at his home in Swampscott, Massachusetts.
An electrical engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur, Elihu Thomson was an innovator in electrification in both a technical and corporate sense. With interests that ranged from the technical (electrical meters, high-pressure steam engines, dynamos, generators) to scientific (fused quartz optics, X-rays), Thomson acquired over 700 patents in his career, and in 1882, founded one of the early electrical corporations in the United States, the Thomson-Houston Company, which merged with the Edison Electric Company in 1892 to form the General Electric Company.
The Thomson Papers are a massive and nearly comprehensive collection documenting the wide range of Thomson's scientific and technical interestsm from his electrical experiments, inventions, and patents, to his interests in astronomy, geology, and medicine, as well as his role in the development of two major corporations involved in electrification, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company and General Electric Company. Roughly three quarters of the collection is dated between 1890 and 1920 when Thomson was associated with General Electric, and was active in professional groups such as the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), International Electrotechnical Commission. His research interests. The balance of the collection is comprised of eight boxes and five volumes relating to Thomson's patents; a series of notebooks kept at Central High School; 43 letterbooks, 1882-1936; diaries of trips to Europe; notebooks on genealogy; scrapbooks of cards, photographs, clippings, and other souvenirs; and 2 vols. of tributes on his eightieth birthday, etc.
FLASHLIGHT
Patent: 737,107 (US) issued August 26, 1903
Inventor: Conrad Hubert (aka Akiba Horowitz)
Criteria: First practical. Modern prototype. Entrepreneur.
Birth: April 15, 1856 in Minsk, Russia
Death: 1928
Nationality: American (of Russian decent)
Although a flashlight is a relatively simple device, its invention did not occur until the late 19th century because it depended upon the earlier invention of the electric battery and electric light. A flashlight, or torch (as it is known in the United Kingdom), is a handheld portable electric spotlight. A typical flashlight consists of a small electric light bulb with associated parabolic reflector, powered by electric batteries, and with an electric power switch. The components are mounted in a housing that contains the necessary electric circuit and provides ease of handling, a means of access to the batteries for replacement, and a clear covering over the light bulb for its protection. In 1898 the National Carbon Company introduced the first D cell electric battery, designed specifically for use in a flashlight.
The National Carbon Company was founded in 1886 by the then Brush Electric Company executive W. H. Lawrence. The company would supply carbon items needed in electrical devices such as carbon-arc electrodes, motor brushes and rods used in carbon-zinc batteries. By 1898 the electric light was in wide spread use and provided a practical light source for the flashlight. The electric light with a carbon filament invented byThomas Edison in 1879 was able to provide about 1500 hours of illumination.
The industry had matured and was controlled by General Electric and Westinghouse. Late in the 19th century, many attempts to devise a portable electric lamp had been made, but the early ones were unsuccessful. Now a common household item, the lowly flashlight was once considered a novel toy. The first flashlight, or electric hand torch, was invented about 1896. Early portable electric lights were called "flash lights" since they would not give a long steady stream of light. The flashlights introduced in 1898 by Conrad Hubert's company, that would later become Eveready, were more trustworthy making Eveready the leading name in flashlights.Akiba Horowitz born on April 15, 1856 in Minsk, Russia came to the United States in 1891 and changed his name to Conrad Hubert. He was flat broke. He did what he could to earn a living. He worked in a cigar store, ran a restaurant for a while and managed a boarding house. He even tried repairing watches. Whatever he did, however, he never made much money. All he wanted was to stop worrying about making ends meet.
Conrad Hubert became aware of the novelty item side of the electric industry and the tremendous profits to be gained and decided to start his own company. Hubert, came up with portable fans, a novelty pocket light, lighted stick pins, and even an illuminated flowerpot. Hubert named his company American Electrical Novelty & Manufacturing Company...In 1897, Hubert, seeing the potential of the flashlight, hired David Misell, an inventor who had patented a portable electric lamp in 1895 and a early bicycle head lamp in 1896. As an employee of Hubert's David Misell continued inventing improvements to lighting devices and together and separately they patented several flashlights..Hubert's first flashlights were hand-made from crude paper and fiber tubes, with a bulb and a rough brass reflector. Misell and Hubert assembled a number of tubular flashlights and gave them to New York City policemen in different precincts. They began receiving favorable testimonials from the policemen. In 1905 Hubert received a US patent in 1903 , number 737107 issued August 26, for a flashlight with an on/off switch in the now familiar cylindrical casing containing lamp and batteries.
In 1906, National Carbon Company which had supplied Eveready with materials for their flashlights, bought a half interest in the company for $200,000. Hubert remained president and there was little change in the general policies of the company. The name was changed to "The American Ever Ready Company" and the trade name was shortened to one word - Eveready.
Flashlight technology took a great leap forward around 1910, with the introduction of nickel-plated tubes to complement vulcanized fiber and the invention of the tungsten filament bulb. Vest pocket tungsten flashlights became popular, as did search lanterns, house lamps and intricate art deco candle lamps. In 1914, American Ever Ready became part of Nation Carbon Company now forming a manufacturer specializing in both batteries and lighting products.
According to an Eveready brochure called "101 Uses For An Eveready," by 1916 the flashlight was an essential personal item—"the light that does not flicker in a draught, extinguish in the wind, and is controlled instantly by finger pressure. It's the light everyone needs." Some of the flashlight's 101 suggested uses included reading fruit labels, filling the tank of a gasoline stove, examining a refrigerator's interior and signaling with Morse Code. In 1917 National Carbon Company merged with Union Carbide to form The Union Carbide and Carbon Co. and Eveready began using the name "DAYLO". The logo on the battery cap was changed to read "EVEREADY DAYLO". Daylo was never well accepted. The main reason for the non-acceptance was that only Eveready could use Daylo. The public still used the word "flashlight" and all other flashlight making companies called their products "flashlights". The advertising campaign was a success but the name was a dud. The Daylo name was dropped in 1921.In the 1920s and 1930s, Eveready commissioned timeless pieces of art advertising flashlights and batteries that appeared in periodicals, Eveready catalogs, trade magazines, calendars and posters. Artists like the late Frances Tipton Hunter, who produced covers for the Saturday Evening Post, captured Americana's essence. In her works for Eveready Hunter typically included a child, a pet and an Eveready flashlight, all executed in a Norman Rockwell-like fashion. One Hunter classic features a little girl watching over a litter of kittens—with the aid of an Eveready flashlight, of course.
This print proved so popular that reproductions suitable for framing were offered to readers for 10 cents. Readers responded by sending in 70,000 dimes—in the midst of the Depression. The poster has additional history, as well—the nine kittens were the genesis of the Eveready "Cat With Nine Lives" symbol. An often repeated story in both book form and on the Web credits Joshua Lionel Cowan with inventing the flashlight. We have been told the story stems from an interview printed in The New Yorker magazine in 1947. Cowen stated he accidentally invented the flashlight in 1898, attaching small canisters containing batteries and light bulbs to a flower pot for the purpose of illuminating the plant. The invention was a flop, and Cowen sold the rights to the invention to Conrad Hubert, who decided to try selling the lights without the flower pot, the flashlight. Although the story could be true, they were both living in New York at the same time, Cowan had worked for both a battery and a lamp manufacture, Hubert (having newly arrived in America from Russia) was looking for work and at the time of the article Cowan was already rich and famous, Lionel Trains, and therefore did not need to remake history. But the only solid evidence is the New Yorker article. You can decide if the story is true.Conrad Hubert invented the electric flashlight in 1898 and founded American Eveready (now Energizer) to market his many inventions. When he died in 1928, Hubert willed one-quarter of his estate to relatives and the remaining three-quarters to charity, leaving it to his executor to appoint three prominent Americans to oversee the disposition of the $6 million estate.
