Elihu Thomson (March 29, 1853 – March 13, 1937) was an English-American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and inventor who was instrumental in the founding of major

electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

companies in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the

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and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Early life

He was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, on March 29, 1853, but his family moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

in the

in 1858. and Thomson attended Central High School in Philadelphia and graduated in 1870. Thomson took a teaching position at Central, and in 1876, at the age of twenty-three, held the chair of Chemistry. In 1880, he left Central to pursue research in the emerging field of electrical engineering.

Electrical innovations

With Edwin J. Houston, a former teacher and later colleague of Thomson's at Central High School, Thomson founded the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. Notable inventions created by Thomson during this period include an arc-lighting system, an automatically regulated three-coil dynamo, a magnetic lightning arrester, and a local power transformer."Elihu Thomson Eightieth Birthday Celebration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology" (The Technology Press: 29 March 1933) In 1892 the Thomson-Houston Electric Company merged with the Edison General Electric Company to become the

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and Arms industry, defence electronics, communications, and engineering. It was originally founded in 1886 as G. Binswanger and Company as an e ...

.Fitti, Charles J.
"Elihu Thomson"
''APS Library Bulletin'', Winter 2001. The historian Thomas P. Hughes writes that Thomson "displayed methodological characteristics in the workshop and the laboratory as ninventor and in the business world as nentrepreneur. He also chose to solve problems in the rapidly expanding field of electric light and power."Hughes, Thomas "American Genesis" (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004). Thomson's name is further commemorated by the British Thomson-Houston Company (BTH), and the French companies Thomson SA (now Technicolor SA) and Alstom (formerly Alsthom). Thomson was notable both for his emphasis on models and for the singular focus with which he pursued his research, with Thomson referring to his workshop as a "model room" rather than a laboratory. Between 1880 and 1885, Thomson averaged twenty-one patent applications annually, doubling that average between 1885 and 1890. Upon the merger of Thomson-Houston Electric Company (his namesake company) to form

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

in 1892, Thomson chose to keep his laboratory at

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest List of municipalities in Massachusetts, municipality in Massachusetts, United States, and the largest city in Essex County, Massachusetts, Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line ...

near Boston away from GE's New York headquarters to ensure his control over his research. At the Lynn GE plant, he worked with Edwin Rice (later President of GE in 1913) and Sanford Moss and Charles Steinmetz (who was located at GE headquarters in

Schenectady, New York Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

). After being asked to become a director of GE, Thomson rejected the offer preferring continued research to management.

Patents

Thomson held more than 700 patents. Thomson used his patents to bolster his company, Thomson-Houston Company, later General Electric. * Electric-Arc Lamp * Electric Lamp * Electric-Arc Lamp * Regulator For Dynamo-Electric Machines * System Of Electric Distribution * Automatic Compensator For Magnets * System Of Electric Distribution * System Of Electric Distribution * Process Of Electric Soldering * Method Of Electric Welding * Electric-Arc Lamp * Mode Of Making Tools * Electric-Arc Lamp * Electric-Arc Lamp * Electric Switch * Electric-Lighting System * Lightning-Arrester * Regulator For Electric Generators * Mode Of Cooling Electric Motors * Electrostatic Motor * Electrical Welding Of Sheet Metal

Awards and honors

*1901: Rumford Prize of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

*1909: AIEE Edison Medal of the

American Institute of Electrical Engineers The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States–based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Inst ...

*1912: Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute *1916: Hughes Medal of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

*1916: John Fritz Medal of the American Association of Engineering Societies *1923:

Kelvin Gold Medal The Kelvin Gold Medal is a British engineering prize. In the annual report for 1914, it was reported that the Lord Kelvin Memorial Executive Committee decided that the balance of funds left over from providing a memorial window at Westminster Abbe ...

of the Institute of Civil Engineers *1925: Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute *1927: Faraday Medal of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Thomson was the first recipient of the

(now Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Edison Medal, bestowed upon him in 1909 "For meritorious achievement in electrical science, engineering and arts as exemplified in his contributions thereto during the past thirty years."; Thomson was also president of the organization from 1889–90. Near the end of his life, Thomson's second wife Clarissa Hovey Thomson is reported to have said that she had to carry a basket with her to carry all of Thomson's awards and honors. He was elected as a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1876. In 1889, he was decorated by the French Government for his electrical inventions, being made Chevalier et Officier de la Légion d'honneur. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Yale (1890). Tufts College in 1892 gave him the degree of Ph.D., and in 1899 he received a D.Sc. from Harvard.

Personal life

He married Mary Louise Peck (born: June 1, 1856 in New Britain, Hartford County, Connecticut) on May 1, 1884. Children *Stuart Thomson b: August 13, 1886 *Roland Davis Thomson b: June 17, 1888 *Malcolm Thomson b.: August 30, 1891 *Donald Thurston Thomson b.: April 10, 1893 His second wife was Clarissa Hovey Thomson.

Later life

He was a founding member, as well as the second president, of the

International Electrotechnical Commission The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; ) is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronics, electronic and related technologies. IEC standards cover a va ...

. He served as acting president of MIT from 1920–1923.Elihu Thomson Papers
American Philosophical Society Thomson, overcoming his distaste for management, accepted this role during a critical period for the university when it could not otherwise find a president. On June 21, 1932, at age 79, Thomson was interviewed on film talking about his life and times. Thomson died at his estate in Swampscott, Massachusetts. The Elihu Thomson House in Swampscott was designated a U.S.

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1976 and serves as Swampscott's

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

Notes

References

*Carlson, W. Bernard. ''Innovation as a Social Process: Elihu Thomson and the Rise of General Electric, 1870-1900'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). *Haney, John L. ''The Elihu Thomson Collection'' American Philosophical Society Yearbook 1944. *Hughes, Thomas "American Genesis" (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004). *Thomson, Elihu
Address by Elihu Thomson on Physics
in the ''Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science'' 48th Meeting August, 1899. *Woodbury, David O. ''Elihu Thomson, Beloved Scientist'' (Boston: Museum of Science, 1944)

External links

*
Elihu Thomson PapersElihu Thomson
i
Open LibraryElihu Thomson recounts his childhood
(June 21, 1932) - Youtube video {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Elihu 1853 births 1937 deaths American electrical engineers 19th-century American inventors 20th-century American inventors American inventors English emigrants to the United States Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni Harvard University alumni IEEE Edison Medal recipients John Fritz Medal recipients Engineers from Manchester Scientists from Philadelphia People from Swampscott, Massachusetts Presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Technicolor SA Engineers from Pennsylvania Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Recipients of Franklin Medal Burials at Pine Grove Cemetery (Lynn, Massachusetts) Members of the American Philosophical Society