Thomas Davenport (July 9, 1802 – July 6, 1851) was a

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

who, with his wife Emily, constructed the first American DC

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

in 1834.

Biography

Davenport was born in

Williamstown, Vermont Williamstown is a New England town, town in Orange County, Vermont, Orange County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,515 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the second largest municipality in the county. Geography ...

. He lived in Forest Dale, a village in the town of Brandon. As early as 1834, he and his wife Emily Davenport developed a battery-powered electric motor. They used it to operate a small model car on a short section of track, paving the way for the later electrification of

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

s. It is the first attempt to apply electrification to locomotion. Davenport's 1833 visit to the Penfield and Taft iron works at Crown Point, New York, where an

electromagnet An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by an electric current. Electromagnets usually consist of wire (likely copper) wound into a electromagnetic coil, coil. A current through the wire creates a magnetic ...

was operating, based on the design of

Joseph Henry Joseph Henry (December 17, 1797– May 13, 1878) was an American physicist and inventor who served as the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was the secretary for the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, a precursor ...

, was an impetus for his electromagnetic undertakings. Davenport bought an electromagnet from the Crown Point factory and took it apart to see how it worked. Then he forged a better iron core and redid the wiring, using silk from his wife's wedding gown. With his wife Emily and colleague Orange Smalley, Davenport received the first American

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

on an electric machine in 1837, U. S. Patent No. 132. In 1840, he printed '' The Electro-Magnetic and Mechanics Intelligencer'', making it the first magazine to be printed with electricity. In 1849, Charles Grafton Page, the Washington scientist and inventor, commenced a project to build an electromagnetically powered locomotive, with substantial funds appropriated by the US Senate. Davenport challenged the expenditure of public funds, arguing for the motors he had already invented. In 1851, Page's full sized electromagnetically operated locomotive was put to a calamity-laden test on the rail line between Washington and Baltimore.Post,(1976), pp. 89-90.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davenport, Thomas 1802 births 1851 deaths 19th-century American inventors American blacksmiths Vermont culture American railroad pioneers People associated with electricity People from Williamstown, Vermont People from Salisbury, Vermont

Biography

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Further reading

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