Edward E. Simmons

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Edward E. Simmons Jr. (1911 in Los Angeles, California – May 18, 2004, in Pasadena, California) was an electrical engineer and the inventor of the bonded wire resistance strain gauge.

Simmons attended the California Institute of Technology, where he received a B.S. in 1934 and an M.S. in 1936. He continued to work for the Institute under Assistant Professor Donald Clark. In 1938, Simmons invented the strain gauge. Caltech claimed the patent on the strain gauge, but Simmons took his case to the Supreme Court of California, and won patent rights in 1949.

The Franklin Institute awarded Simmons the Edward Longstreth medal in 1944.

Simmons became a bit eccentric, dressing in quasi-medieval attire, including a tutu.

He died of cancer in 2004.