Elihu Thomson

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Contents 1 Biography 2 Trivia 3 Patents 4 External links 5 See also

Elihu Thomson (March 29, 1853 – March 13, 1937) was an engineer and inventor who was instrumental in the founding of major electrical companies in the United States, United Kingdom and France.

[edit] Biography

He was born in Manchester (England) on 29 March 1853, but his family moved to Philadelphia in 1858. In 1879 he established, with Edwin J. Houston, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. In 1892 this merged with the Edison General Electric Company to become the General Electric Company. Thomson's name is further commemorated by the British Thomson-Houston Company (BTH), and the French companies Thomson and Alstom. His early companies are also involved in the history of The General Electric Company Limited (GEC) in Britain and the Compagnie Générale d'Electricité in France.

Thomson was a prolific inventor, being awarded over 700 patents. He was the first recipient of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers AIEE (now Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)) 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." Ironically, Thomson and Houston had been involved in a very public and acrimonious dispute with Edison in 1877-78 over etheric force.

He served as acting president of MIT in 1920.

[edit] Trivia

Thomson was one of the few pioneering physicists who were convinced of the dangers of X-Rays and radiation in a period where the subject was treated as a novelty in both science and popular culture, in blithe ignorance of health hazards. In 1896, Thomon deliberately exposed the little finger of his left hand to an x-ray tube for several days, half an hour per day. The resultant effects - pain, swelling, stiffness, erythema and blistering - were convincing for Thomson and others, but not for all. Many prominent physicians still denied that x-rays were in any way harmful, although oft times the denial was tempered by a qualification that the effects noted were attributable to misuse of the x-ray.

[edit] Patents

• U.S. Patent 735621   -- "Electrostatic motor"

[edit] External links

• IEEE Legacies
• Elihu Thomson Papers

[edit] See also

• Elihu Thomson House, Swampscott, Massachusetts

Presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology v • d • e

William Barton Rogers (1862–1870, 1879–1881) • John Daniel Runkle (1870–1878) • Francis Amasa Walker (1881–1897) • James Crafts (1897–1900) • Henry Smith Pritchett (1900–1907) • Arthur Amos Noyes (acting 1907–1909) • Richard Cockburn Maclaurin (1909–1920) • Elihu Thomson (acting 1920–1921, 1922–1923) • Ernest Fox Nichols (1921–1922) • Samuel Wesley Stratton (1923–1930) • Karl Taylor Compton (1930–1948) • James Rhyne Killian (1948–1959) • Julius Adams Stratton (1959–1966) • Howard Wesley Johnson (1966–1971) • Jerome Wiesner (1971–1980) • Paul Edward Gray (1980–1990) • Charles Marstiller Vest (1990–2004) • Susan Hockfield (2004—)