Frank Benford

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Frank Albert Benford, Jr.
Born	29 May 1883 Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Died	4 December 1948 Schenectady, New York
Fields	Electrical Engineering Physics
Institutions	General Electric
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Known for	Benford's Law

Frank Albert Benford, Jr., (29 May 1883 Johnstown, Pennsylvania - 1948) was an American electrical engineer and physicist best known for rediscovering and generalizing Benford's Law, a statistical statement about the occurrence of digits in lists of data.

Benford is also known for having devised, in 1937, an instrument for measuring the refractive index of glass. An expert in optical measurements, he published 109 papers in the fields of optics and mathematics and was granted 20 patents on optical devices.

His date of birth is given variously as 29 May or 10 July 1883. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1910, Benford worked for General Electric, first in the Illuminating Engineering Laboratory for 18 years, then the Research Laboratory for 20 years until retiring in July of 1948. He died suddenly at his home on 4 December 1948.