Edward Lawry Norton (28 July 1898, Rockland, Maine–28 January 1983, Chatham, New Jersey) was an accomplished Bell Labs engineer and scientist famous for developing the concept of the Norton equivalent circuit. He attended the University of Maine for two years before transferring to M.I.T. and received a S.B. degree (electrical engineering) in 1922. He received an M.A. degree from Columbia University in 1925.
Although interested primarily in a communications circuit theory and the transmission of data at high speeds over telephone lines, Edward L. Norton is best remembered for development of the dual of Thevenin's equivalent circuit, currently referred to as Norton's equivalent Circuit. In fact, Norton and his associates at AT&T in the early 1920s are recognized as some of the first to perform pioneering work applying Thevenin's equivalent circuit and who referred to this concept simply as Thévenin's theorem. In 1926, he proposed the equivalent circuit using a current source and parallel resistor to assist in the design of recording instrumentation that was primarily current driven. He began his telephone career in 1922 with the western Electric Company's Engineering Department, which later became Bell Laboratories. His areas of active research included network theory, acoustical systems, electromagnetic apparatus, and data transmission. A graduate of MIT and Columbia University, he held nineteen patents on his work.
Norton died on January 28, 1983 in Chatham, New Jersey.