19th Century Pioneer

Elihu Thomson (1853 – 1937).  Immigrant from England.

His inventions included arc and incandescent lighting systems, alternating current motors and transformers, electric welding equipment, and the recording watt-meter. Thomson was also a co-founder of the General Electric Company.

His first important invention was the 3-coil dynamo, which, with its automatic regulator and other novel features, was the basis of the successful electric lighting system. With a fellow teacher, Edwin J. Houston, he designed an arc lighting system that attracted financial backing and led to the founding (1880) of the American Electric Company in New Britain, Conn..  In 1882 a group from Lynn, Mass., bought controlling interest in the company and moved it to Lynn. Thomson went to Lynn with the company, which in 1883 was renamed the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. Thomson and Houston became successful and expanded into other electrical markets. In 1886 they purchased the Sawyer & Man Electric Co. and began making incandescent lamps under the Sawyer-Man patents.

In 1892 Thomson became a consultant to the General Electric Company, which was formed by the merger of Thomson-Houston with the Edison General Electric Company. In the early years of the new company Thomson was elected chief engineer, producing many of the fundamental inventions upon which General Electric was based.

At General Electric, Thomson worked with managers and entrepreneurs to link the hardware of electric lighting with business organization and marketing strategy.

In his senior years, he was president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1920-23.

Although electricity was Thomson's main area of effort, he made major advances in other areas such as automobile mufflers, X-ray technology and the electricity meter. The U.S. Patent Office granted him 696 patents.