Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton
Colonel Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton (born May 31, 1845 in Sion Hill near Thirsk , Yorkshire , † February 15, 1940 in Ripon , Yorkshire) was an English inventor and pioneer of electric street lighting.
The outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854 interrupted his training and he served in the Royal Navy as a cadet on the HMS Dragon . He then attended Harrow School in Middlesex and studied mathematics. It experimented with electrostatic generators and the Leiden bottle. During the summer holidays he built his Bluebell locomobile . He then went to the British Army and served in the Rifle Brigade in India until 1875, where he was interested in the work of the Royal Engineer.
He then became a partner in the engineering company THP Dennis & Co in Chelmsford , Essex, which u. a. built agricultural mills. For this he built a carbon arc lamp so that the mill could run day and night. In 1878 he took over the company, renamed it Crompton & Co. and built his Crompton lamps. After he also produced Joseph Wilson Swan's incandescent lamps under license, he dominated the English lamp market. He installed the lighting for Windsor Castle and King's Cross Station around 1881. In 1887 he installed the first public electricity supply with seven steam engines in Kensington Gardens . He developed the first electric toaster and stove.
Although he had invested heavily in DC systems, he quickly switched to AC after the current war was resolved.
In 1899 the Second Boer War broke out and Crompton returned to the Army as a Colonel, where he developed searchlights as a Royal Engineer.
When many companies with different voltages and frequencies entered the market in the 1890s, he committed himself to standardization. At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, he represented Great Britain as part of a delegation from the IEE, and presented a standardization proposal that he implemented over the next two years. In 1906 the International Electrotechnical Commission had its first meeting in London with representatives from 14 countries.
When the First World War broke out, he was asked to develop a landship that could overcome barbed wire and protect it from bullets. His design was the basis for the first realization of a tank .
In 1929 he merged his company with F. Parkinson Ltd. to Crompton Parkinson .
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Crompton, Rookes Evelyn Bell |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Crompton, REB |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English inventor and pioneer of electric street lighting |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 31, 1845 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sion Hill at Thirsk , Yorkshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 15, 1940 |
| Place of death | Ripon , Yorkshire |