Peter Cooper-Hewitt

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Peter Cooper-Hewitt

Peter Cooper-Hewitt (born May 5, 1861 in New York City , † August 25, 1921 in Paris ) was an American electrical engineer. He became known as the inventor of the mercury vapor lamp and the mercury vapor rectifier .

Life

Hewitt was born in New York on May 5, 1861, the son of New York City Mayor Abram Hewitt and Sarah Amelia Cooper, the daughter of industrialist Peter Cooper . He completed his education at the Stevens Institute of Technology and the Columbia University School of Mines (today: Engineering and Applied Sciences).

 
 
 
 
 
 
John Cooper
 
Margaret Campbell
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
John Hewitt
 
Ann Gurnee
 
Peter Cooper
 
Sarah Cooper
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Abram Hewitt
 
Sarah A. Cooper
 
Edward Cooper
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Amy Hewitt
 
 
Eleanor Hewitt
 
 
Sarah Hewitt
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Peter Cooper-Hewitt
 
 
Edward R. Hewitt
 
Erskine Hewitt
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alice (Lucy) Bond Work
 
 
Maryon (Pedar) Bruguiere
 
 
 
 
 
 
Pedigree of Peter Cooper-Hewitt.

He was then long professor and later director of Columbia University (NY). He was friends with Mihajlo Pupin . On April 27, 1887, he married Alice Work, the daughter of Frank H. Work (1819-1911) and sister of Frances Ellen Work , Mrs. Burke Roche, in New York . The marriage remained childless and was divorced. He married a second time on December 21, 1918 in Paterson, NJ Mrs. Pedar Bruguiere, the daughter of Tunstall T. Andrews of Virginia. They had a daughter, Anne Cooper Hewitt.

Hewitt mercury vapor lamp

Hewitt experimented with the mercury vapor lamp invented by Leo Arons in 1892 and invented one that emits blue-green light in 1901 (US patent 889,692). This lamp was used in photography because of its high efficiency . The color of light did not play a special role in black and white photography at the time.

However, the mercury vapor lamp could only be operated with direct current. To make it usable for the emerging alternating current, he provided the evacuated glass tube with two anodes and a cathode made of mercury. He connected the cathode to the center of the transformer winding. With this circuit, the arc jumped to the other anode with every half-wave. He recognized the rectifying effect of his lamp and acquired various patents for his mercury vapor rectifier . Later he also built the rectifier with 3 anodes, with which the rectification of three-phase current was possible. Later the glass tubes were replaced by iron.

In 1902, with financial help from George Westinghouse, he founded the Cooper Hewitt Electric Company . He also ran a railway company and controlled part of the copper trade.

Around 1907 he experimented with hydrofoils ( Hydroplan ) and helicopters, then turned back to automobiles.

In 1916, during the First World War, he worked for Elmer Ambrose Sperry on the unmanned aerial vehicle Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane .

In 1918 he married Pedar (in other sources also: Maryon Andrews) Bruguiere.

In 1919 General Electric took over his company and moved it from 220 West 29th St in Manhattan to Grand St. in Hoboken, New Jersey . In 1934 Edmund Germer built a high pressure version.

In 1920 he received three US patents for his helicopter and designed a working copy with Francis B. Crocker .

He died of pneumonia on August 25, 1921 after an operation in the American hospital in Paris and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Shaw, Albert: Leading Articles Of The Month: Peter Cooper Hewitt, Inventor . The American Monthly Review of Reviews XXVII (6): p. 724 June 1908. Retrieved January 18, 2011.
  2. ^ Columbia University : Commencement Day . Columbia University Quarterly V (4): pp. 397-398. September 1903. Retrieved January 18, 2011.
  3. NY Times, on his death
  4. Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / knol.google.com
  5. Timeline Lamp Inventors 1880-1940 Photo Gallery # 2
  6. electrosuisse.ch: Peter Hewitt (PDF; 28 kB)
  7. ^ Developing the Flying Bomb
  8. ^ [1] New York Times
  9. ^ [2] Pedar Bruguiere
  10. http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Documents/M6%20Cooper%20Hewitt.htm
  11. Patent US1350454 : Flying machine. Published August 24, 1920 .
  12. Patent US1350455 : Helicopter. Published August 24, 1920 .
  13. Patent US1350456 : Helicopter. Published August 24, 1920 .

Web links

literature