Thomas Davenport (inventor)
Thomas Davenport (born July 9, 1802 in Williamstown , Vermont , USA ; † July 6, 1851 in Salisbury , Vermont) received the world's first patent on an electric motor .
Life
Thomas Davenport was the son of a farmer and trained as a blacksmith . Self-taught and interested in the new discoveries and developments of electricity and magnetism, he sought contact with Joseph Henry and observed his experiments. He built a commutator motor from an electromagnet he bought from Henry .
His patent application for “Improvement in propelling machinery by magnetism and electromagnetism” , filed in 1834, was initially rejected. After re-filing with references from Henry and Professor Benjamin Franklin Bache, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin , the patent was granted to Davenport on February 25, 1837. In 1835 he built a model of an electrically powered rail vehicle on a circle of rails four feet in diameter using the electric motor he had developed .
The model of the engine, filed with the patent application, is now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Davenport's development was a technical breakthrough, but initially it did not lead to practical applications except in his own workshop, as the steam engine was more efficient and therefore more economical at that time ( see also: History of the electric drive of rail vehicles ).
Web links
- Image of the patent from 1837 (snapshot from the Internet Archive from 2009)
- Frank Wicks: The Blacksmith's Motor. Electricity, magnetism, and motion: A self-taught Vermonter pointed the direction for lighting the world. Article in Mechanical Engineering Magazine , July 1999
- Thomas Davenport - the inventor of the electric motor?
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Davenport, Thomas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American inventor who received the world's first patent on an electric motor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 9, 1802 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Williamstown , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 6, 1851 |
| Place of death | Salisbury , USA |