Thomas Davenport
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
Thomas Davenport was a Vermont blacksmith. Born 1802; died 1851.
With his wife (Emily Davenport), and a colleague (Orange Smalley), he invented the electric motor and electric locomotive circa 1834. Thomas Davenport received the first patent on an electric machine in 1837.
Further Reading
- Frank Wicks. "The Blacksmith's Motor. Electricity, magnetism, and motion: A self-taught Vermonter pointed the direction for lighting the world." Mechanical Engineering, July 1999.
- Smalley and Davenport's shop. http://www.uvm.edu/~histpres/SD/hist.html
