biography
| name: |
Sprague, Frank (Julian)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1857–1934)
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| biography:
| Electrical engineer and inventor, born in Milford, Connecticut, USA. He developed an interest in electricity while a cadet at the US Naval Academy. As a junior naval officer (1878–83), he experimented with various types of dynamos and motors. He resigned from the navy to become an assistant to Thomas Edison (1883) and formed the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Co the following year. In 1887 he installed the nation's first electric trolley system in Richmond, VA, for which he has been called ‘the father of electric railway traction’. He sold this company to Edison (1892) and established a concern that manufactured electric elevators, selling it in turn to the Otis Elevator Co. He perfected a control system for multi-unit trains in 1895, using this as a basis for an automatic train control system he developed. In his later years he produced electric motors for small tools and appliances and co-invented the third rail for electrified rail lines. He served as chairman of committees on shipbuilding and electricity for the Naval Consulting Board during World War 1. |
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