Frank Julian Sprague

Author : William D. Middleton
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2009-09-25
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780253023599

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Frank Julian Sprague by William D. Middleton Pdf

“[This] biography of the ‘Father of Electric Traction’ details the life and times of an exceptional engineer, maverick innovator, [and] entrepreneur.” —NMRA Magazine Frank Julian Sprague invented a system for distributing electricity to streetcars from overhead wires. Within a year, electric streetcars had begun to replace horsecars, sparking a revolution in urban transportation. Sprague (1857–1934) was an American naval officer turned inventor who worked briefly for Thomas Edison before striking out on his own. Sprague contributed to the development of the electric motor, electric railways, and electric elevators. His innovations would help transform the urban space of the 20th century, enabling cities to grow larger and skyscrapers taller. The Middletons’ generously illustrated biography is an engrossing study of the life and times of a maverick innovator. “The authors weave this biography through time, with technological and political details that make Sprague human, a creative soul pressing his ideas with a sports-like outcome—some wins, some losses, and some ties . . . I recommend this well-written book detailing the life of the ‘Father of Electric Traction’ to explain the development of what we so casually take for granted.” —Trains “No one has previously used Sprague’s personal papers in a published biography . . . Recommended.” —Choice “Frank Sprague . . . is a major historical figure who for decades lacked a significant biography. This void has been ably and engagingly filled in this book by the dean of electric traction authors, William D. Middleton, and his son, William III.” —Classic Trains

Author : Frank Rowsome,John L. Sprague
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2014-02-18
Category : History
ISBN : 1490955348

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The Birth of Electric Traction by Frank Rowsome,John L. Sprague Pdf

Frank J. Sprague was renowned in electrical circles around the world as “The Father of Electric Traction.” The control and safety systems which make railroads and mass transit work today are his. He was the first to design electric motors capable of earning their way in industry, and helped perfect the high-speed electric elevators that made skyscrapers possible. He created the basic circuitry that ran, and still runs, subways, elevators, and electrified railroads. Sprague was among the first men to bring rigorous mathematical discipline to replace cut-and-try research, making him the life-long rival of Thomas Edison. Sprague helped change electricity from a laboratory and lecture-platform oddity to a vital part of the modern world. Almost single-handedly he wired electricity into the second industrial revolution as a basic source of power and transportation.

Author : Frank Julian Sprague
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 48 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 1916
Category : Electric railroads
ISBN : CORNELL:31924103699579

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The Growth of Electric Railways by Frank Julian Sprague Pdf

Author : Frank J. Sprague Anniversary Committee
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 64 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 1932
Category : Electronic
ISBN : WISC:89083933580

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A Meeting of Appreciation and Tribute to Frank J. Sprague by Frank J. Sprague Anniversary Committee Pdf

Author : Harriet Chapman Jones Sprague
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 40 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 1947
Category : Electronic
ISBN : UOM:39015003726513

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Frank J. Sprague and the Edison Myth by Harriet Chapman Jones Sprague Pdf

Author : Harold Clarence Passer
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 42 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 1952
Category : Electric railroads
ISBN : UOM:39015067184351

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Frank Julian Sprague, Father of Electric Traction, 1857-1934 by Harold Clarence Passer Pdf

Author : Frederick Dalzell
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 303 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2009-09-25
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780262258128

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Engineering Invention by Frederick Dalzell Pdf

The technological breakthroughs and entrepreneurial adventures of Frank J. Sprague during the transformative years of the early electrical industry. Over the course of a little less than twenty years, inventor Frank J. Sprague (1857-1934) achieved an astonishing series of technological breakthroughs—from pioneering work in self-governing motors to developing the first full-scale operational electric railway system—all while commercializing his inventions and promoting them (and himself as their inventor) to financial backers and the public. In Engineering Invention, Frederick Dalzell tells Sprague's story, setting it against the backdrop of one of the most dynamic periods in the history of technology. In a burst of innovation during these years, Sprague and his contemporaries—Thomas Edison, Nicolas Tesla, Elmer Sperry, George Westinghouse, and others—transformed the technologies of electricity and reshaped modern life. After working briefly for Edison, Sprague started the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company; designed and built an electric railroad system for Richmond, Virginia; sold his company to Edison and went into the field of electric elevators; almost accidentally discovered a multiple-control system that could equip electric train systems for mass transit; started a third company to commercialize this; then sold this company to Edison and retired (temporarily). Throughout his career, Dalzell tells us, Sprague framed technology as invention, cast himself as hero, and staged his technologies as dramas. He toiled against the odds, scraped together resources to found companies, bet those companies on technical feats—and pulled it off, multiple times. The idea of the “heroic inventor” is not, of course, the only way to frame the history of technology. Nevertheless, as Dalzell shows, Sprague, Edison, and others crafted the role consciously and actively, using it to generate vital impetus behind the process of innovation.

Author : Eric S. Hintz
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 369 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2021-08-17
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780262542586

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American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D by Eric S. Hintz Pdf

How America's individual inventors persisted alongside corporate R&D labs as an important source of inventions. During the nineteenth century, heroic individual inventors such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell created entirely new industries while achieving widespread fame. However, by 1927, a New York Times editorial suggested that teams of corporate scientists at General Electric, AT&T, and DuPont had replaced the solitary "garret inventor" as the wellspring of invention. But these inventors never disappeared. In this book, Eric Hintz argues that lesser-known inventors such as Chester Carlson (Xerox photocopier), Samuel Ruben (Duracell batteries), and Earl Tupper (Tupperware) continued to develop important technologies throughout the twentieth century. Moreover, Hintz explains how independent inventors gradually fell from public view as corporate brands increasingly became associated with high-tech innovation. Focusing on the years from 1890 to 1950, Hintz documents how American independent inventors competed (and sometimes partnered) with their corporate rivals, adopted a variety of flexible commercialization strategies, established a series of short-lived professional groups, lobbied for fairer patent laws, and mobilized for two world wars. After 1950, the experiences of independent inventors generally mirrored the patterns of their predecessors, and they continued to be overshadowed during corporate R&D's postwar golden age. The independents enjoyed a resurgence, however, at the turn of the twenty-first century, as Apple's Steve Jobs and Shark Tank's Lori Greiner heralded a new generation of heroic inventor-entrepreneurs. By recovering the stories of a group once considered extinct, Hintz shows that independent inventors have long been—and remain—an important source of new technologies.

Author : Thomas Commerford Martin,Joseph Wetzler
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 1888
Category : Electric motors
ISBN : NYPL:33433090912027

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The Electric Motor and Its Applications by Thomas Commerford Martin,Joseph Wetzler Pdf

Author : William D. Middleton
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2000-04-22
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 0253336996

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Yet There Isn't a Train I Wouldn't Take by William D. Middleton Pdf

Yet there isn't a train goes by all day But I hear its whistle shrieking.... Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take, No matter where it's going. —Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Travel" "Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take" is a collection of stories about favorite train journeys by an inveterate railway enthusiast and train traveler. A half century career as an engineer, Naval officer, and university administrator took Bill Middleton to almost every part of the globe, and everywhere he took with him an abiding interest in railways, and a notebook and camera to record his experiences. His North American journeys have included experiences as diverse as the long journey north through Manitoba to polar bear country on Hudson Bay, a trip to Minnesota's Mesabi Range to haul a boatload of iron ore to Lake Superior behind a giant Yellowstone articulated steam locomotive, and the trip between Costa Rica's Atlantic and Pacific coasts by narrow gauge railway. His European travels have ranged from a Pullman seat on the crack London-Paris Golden Arrow to the slow trip across Thrace on one of the last runs of the celebrated Simplon-Orient Express. In Asia he traveled through the Toros Mountains of Turkey on the famous Istanbul-Baghdad Toros Express, experienced modern high-speed railroading in the cab of Japan's Bullet Train, and rode to Asia's highest mountain east of the Himalayas on the little trains of Taiwan's Ali Shan Forestry Railway.

Author : Harriet Chapman Jones Sprague
Publisher : Hassell Street Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2023-07-18
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1019362006

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Frank J. Sprague and the Edison Myth. by Harriet Chapman Jones Sprague Pdf

Frank J Sprague and the Edison Myth is a biography of Frank Sprague, a key figure in the early development of electric power and transportation systems. The book provides a detailed account of Sprague's life and work, including his long-standing rivalry with Thomas Edison. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Author : Frank G. Slaughter
Publisher : Speaking Volumes
Page : 472 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 1946
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781645401582

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In a Dark Garden by Frank G. Slaughter Pdf

In 1862, having completed his medical studies in Europe, Julian Chisholm finds himself in Glasgow, penniless, but determined to return home and offer his skill as a surgeon to the cause of the Con­federacy. Through a cynical, happy-go-lucky gambler he meets lovely Jane Anderson, widow of a Confederate army officer, who needs a husband badly if she is to return to Georgia to fight for her estates. She offers Julian the price of his passage if he will marry her, and he accepts, hoping that marriage will drive away his constantly recurring thoughts of beautiful, shameless Lucy Sprague who had rejected him three years before for an untrustworthy but wealthy Yankee senator. Once in the Confederacy, Julian plunges into the hazardous work of an army field surgeon as he tries to forget both Lucy and Jane, in whom his interest has deepened. On the bloody battlefields of Vicksburg and Chickamauga he performs delicate under-fire operations, oblivious of his personal safety and concerned only with the lives of the wounded under his knife. There are detailed and accurate descriptions of Julian at work, from the scene at the primitive base hospital where he saves an adolescent boy with a dangerous head injury to the night in a sumptuous mansion where he makes medical history when he removes an appendix as a cure for typhlitis. As we follow Julian through rapidly shifting scenes of action, Jane and Lucy again cross his path and disturb his loyalties. How he resolves his personal conflict and makes his final choice between love and duty is the climax of this dramatic story of a doctor in the Civil War.

Author : Frank Herbert
Publisher : WordFire +ORM
Page : 90 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2011-06-12
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781614750048

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Direct Descent by Frank Herbert Pdf

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Dune, a sci-fi fantasy about government control of media and information. Earth has become a library planet for thousands of years, a bastion of both useful and useless knowledge—esoterica of all types, history, science, politics—gathered by teams of “pack rats” who scour the galaxy for any scrap of information. Knowledge is power, knowledge is wealth, and knowledge can be a weapon. As powerful dictators come and go over the course of history, the cadre of dedicated librarians is sworn to obey the lawful government . . . and use their wits to protect the treasure trove of knowledge they have collected over the millennia. Herbert, author of Dune.

Author : Roger Biles
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0842029931

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The Human Tradition in Urban America by Roger Biles Pdf

Introduces problems and concerns facing different groups of urban Americans at different times through biographical readings.

Author : George Woodman Hilton,John Fitzgerald Due
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 500 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1964
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 0804740143

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The Electric Interurban Railways in America by George Woodman Hilton,John Fitzgerald Due Pdf

One of the most colorful yet neglected eras in American transportation history is re-created in this definitive history of the electric interurbans. Built with the idea of attracting short-distance passenger traffic and light freight, the interurbans were largely constructed in the early 1900s. The rise of the automobile and motor transport caused the industry to decline after World War I, and the depression virtually annihilated the industry by the middle 1930s. Part I describes interurban construction, technology, passenger and freight traffic, financial history, and final decline and abandonment. Part II presents individual histories (with route maps) of the more than 300 companies of the interurban industry. Reviews "A first-rate work of such detail and discernment that it might well serve as a model for all corporate biographies. . . . A wonderfully capable job of distillation." —Trains "Few economic, social, and business historians can afford to miss this definitive study." —Mississippi Valley Historical Review "All seekers after nostalgia will be interested in this encyclopedic volume on the days when the clang, clang of the trolley was the most exciting travel sound the suburbs knew." —Harper's Magazine "A fascinating and instructive chapter in the history of American transportation." —Journal of Economic History "The hint that behind the grand facade of scholarship lies an expanse of boyish enthusiasm is strengthened by a lovingly amassed and beautifully reproduced collection of 37 photographs." —The Nation