Elihu Thomson
... the means of obtaining light, heat, and mechanical force." Eli was a quick learner so quick that he graduated high school early in 1870 when he was a 17. After he graduated he was offered a job at the high school as a physics teacher and he accepted. In 1876 Thomson was promoted to head of the chemistry department. Thomson stayed in this job for four more years until 1880 when he quit and devoted all his time to electrical research. Thomson’s first significant invention was the 3-coil dynamo which was the source of the successful of the electric lighting system. Thomson and Edwin J. Houston, who was a fellow co-worker at Central High School, designed an arc lighting system which they sold and made enough money so that they could create their own company in 1880 called the American Electric Company in New Britain, Connecticut. In 1882 a group of business men from Lynn, Massachusetts bought controlling interest in the company and moved it to Lynn. In 1883 the name of the company was changed from the American Electric Company to the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. Thomson and Houston became very successful and in 1886 they bought the Sawyer and Mann Electric Co. after their new acquisition they began making and selling incandescent lamps. In 1892 The Thomson-Houston Electric Company merged with the Edison Electric Company of Schenectady, New York to form the General Electric Company. The company grew and expanded to Germany, France, and England. These parts of the company outside of the U.S. helped spread Thomson’s electric lighting system through out Europe. The company also created RCA. After Thomson’s company reached financial success he decided to attend Yale to get his Ph.D. Later on Thomson taught electrical engineering at MIT for several years, he was even made interim president from 1920-1923. Even though Thomson spent time teaching at MIT most of his time was spent at General Electric working with other managers and entrepreneurs to link the hardware of electric lighting with business organization and marketing strategy. Even though Thomson’s area of expertise was electricity he made progress in other areas. For example he improved automobile mufflers, X-ray technology, and the electricity meter. One of Thomson’s most useful inventions was the electrical welding process. Before Thomson created this welding process welding could be done only through fire heating plus a single metal with a high melting point or two metals with different melting points could not be welded together. In 1896 Thomson built an X-ray machine used to diagnose bone fractures and locate foreign things in your body. In November 1896 Thomson wanted to make sure x-rays could do what he thought they could do so he exposed his pinky, which he had hurt, to x-ray beams for thirty minutes and described the signs and sympto...