William Stanley Jr.
Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox scientist
William Stanley Jr. (November 28, 1858 – May 14, 1916) was an American physicist born in Brooklyn, New York. During his career, he obtained 129 patents covering a variety of electric devices.<ref name="owen" /> In 1913, he also patented an all-steel vacuum bottle, and formed the Stanley Bottle Company.
Early life and education
Stanley was born November 28, 1858, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of William Stanley and Elizabeth A. Parsons Stanley.<ref name=StanleyObit/> William Jr. attended Williston Seminary and attended Yale University class of 1881, but left in his first year before Christmas Vacation. He would comment years later, “I am afraid there is a good deal of stuff taught in school that clogs instead of clears the brain.” <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Career
Stanley was as an electrician working with tele keys and fire alarms of an early manufacturer. In Philadelphia, Stanley designed one of the first electrical installations (at a Fifth Avenue store). Shortly thereafter, George Westinghouse hired Stanley as his chief engineer at his Pittsburgh factory.
In 1885, Stanley built the first practical alternating current transformer based on Lucien Gaulard and John Dixon Gibbs' prototype of 1881. This device was the precursor to the modern transformer. In December, under a new contract with Westinghouse, Stanley moved his operations to Great Barrington, Massachusetts.<ref name="Hughs NetPow"/>
In 1886, on March 20, Stanley demonstrated the first complete system of high voltage alternating current transmission, consisting of generators, transformers and high-voltage transmission lines. His system allowed the distribution of electrical power over wide areas. He used the system to light offices and stores along the main street of Great Barrington - the location of his West Avenue family home. Stanley's transformer design became a prototype for future transformers, and his AC distribution system formed the basis of modern electrical power distribution. His work in the electrification of Great Barrington's Main Street was named an IEEE Milestone.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Agreeing that the AC system had arrived, Westinghouse further tested the system in summer 1886 in Pittsburgh; it transmitted over a distance of 3 miles, and used an alternator designed by Stanley to replace the Siemens model, which regulated voltage poorly. Satisfied with the pilot system, Westinghouse began commercial production and shipped his company's first commercial alternator to Buffalo, New York, where a local utility placed it in service. Orders for 25 alternating-current plants followed within months.<ref name="Hughs NetPow">Thomas Parke Hughes, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880–1930, pp. 103–104, (1993)</ref>
In 1890, Stanley founded the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 1903 the General Electric Corporation purchased a controlling interest in the firm. The land on which the company once stood is now the site of the William Stanley Business Park of the Berkshires in Pittsfield.<ref>William Stanley Business Park</ref>
Patents
William Stanley Jr. was granted 129 patents for a range of products and electrical devices.<ref name="owen">Owen, E.L., "Rediscovering William Stanley Jr. Part I", Industry Applications Magazine, IEEE, November–December 2003 Volume 9, Issue 6, pp. 9–12 Template:ISSN INSPEC 7949020 Template:Doi</ref><ref>Stanley Template:Webarchive</ref> A selection of patents follow. Significant patents are in bold.
- Template:US patent, Circuit-closer for incandescent lamps
- Template:US patent, Electric lamp
- Template:US patent, Filament for incandescent electric lamps
- Template:US patent, Multiple incandescent electric lamp
- Template:US patent, Carbon for incandescent lamps
- Template:US patent, Socket for incandescent electric lamp
- Template:US patent, Holder for incandescent electric lamp
- Template:US patent, Globe for incandescent electric lamp
- Template:US patent, Induction coil
- Template:US patent, Automatic cut-out for electric-lighting circuits
- Template:US patent, Automatic cut-out for electric-lighting circuit
- Template:US patent, Incandescent electric lamp<ref>This is the 1886 Stanley-Westinghouse Lamp Template:Webarchive</ref>
- Template:US patent, System of electric lighting
- Template:US patent
- Template:US patent
- Template:US patent
Personal life
William married to Lila Courtney (Wetmore) Stanley in 1884.<ref name=StanleyObit>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1935, their son, Harold Stanley, went on to found the modern day financial firm of Morgan Stanley with J. P. Morgan's grandson, Henry Sturgis Morgan.<ref name=NYTObit>Template:Cite news</ref>
William Stanley Jr. died at his home in Great Barrington on May 14, 1916.<ref name=StanleyObit/>
See also
References
Further reading
- "William Stanley" (Nov.22, 1858-May 14, 1916), Dictionary of American Biography, Vol XVII, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1935, p. 514.
- "William Stanley", The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol XXIV, James T. White & Co., New York, 1935, p. 394.
- William Stanley (1858–1916) – His Life and Work, Laurence A. Hawkins, The Newcomen Society in North America, New York, 1951.
External links
- Template:Commons category-inline
- Alternating Current Development in America by William Stanley
- William Stanley Lighted a Town and Powered an Industry by Bernard A. Drew and Gerard Chapman
- William Stanley Jr. - Pioneer of the transformer and alternating current (AC) distribution
- ejcov, William Stanley Jr.
- Early History of the A-C System in America
- IEEE Legacies William Stanley Jr.
- Template:Cite book, 1908. P. 348
- AboutInventors; William Stanley
- How Stanley's design formed the basis of modern Transformers