Thomas Davenport Invented First Electric Motor

Earl Davenport, 70, inventor of an over-unity motor and generator (and the alternator, when he was 12), is the direct offspring of Thomas Davenport

1802-1851

"The Inventors of the Electric Motor,"The Electrical Engineer 11 (7 January 1891): 3.

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"Besides his other experiments, Samuel F.B. Morse, who invented the electric telegraph in 1832, was tinkering with the concept of an electric motor. But the honor of inventing and patenting the first electric motor went to Vermont native Thomas Davenport, a blacksmith (see "The Blacksmith's Motor," July 1999). Davenport's motor design instituted the first configuration of a commutator, whose concept is used in electric motors today."

Source: Motoring Madness: The history and development of America's favorite mechanical object: the automobile. (Mechanical Engineering Magazine, Nov. 2000)

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Biographies

• Hebrew University > Dr. Eugenii Katz > history of electrochemistry, electricity and electronics > Thomas Davenport
• "In 1929, Rev. Walter Rice Davenport, nephew of Thomas Davenport, wrote the Biography of Thomas Davenport, "The Brandon Blacksmith, Inventor of the Electric Motor", which was published by the Vermont Historical Society. The book presents a sentimental account of Thomas Davenport's life, based largely on an autobiographical manuscript written by Thomas Davenport in 1849." (Eugenii Katz)
• Mechanical Engineering Magazine > Davenport and his inventions (July '99)
• Smalley-Davenport Shop, Forestdale, Vermont; Birthplace of the Electric Motor in 1834; By Prof. Thomas D. Visser; Historic Preservation Program, University of Vermont
• Davenport and one of his collaborators
• Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Davenport
• Center for Study of Technology and Society > Today in Technological History > July 6, 2001 > Thomas Davenport died 150 years ago