retroelectro
Beyond streetcars: Sprague’s broader impact on technology In 1890, Sprague Electric Railway and Motor was absorbed by Edison General Electric. It was here when the real problems with Edison started, with Edison removing Sprague’s name and replacing it with the word EDISON. The irony is that he left Edison’s company six years earlier to avoid this exact thing from happening. Sprague’s wife, Harriet Sprague, writes about this experience in her book ‘Frank J Sprague and the Edison Myth,’ some years after his death.
his legacy has been shadowed by Thomas Edison, but many of his inventions and techniques are still used today in freight trains and elevators worldwide. Sprague raised a family that returned to North Adams, where his son Robert C. Sprague started Sprague Electric Company. Sprague Electric became renowned for its innovation in electronic components, particularly tantalum capacitors. In the 1960s, his son, John L. Sprague, became more involved and directed the company towards the new world of semiconductors, where it was successful for many years. Suggested reading Engineering Invention: Frank J. Sprague and the U.S. Electrical Industry by Frederick Dalzell The Mechanization of Urban Transit in the United States by Eric Schatzberg Report on The Exhibits at the Crystal Palace Electrical Exhibition by Frank J. Sprague American Experience: The Race Underground Frank J Sprague and the Edison Myth by Harriet Sprague Frank J Sprague: Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Richmond Union Passenger Railway IEEE Milestone Listing The Growth of Electric Railways by Frank J Sprague
References [1] "Report on Transportation Business in the United States at the Eleventh Census," U.S Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1894. [2] E. Schatzberg, "The Mechanization of Urban Transit in the United States," in Technological Cpmpetiveness (Ed: William Aspray), IEEE Press, 1993. [3] F. Dalzell, Engineering Invention: Frank J. Sprague and the U.S. Electrical Industry, Cambridge, Ma: The MIT Press, 2010. [4] "IEEE Milestones: Richmond Union Passenger Railway, 1888," [Online]. Available: https://ethw.org/ Milestones:Richmond_Union_Passenger_ Railway,_1888. [Accessed 2024 07 21]. [5] F. J. Sprague, The Growth of Electric Railways, Atlantic City, NJ: American Electric Railway Association, 1916.
Frank J Sprague is born in Milford Connecticut July 25, 1857
1866 Mother dies and he moves to North Adams, Massachusetts 1876 The Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia
1874 Sprague starts attending the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. 1878 - 1880 Sprague leaves Annapolis and is assigned to the USS Richmond.
1881 - 1883 Serves on the USS Lancaster in Europe
1882 Served on the Jury at the 1882 Crystal Palace Exposition in London
1883 Left the Navy to Work for Edison
May 1883 Files First Patent Application – Dynamo-Electric Motor • Patent Link
1884 Leaves Edison to Start the Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company
After feeling bamboozled by Edison, he decided to leave the streetcar business altogether—for a while anyway. He would continue changing the world by developing the first practical electric elevator, regenerative braking, and electric locomotives. In 1906, he was responsible for electrifying New York’s Grand Central Terminal lines. Many consider Frank J. Sprague to be one of the most influential inventors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Unfortunately,
1886 Invents Regenerative Braking
1888 Opens the Richmond Union Passenger Railway (Twelve Miles in Length with Forty Cars) 1890 Sells to Edison General Electric
1890 Contracts 200 Trolley Systems
Sprague Legacy: Electrical Inventions and Innovation
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