Frank J. Sprague
Encyclopedia
Frank Julian Sprague was an American
naval officer
and inventor who contributed to the development of the electric motor
, electric railways
, and electric elevators
. His contributions were especially important in promoting urban
development by increasing the size cities could reasonably attain (through better transportation) and by allowing greater concentration of business in commercial sections (through use of electric elevators in skyscraper
s). He became known as the "Father of Electric Traction".
in 1857. He attended Drury High School
in North Adams, Massachusetts
and excelled in mathematics. In 1874, he won an appointment to the United States Naval Academy
in Annapolis, Maryland
. There, he graduated seventh (out of thirty-six) in the Class of 1878.
in the U.S. Navy. During his ensuing naval service, he first served on the USS Richmond
, then the USS Minnesota
. While his ship was in Newport, Rhode Island
, in 1881, Sprague invented the inverted type of dynamo
. After he was transferred to the USS Lancaster
, flagship of the European Squadron, he installed the first electric call-bell system on a U.S. Navy ship. Sprague took leave to attend the Paris Electrical Exhibition in 1881 and the Crystal Palace
Exhibition in Sydenham
, England in 1882, where he was on the jury of awards for gas engines, dynamo
s and lamps.
, a business associate of Thomas Edison
, persuaded Sprague to resign his naval commission to work for Edison. One of Sprague's significant contributions to the Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey was the introduction of mathematical methods. Prior to his arrival, Edison conducted many costly trial-and-error experiments. Sprague's approach was to calculate using mathematics the optimum parameters and thus save much needless tinkering. He did important work for Edison, including correcting Edison's system of mains and feeders for central station distribution. In 1884, he decided his interests in the exploitation of electricity lay elsewhere, and he left Edison to found the Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company.
By 1886, Sprague's company had introduced two important inventions: a constant-speed, non-sparking motor with fixed brushes, and a method to return power to the main supply systems of equipment driven by electric motors. His motor was the first to maintain constant speed under varying load. It was immediately popular, and was endorsed by Edison as the only practical electric motor available. His method of returning power to main supply systems was important in the development of the electric train and the electric elevator.
Sprague's inventions included a system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires. His spring-loaded trolley pole
, invented in 1880, used a wheel to travel along the wire. In late 1887 and early 1888, using his trolley system, Sprague installed the first successful large electric street railway system, the Richmond Union Passenger Railway
in Richmond, Virginia
. Long a transportation obstacle, the hills of Richmond included grades of over 10%, and were an excellent proving ground for acceptance of his new technology in other cities, in contrast to the cable cars
which climbed the steepest grades of Nob Hill in San Francisco at the time.
Within a year, electric power had replaced more costly horsecar
s in many cities. By 1889 110 electric railways incorporating Sprague's equipment had been begun or planned on several continents. In 1890, Edison, who manufactured most of Sprague's equipment, bought him out
, and Sprague turned his attention to electric elevators.
Sprague's system of electric supply was a great advantage in relation to the first bipolar U-tube overhead lines, in everyday use since 1883 on Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram
.
shaft ways would not only save passengers' time, but would also increase the earnings of tall buildings, with height limited by the total floor space taken up in the shaft ways by slow hydraulic-powered elevators.
In 1892, Sprague founded the Sprague Electric Elevator Company, and with Charles R. Pratt developed the Sprague-Pratt Electric Elevator. The company developed floor control, automatic elevators, acceleration control of car safeties and a number of freight elevators. The Spague-Pratt elevator
ran faster and with larger loads than hydraulic or steam elevators, and 584 elevators had been installed worldwide. Sprague then sold his company to the Otis Elevator Company
in 1895.
system of electric railway operation, which accelerated the development of electric traction
. In the multiple unit system, each car of the train carries electric traction motors. By means of relays energized by train-line wires, the engineer
(or motorman
) commands all of the traction motors in the train to act together. For lighter trains there is no need for locomotive
s, so every car in the train can generate revenue. Where locomotives are used, one person can control all of them.
Sprague's first multiple unit order was from the South Side Elevated Railroad
(the first of several elevated railways in locally known as the "L"
) in Chicago, Illinois. This success was quickly followed by substantial multiple-unit contracts in Brooklyn, New York and Boston, Massachusetts.
, including the Grand Central Terminal
in New York City, where he designed a system of automatic train control to ensure compliance with trackside signals. He founded the Sprague Safety Control & Signal Corporation to develop and build this system. Along with William J. Wilgus
, he designed the Wilgus-Sprague bottom contact third rail
system used by the railroads leading into Grand Central Terminal.
During World War I
, Sprague served on the Naval Consulting Board. Then, in the 1920s, he devised a method for safely running two independent elevators, local and express, in a single shaft, to conserve floor space. He sold this system, along with systems for activating elevator car safety systems when acceleration or speed became too great, to the Westinghouse Company.
and rapid transit
systems which still function on the same principles today.
Sprague was awarded the gold medal at the Paris Electrical Exhibition in 1889, the grand prize at the St. Louis Exhibition in 1904, the Elliott Cresson Medal
in 1904, the Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers
, now IEEE, in 1910 'For meritorious achievement in electrical science, engineering and arts as exemplified in his contributions thereto', the Franklin Medal
in 1921 and the John Fritz Gold Medal (posthumously) in 1935.
"All through his life and up to his last day, Frank Sprague had a prodigious capacity for work," his son Robert wrote in 1935. "And once having made up his mind on a new invention or a new line of work, he was tireless and always striving for improvement. He had a brilliantly alert mind and was impatient of any half-way compromise. His interest in his work never ceased; only a few hours before the end, he asked to have a newly designed model of his latest invention brought to his bedside."
Frank and Harriet Sprague had two sons, Robert and Julian. Robert founded the Sprague Electric Company which became a leading manufacturer of capacitors and other electronic components. The company was later bought by Vishay in the 1990s.
After Sprague died in 1934, his widow Harriet turned over a substantial amount of material from his collection to the New York Public Library
, where it remains today accessible to the public via the rare books division. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery
in Arlington, Virginia, and she was interred beside him after her death in 1969.
In 1959, Harriet Sprague had donated funds for the Sprague Building at the Shore Line Trolley Museum
at East Haven, Connecticut
, not far from Sprague's boyhood home in Milford. The museum is the oldest operating trolley museum in the United States, and has one of the largest collections of trolley artifacts in the United States.
In 1999, two of Frank and Harriet's grandsons, John L. Sprague and Peter Sprague, cut the ribbon and started an 1884 Sprague motor at a new exhibit at the Shore Line Trolley Museum. There, a permanent exhibit, "Frank J. Sprague: Inventor, Scientist, Engineer", helps tell the story of the part electricity played in the growth of cities as well as the role of the Father of Electric Traction. Entrepreneur Peter Sprague was Chairman of National Semiconductor
from 1965 until 1995. John Sprague was President and Chief Executive Officer of Sprague Electric Company from 1981 to 1987.
Sprague's engines were used as far afield as Sydney Harbour, Australia
. A five-horsepower Lundell electric motor used at the Cockatoo Island
dockyard between 1900 and 1980 is now in the collection of the National Museum of Australia
in Canberra
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
naval officer
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
and inventor who contributed to the development of the electric motor
Electric motor
An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...
, electric railways
Railway electrification system
A railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...
, and electric elevators
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
. His contributions were especially important in promoting urban
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
development by increasing the size cities could reasonably attain (through better transportation) and by allowing greater concentration of business in commercial sections (through use of electric elevators in skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
s). He became known as the "Father of Electric Traction".
Childhood, education
Sprague was born in Milford, ConnecticutMilford, Connecticut
Milford is a coastal city in southwestern New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located between Bridgeport and New Haven. The population was 52,759 at the 2010 census...
in 1857. He attended Drury High School
Drury High School
Drury High SchoolDrury High School is a school located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It serves the towns of North Adams, Florida, Clarksburg, Monroe, Readsboro, Vermont, and Stamford, Vermont.-History:...
in North Adams, Massachusetts
North Adams, Massachusetts
North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,708 as of the 2010 census, making it the least populous city in the state...
and excelled in mathematics. In 1874, he won an appointment to the United States Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
in Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
. There, he graduated seventh (out of thirty-six) in the Class of 1878.
U.S. Navy, inventor
He was commissioned as an ensignEnsign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
in the U.S. Navy. During his ensuing naval service, he first served on the USS Richmond
USS Richmond (1860)
The USS Richmond was a wooden steam sloop in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.-Service in the Caribbean :Richmond was launched on 26 January 1860 by the Norfolk Navy Yard; sponsored by a Miss Robb. Richmond, commanded by Captain D. N. Ingraham, departed Norfolk, Virginia 13...
, then the USS Minnesota
USS Minnesota (1855)
USS Minnesota was a wooden steam frigate in the United States Navy. Launched in 1855 and commissioned eighteen months later, the ship served in east Asia for two years before being decommissioned...
. While his ship was in Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
, in 1881, Sprague invented the inverted type of dynamo
Dynamo
- Engineering :* Dynamo, a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator* Dynamo theory, a theory relating to magnetic fields of celestial bodies* Solar dynamo, the physical process that generates the Sun's magnetic field- Software :...
. After he was transferred to the USS Lancaster
USS Lancaster (1858)
The first USS Lancaster was a screw sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the American Civil War through the Spanish-American War....
, flagship of the European Squadron, he installed the first electric call-bell system on a U.S. Navy ship. Sprague took leave to attend the Paris Electrical Exhibition in 1881 and the Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
Exhibition in Sydenham
Sydenham
Sydenham is an area and electoral ward in the London Borough of Lewisham; although some streets towards Crystal Palace Park, Forest Hill and Penge are outside the ward and in the London Borough of Bromley, and some streets off Sydenham Hill are in the London Borough of Southwark. Sydenham was in...
, England in 1882, where he was on the jury of awards for gas engines, dynamo
Dynamo
- Engineering :* Dynamo, a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator* Dynamo theory, a theory relating to magnetic fields of celestial bodies* Solar dynamo, the physical process that generates the Sun's magnetic field- Software :...
s and lamps.
Joining the emerging electrical industry
In 1883, Edward H. JohnsonEdward H. Johnson
Edward Hibberd Johnson was an inventor and business associate of American inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He was involved in many of Edison's projects, and was a partner in an early organization which evolved into the General Electric Company, one of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the United...
, a business associate of Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
, persuaded Sprague to resign his naval commission to work for Edison. One of Sprague's significant contributions to the Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey was the introduction of mathematical methods. Prior to his arrival, Edison conducted many costly trial-and-error experiments. Sprague's approach was to calculate using mathematics the optimum parameters and thus save much needless tinkering. He did important work for Edison, including correcting Edison's system of mains and feeders for central station distribution. In 1884, he decided his interests in the exploitation of electricity lay elsewhere, and he left Edison to found the Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company.
By 1886, Sprague's company had introduced two important inventions: a constant-speed, non-sparking motor with fixed brushes, and a method to return power to the main supply systems of equipment driven by electric motors. His motor was the first to maintain constant speed under varying load. It was immediately popular, and was endorsed by Edison as the only practical electric motor available. His method of returning power to main supply systems was important in the development of the electric train and the electric elevator.
Richmond: inventing the trolley-pole
Trolley pole
A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" overhead wire to the control and propulsion equipment of a tram or trolley bus. The use of overhead wire in a system of current collection is reputed to be the 1880 invention of Frank J....
, invented in 1880, used a wheel to travel along the wire. In late 1887 and early 1888, using his trolley system, Sprague installed the first successful large electric street railway system, the Richmond Union Passenger Railway
Richmond Union Passenger Railway
The Richmond Union Passenger Railway, in Richmond, Virginia, was the first practical electric trolley system, and set the pattern for most subsequent electric trolley systems around the world. It is an IEEE milestone in engineering....
in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. Long a transportation obstacle, the hills of Richmond included grades of over 10%, and were an excellent proving ground for acceptance of his new technology in other cities, in contrast to the cable cars
Cable car (railway)
A cable car or cable railway is a mass transit system using rail cars that are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required...
which climbed the steepest grades of Nob Hill in San Francisco at the time.
Within a year, electric power had replaced more costly horsecar
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
s in many cities. By 1889 110 electric railways incorporating Sprague's equipment had been begun or planned on several continents. In 1890, Edison, who manufactured most of Sprague's equipment, bought him out
Buyout
A buyout, in finance, is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity of a company, or a majority share of the stock of the company is acquired. The acquiror thereby "buys out" control of the target company....
, and Sprague turned his attention to electric elevators.
Sprague's system of electric supply was a great advantage in relation to the first bipolar U-tube overhead lines, in everyday use since 1883 on Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram
Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram
Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram or Mödling and Hinterbrühl Local Railway was an electric tramway in Austria, running from Mödling to Hinterbrühl, in the southwest of Vienna. The gauge was 1000 mm...
.
Electric elevators
While electrifying the streetcars of Richmond, the increased passenger capacity and speed gave Sprague the notion that similar results could be achieved in vertical transportation: electric elevators. He saw that increasing the capacity of elevatorElevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
shaft ways would not only save passengers' time, but would also increase the earnings of tall buildings, with height limited by the total floor space taken up in the shaft ways by slow hydraulic-powered elevators.
In 1892, Sprague founded the Sprague Electric Elevator Company, and with Charles R. Pratt developed the Sprague-Pratt Electric Elevator. The company developed floor control, automatic elevators, acceleration control of car safeties and a number of freight elevators. The Spague-Pratt elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
ran faster and with larger loads than hydraulic or steam elevators, and 584 elevators had been installed worldwide. Sprague then sold his company to the Otis Elevator Company
Otis Elevator Company
The Otis Elevator Company is the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems today, principally focusing on elevators and escalators...
in 1895.
Multiple unit train controls
Sprague's experience with elevator control led him to devise a multiple unitMultiple-unit train control
Multiple-unit train control, sometimes abbreviated to multiple-unit or MU, is a method of simultaneously controlling all the traction equipment in a train from a single location, whether it is a Multiple unit comprising a number of self-powered passenger cars or a set of locomotives.A set of...
system of electric railway operation, which accelerated the development of electric traction
Railway electric traction
Railway electric traction describes the various types of locomotive and multiple units that are used on electrification systems around the world.-History:...
. In the multiple unit system, each car of the train carries electric traction motors. By means of relays energized by train-line wires, the engineer
Railroad engineer
A railroad engineer, locomotive engineer, train operator, train driver or engine driver is a person who drives a train on a railroad...
(or motorman
Motorman
A motorman is the person who operates an electrified trolley car, tram, light rail, or rapid transit train.The term refers to the person who is in charge of the motor in the same sense as a railroad engineer is in charge of the engine. The term was gender-neutral...
) commands all of the traction motors in the train to act together. For lighter trains there is no need for locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s, so every car in the train can generate revenue. Where locomotives are used, one person can control all of them.
Sprague's first multiple unit order was from the South Side Elevated Railroad
South Side Elevated Railroad
The South Side Elevated Railroad was the first elevated rapid transit line in Chicago, Illinois. The line ran from downtown Chicago to Jackson Park, with branches to Englewood, Normal Park, Kenwood, and the Union Stock Yards...
(the first of several elevated railways in locally known as the "L"
Chicago 'L'
The L is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority...
) in Chicago, Illinois. This success was quickly followed by substantial multiple-unit contracts in Brooklyn, New York and Boston, Massachusetts.
New York: Grand Central, elevators in skyscrapers
From 1896 to 1900 Sprague served on the Commission for Terminal Electrification of the New York Central RailroadNew York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
, including the Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
in New York City, where he designed a system of automatic train control to ensure compliance with trackside signals. He founded the Sprague Safety Control & Signal Corporation to develop and build this system. Along with William J. Wilgus
William J. Wilgus
William J. Wilgus was an engineer. In 1902 he was responsible for the design and construction of New York City's Grand Central Station. Wilgus coined the term "taking wealth from the air" from his idea to lease the area above the Park Avenue Tunnel in order to help finance the station...
, he designed the Wilgus-Sprague bottom contact third rail
Third rail
A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...
system used by the railroads leading into Grand Central Terminal.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Sprague served on the Naval Consulting Board. Then, in the 1920s, he devised a method for safely running two independent elevators, local and express, in a single shaft, to conserve floor space. He sold this system, along with systems for activating elevator car safety systems when acceleration or speed became too great, to the Westinghouse Company.
Heritage, awards
The effect of Sprague's developments in electric traction was to permit an expansion in the size of cities, while his development of the elevator permitted greater concentration in cities' commercial sections and increased the profitability of commercial buildings. Sprague's inventions over 100 years ago made possible modern light railLight rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
and rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
systems which still function on the same principles today.
Sprague was awarded the gold medal at the Paris Electrical Exhibition in 1889, the grand prize at the St. Louis Exhibition in 1904, the Elliott Cresson Medal
Elliott Cresson Medal
The Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848...
in 1904, the Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers
American Institute of Electrical Engineers
The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was a United States based organization of electrical engineers that existed between 1884 and 1963, when it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers .- History :The 1884 founders of the...
, now IEEE, in 1910 'For meritorious achievement in electrical science, engineering and arts as exemplified in his contributions thereto', the Franklin Medal
Franklin Medal
The Franklin Medal was a science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, PA, USA.-Laureates:*1915 - Thomas Alva Edison *1915 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes *1916 - John J...
in 1921 and the John Fritz Gold Medal (posthumously) in 1935.
"All through his life and up to his last day, Frank Sprague had a prodigious capacity for work," his son Robert wrote in 1935. "And once having made up his mind on a new invention or a new line of work, he was tireless and always striving for improvement. He had a brilliantly alert mind and was impatient of any half-way compromise. His interest in his work never ceased; only a few hours before the end, he asked to have a newly designed model of his latest invention brought to his bedside."
Frank and Harriet Sprague had two sons, Robert and Julian. Robert founded the Sprague Electric Company which became a leading manufacturer of capacitors and other electronic components. The company was later bought by Vishay in the 1990s.
After Sprague died in 1934, his widow Harriet turned over a substantial amount of material from his collection to the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
, where it remains today accessible to the public via the rare books division. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
in Arlington, Virginia, and she was interred beside him after her death in 1969.
In 1959, Harriet Sprague had donated funds for the Sprague Building at the Shore Line Trolley Museum
Shore Line Trolley Museum
The Shore Line Trolley Museum, located in East Haven, Connecticut, is the oldest operating trolley museum in the United States. It was founded to preserve the heritage of the trolley car. The museum includes exhibits on trolley history in the visitors' center and offers rides on restored trolleys...
at East Haven, Connecticut
East Haven, Connecticut
East Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 28,189. The town is just 3 minutes from downtown New Haven...
, not far from Sprague's boyhood home in Milford. The museum is the oldest operating trolley museum in the United States, and has one of the largest collections of trolley artifacts in the United States.
In 1999, two of Frank and Harriet's grandsons, John L. Sprague and Peter Sprague, cut the ribbon and started an 1884 Sprague motor at a new exhibit at the Shore Line Trolley Museum. There, a permanent exhibit, "Frank J. Sprague: Inventor, Scientist, Engineer", helps tell the story of the part electricity played in the growth of cities as well as the role of the Father of Electric Traction. Entrepreneur Peter Sprague was Chairman of National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer, that specialized in analog devices and subsystems,formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. The products of National Semiconductor included power management circuits, display drivers, audio and operational amplifiers,...
from 1965 until 1995. John Sprague was President and Chief Executive Officer of Sprague Electric Company from 1981 to 1987.
Sprague's engines were used as far afield as Sydney Harbour, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. A five-horsepower Lundell electric motor used at the Cockatoo Island
Cockatoo Island
Cockatoo Island may refer to the following places in Australia:*Cockatoo Island, New South Wales in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales...
dockyard between 1900 and 1980 is now in the collection of the National Museum of Australia
National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia was formally established by the National Museum of Australia Act 1980. The National Museum preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation....
in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
.
Further reading
- Frederick Dalzell. Engineering Invention: Frank J. Sprague and the U.S. Electrical Industry, 1880-1900. MIT PressMIT PressThe MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
, 2009. ISBN 978-0-262-04256-7 - William D. Middleton and William D. Middleton III. Frank Julian Sprague: Electrical Inventor and Engineer. Indiana University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-253-35383-2
- Harold Clarence Passer. Frank Julian Sprague, father of electric traction, 1857-1934. Harvard University Press, 1952.
- Harriet Chapman Jones Sprague. Frank J. Sprague and the Edison myth. New York, William-Frederick Press, 1947.
- Brittain, J.E. "Frank J. Sprague and the electrification of urban transportation" in Proceedings of the IEEEProceedings of the IEEEThe Proceedings of the IEEE is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers...
, Vol. 85 (7), July 1997. pp. 1183 – 1184.