Thomas Davenport

Thomas Davenport (9 July 1802 – 6 July 1851) was a Vermont blacksmith who lived in Forest Dale, a village near the town of Brandon.

With his wife (Emily Davenport), and a colleague (Orange Smalley), he invented the electric motor and electric locomotive, circa 1834. Thomas Davenport received the first patent on an electric machine in 1837, U. S. Patent No. 132.

Further reading

*Detailed biographical sketch. [http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/davenport.html Thomas Davenport]
*Frank Wicks. [http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/membersonly/july99/features/blacksmith/blacksmith.html "The Blacksmith's Motor. Electricity, magnetism, and motion: A self-taught Vermonter pointed the direction for lighting the world."] [http://www.memagazine.org Mechanical Engineering] , [http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/july99/features/feat_toc.html July 1999] .

*Patent 132. [http://www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2002/feb25b.htm http://www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2002/feb25b.htm]

*Smalley and Davenport's shop. [http://www.uvm.edu/~histpres/SD/hist.html http://www.uvm.edu/~histpres/SD/hist.html]