Samuel Laws

Samuel Laws

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Spahr Laws (March 23, 1824- January 9, 1921) was an American minister, professor, physician, college president, businessman and inventor best known today as the inventor of the Laws Gold Indicator, a predecessor of the ticker tape machine.

[
thumb|right|150px|Laws_as_President_of_the_University of Missouri] He was an 1848 graduate and class valedictorian of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio during the period history when an impressive roster of men emerged from that small college in Ohio to accomplish great feats for society. He was a member of the Alpha chapter of Beta Theta Pi, founded only 9 years before his graduation in 1839. In 1863, Laws, manager of New York City's Gold Exchange and an amateur electrician, invented the gold indicator to put an end to the crush of messenger boys scurrying into the Exchange and back out to their clients with the latest gold price in hand. As the price of gold changed, an electrical signal sent from the trading floor would cause a hand on the device--a clocklike dial rimmed with numerals--to move until it pointed to the latest trading price.

Laws initially placed a gold indicator in a window at the Exchange, but he soon began installing them, through his newly founded Reporting Telegraph Co., in brokerage firms throughout Manhattan and pushing the latest prices of gold over the telegraph wires. Thus, as early as 1866, brokerage houses willing to pay the monthly fee could base trades on up-to-the-minute market information rather than waiting for runners to bring the news. In June 1869, Laws hired a penniless would-be inventor named Thomas A. Edison as mechanical supervisor.

Laws was also a Presbyterian clergyman, and served as president of Westminster College, Missouri (1854-61) and the University of Missouri (1876-89). In addition to Miami, he had earned degrees in religion from the Princeton Theological Seminary, in law from Columbia University and medicine from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College.

Miami University named the building that houses most of the Richard T. Farmer School of Business after Laws, and at the University of Missouri, residential building Laws Hall and Laws Observatory were also named in honor of Laws.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Laws Observatory — Infobox Observatory name = Laws Observatory background = caption = organization = University of Missouri location = 5th Floor, Physics Building, Columbia, Missouri, United States coords = altitude = weather = established = 1853 closed = website …   Wikipedia

  • Samuel Francis — Samuel Todd Francis (April 29, 1947 ndash;February 15, 2005) was an anti capitalist [Francis, Samuel. Capitalism the Enemy. Chronicles August 2000.] paleoconservative columnist, nationally syndicated in America, known for his racialist views;… …   Wikipedia

  • Samuel Thomson — (born 1769 02 09, died 1843 10 05 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American herbalist and the founder of the Thomsonian System of medicine. As naturopathic physician and author Stan Malstrom has stated. Samuel Thomson has probably contributed… …   Wikipedia

  • Samuel Holdheim — (1806 ndash; 22 August 1860) was a German rabbi and author, and one of the more extreme leaders of the early Reform Judaism movement. Although Holdheim was a pioneer in modern Jewish homiletics, he was often at odds with the Orthodoxy. [(History… …   Wikipedia

  • Samuel Hoar — (May 18, 1778 November 2, 1856) was a United States lawyer and politician. A member of a prominent political family in Massachusetts, he was a leading 19th century lawyer of that state. He was associated with the Federalist Party until its… …   Wikipedia

  • Samuel of Nehardea — or Samuel bar Abba (Hebrew: שמואל) was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora of the first generation; son of Abba bar Abba and head of the Yeshiva at Nehardea. He was a teacher of halakha, judge, physician, and astronomer.… …   Wikipedia

  • Samuel Untermyer — (March 6,1858 March 16, 1940), also known as Samuel Untermeyer [ [http://motlc.learningcenter.wiesenthal.org/text/x33/xm3340.html Simon Wiesenthal Center on Samuel Untermeyer (sic!)] ] was a Jewish American lawyer and civic leader as well as a… …   Wikipedia

  • SAMUEL BEN KALONYMUS HE-ḤASID (The Pious) OF SPEYER — SAMUEL BEN KALONYMUS HE ḤASID ( The Pious ) OF SPEYER (12th century), one of the first leaders of the …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Samuel Aba of Hungary — Samuel Aba (Hungarian: Aba Sámuel ) [In contemporary foreign sources he was called King Aba , on his coins he was mentioned as King Samuel .] (? ndash; after 5 July 1044), King of Hungary (1041 1044), Palatine of Hungary (c. 1009 c. 1038).King of …   Wikipedia

  • Samuel Untermeyer — Samuel Untermyer (auch Samuel Untermeyer; * 6. März 1858 in Lynchburg (Virginia); † 16. März 1940 in Palm Springs (Kalifornien)) war ein US amerikanischer Rechtsanwalt, Demokrat und Selfmade Millionär. In den 1930er Jahren war er einer der… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”