Thomas Davenport
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Thomas Davenport (1802-1851) was a Vermont blacksmith.
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.
Further Reading
- Frank Wicks. "The Blacksmith's Motor. Electricity, magnetism, and motion: A self-taught Vermonter pointed the direction for lighting the world." (http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/july99/features/blacksmith/blacksmith.html) Mechanical Engineering (http://www.memagazine.org), July 1999 (http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/july99/features/feat_toc.html).
- Smalley and Davenport's shop. http://www.uvm.edu/~histpres/SD/hist.html