History of Euclid, (Cuyahoga County) Ohio United States of America

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Charles Francis Brush, electrical engineer, was born at Euclid, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, March 17, 1849. His ancestors came from England in 1630 and 1656. His early years were spent at work on his father's farm. While quite young he devised experiments at home and at school that indicated his special taste for chemistry, physics, and engineering. At the age of thirteen he entered the Shaw academy at Collamer, Ohio, where he made his first experiments with static electrical machines, electro-magnets, and batteries, all of his own construction. Early in 1864 he entered the Cleveland high school, where he became much interested in the subject of microscopes and telescopes. He constructed every part of these instruments, even to grinding the lenses. In the same year he devised a plan for lighting and turning off gas on street lamps by electricity. He also constructed a number of induction coils, and did some very creditable dry-plate photographic work, a process then almost unknown. During his high school course he passed a rigid examination in physics, and during his senior year, the physical and chemical apparatus belonging to the school was placed in his charge. At this early time he constructed an electric motor, having its field magnets as well as its armature excited by the battery current. He also produced his first electric arc light, with a lamp and battery of his own construction. The subject of his graduating oration was "The Conservation of Force." Having graduated from the Cleveland high school in June, 1867, Mr. Brush, in September, entered the University of Michigan, where he took a course of study particularly suited to his tastes, and was graduated in 1869, being one year in advance of his class. Returning to Cleveland he organized a laboratory and conducted the business of an analytical and consulting chemist for about three years. During this period he was employed as expert in several important litigations involving questions of chemistry. In the spring of 1873 he engaged in business with C. E. Bingham, dealing in Lake Superior and other pig-irons and iron-ores, and continued his electrical investigations, and early in 1876 completed his first dynamo-electric machine, After 1877 Mr. Brush devoted his entire attention to electrical inventions and constructed a commercial arc lamp, which was followed by his series arc-lamp. He also invented and patented copper-plate carbons, automatic cut-outs; a compound series-shunt winding for dynamo-electric machines, and a multiple carbon arc-lamp. He sold these patents to a London company in 1880 for nearly $500,000. He established the Brush Electric Company at Cleveland, Ohio; became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the British association of that name. He received the degree Ph. D. from Western Reserve university in 1880, and LL.D. in 1900, and was decorated a chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1881.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Euclid, (Cuyahoga County) Ohio

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