Emily Davenport

Emily Goss Davenport Weeks (April 29, 1810 – October 5, 1862) was an American inventor from Vermont. Together with her husband Thomas Davenport, they invented an electric motor and electric locomotive around 1834.[1][2][3]

Emily Goss Davenport
A black and white photo of the head and shoulders of inventor Emily Davenport
Born
Emily Goss

(1810-04-29)April 29, 1810
Brandon, Vermont
DiedOctober 5, 1862(1862-10-05) (aged 52)
Brandon, Vermont
CitizenshipAmerican
Known forinventing the electric motor
Spouse(s)Thomas Davenport
John Mosely Weeks
Children2

Davenport kept detailed notes and actively contributed to the process of the inventions.[3] Needing to insulate the motor's iron core, Davenport cut her wedding dress into strips of silk to insulate the wire windings.[4] She is also credited with the idea of using mercury as a conductor, enabling the motor to function for the first time.[4] With her husband Thomas, and colleague Orange Smalley, she received the first American patent on an electric machine in 1837, U. S. Patent No. 132.[5] This electric motor was used in 1840 to print The Electro-Magnet, and Mechanics Intelligencer - the first newspaper printed using electricity.

She was born Emily Goss in Brandon Vermont, one of five children born to Rufus Goss a local merchant and Anna Green.[6] She and Thomas Davenport lived in Salisbury, Vermont and had two children, George Daniel Davenport and Willard Goss Davenport. Thomas Davenport died in 1851 and Emily moved to Middlebury.[7] On January 6, 1856 she married John Mosely Weeks in Salisbury, the inventor of the Vermont beehive.[7] She died in 1862 and is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Brandon, Vermont.[2]

Further reading
  • Wicks, Frank (July 1999). "The Blacksmith's Motor". Mechanical Engineering. American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 121 (7): 66–69. doi:10.1115/1.1999-JUL-8. Archived from the original on 2007-02-05.

References
  1. "Vermont Births and Christenings, 1765-1908". FamilySearch. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  2. "Vermont Vital Records, 1760-1954". FamilySearch. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  3. Lin, Patricia. "Women Inventors: Davenport". Archived from the original on April 27, 2009.
  4. Vare, Ethlie Ann; Ptacek, Greg (2002). Patently Female: From AZT to TV Dinners, Stories of Women Inventors and Their Breakthrough Ideas. New York: John Wiley & Sons, inc. p. 28. ISBN 0-471-02334-5.
  5. "Improvement in propelling machinery by magnetism and electro-magnetism". Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  6. Wicks, Frank. "Electrical Pioneer". Thomas Davenport. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
  7. Weeks, John Moseley (2022-01-14). "History of Salisbury, Vermont". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
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