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Elihu Thomson

Cofounder, GE HealthCare

Search every verified Elihu Thomson interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a 1932 filmed interview with E.W. Rice, Elihu Thomson discussed his early life and career in electrical engineering. He recounted immigrating from England to the United States at age 11, attending public schools in Philadelphia, and developing an early interest in electricity after reading a book on magic tricks that included electrical experiments. Thomson described building his first electrical machine from a wine bottle and shocking his father with a homemade battery, after which his father took his work seriously. Thomson also reflected on his professional contributions, including giving lectures on electricity at the Franklin Institute in 1877 and developing early arc lamps, incandescent lighting, and an alternating current transformer system. He credited the success of the Thomson-Houston system to his own technical work, his assistant, and later Charles Coffin as head of the organization. Rice noted that Thomson held between 700 and 800 patents and had received numerous honors, including the Edison Medal.

Recent appearances

  • E.W. Rice interviews Elihu Thomson - 1932

    August 05, 2013 · 📺 miSci - museum of innovation and science

    Two of the fathers of the General Electric corporation discuss electrical history in this early recording. Film made June 21, 1932 in front yard of Rice's home in Schenectady. Thomson discusses past-presidency of ASEE, 1877 arc light, 1883 non-brittle carbon brush, three-phase winding, air-blast mechanism, lightning arrestor. Elihu Thompson was the co-founder of the Thompson-Houston Electric Company. This company merged with (or, arguably, acquired) Edison General Electric in 1892, over Edison's protests. At the time, the manager of Thompson-Houston was Charles Coffin who then became the p…

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  • Elihu Thomson visits E.W. Rice at Schenectady 1932

    June 30, 2010 · 📺 Edison Tech Center

    1932 film mixed with 2010 video of the same site where Electrical Pioneer Elihu Thomson visits friend and 2nd president of General Electric E.W. Rice at his home on Lenox Road in Schenectady. Thomson begins to talk about his life, beginning with moving to Philadelphia and attending the Boys Highschool. This is just the first part of the film. The site is now called Abbe Hall and is part of Union College. It was donated in 1976 by the Parker-Rice family.

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  • Elihu Thomson Talks About Discovering an Interest in Engineering 1932

    May 21, 2010 · 📺 Edison Tech Center

    Excerpt: rare sound film interview with the great electrical engineer Elihu Thomson. E.W. Rice Jr. of GE interviews him and asks about his discovery of electricity as a boy. Elihu Thomson read a book on magician's tricks, and loved the electrical chapter. He built his first electrical experiment in a wine bottle. His father didn't care much for it until he shocked his father with a home-made battery, after that he took electricity seriously. Thomson invented the 3 phase AC generator in the 1870s at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. He had over 700 patents in his life time. That is…

    Watch on YouTube ↗

Other executives at GE HealthCare

The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →