Edward Weston (chemist)
An English-born American inventor whose precise standard cell tamed the wild currents of electricity, powering the rise of modern measurement.
1850–1936 (age 86)·American chemist·Birthday: May 9
Biography
Edward Weston crossed the Atlantic with a chemist's mind and a tinkerer's hands, arriving in a America crackling with electrical ambition. He quickly made his mark not in generating power, but in mastering its measurement. After early work in electroplating, where he developed improved processes, he turned his focus to the fundamental problem of inconsistent electrical current. In the hotly competitive 'War of the Currents,' his contributions were foundational rather than flashy. His crowning achievement was the Weston cell, a battery so stable and reliable it became the international standard for the volt for most of the 20th century. This unassuming device in laboratories worldwide ensured that a volt in New York was exactly the same as a volt in Berlin, providing the essential bedrock for precision electrical engineering and instrumentation.
#1 When Edward Was Born
The biggest hits of 1850
Edward's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1850Born
1855Started school
1863Became a teenager
President: Abraham Lincoln
1866Could drive
President: Andrew Johnson
1868Could vote
President: Andrew Johnson
1871Turned 21
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1880Turned 30
Edison patents the incandescent light bulb
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1890Turned 40
Wounded Knee massacre marks the end of the Indian Wars
President: Benjamin Harrison
1900Turned 50
Boxer Rebellion in China
President: William McKinley
1910Turned 60
Halley's Comet makes its closest approach
President: William Howard Taft
1920Turned 70
Women gain the right to vote in the US
Home: $3,395President: Woodrow Wilson"Swanee" — Al Jolson
1930Turned 80
Pluto discovered
Gas: $0.20/galHome: $3,510President: Herbert Hoover"Body and Soul" — Paul WhitemanBest Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front
1936Died at 86
Jesse Owens wins four golds at the Berlin Olympics
Gas: $0.19/galPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"The Way You Look Tonight" — Fred AstaireBest Picture: The Great Ziegfeld
Key Achievements
- Invented the Weston standard cell in 1893, which provided a stable voltage reference and was adopted as the international standard.
- Founded the Weston Electrical Instrument Company, a major manufacturer of precision meters and instruments.
- Developed key improvements in electroplating, including processes for plating with nickel and cobalt.
- Held over 300 US patents in fields ranging from electrical instruments to dynamos.
Did You Know?
He was a fierce competitor of Thomas Edison and a proponent of direct current (DC) systems.
Weston's company manufactured the electrical meters used to bill customers for the first widespread use of alternating current (AC) from Niagara Falls.
He was a founding member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, which later became the IEEE.
Despite his work on standards, he was involved in numerous patent lawsuits throughout his career.
“A true standard must be unchangeable, a fixed point in a variable world.”
