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WILLIAM
LEROY EMMET
1859-1941
William LeRoy Emmet, consulting
engineer of the General Electric Company, devoted years to the study of
electric ship propulsion and was recognized as a pioneer in this line
of work.
As early as 1909 he pointed out that electric ship propulsion was
feasible, economical,
and practical. He also gained fame with his development of the steam
turbine
and the Emmet mercury vapor process of power generation. A total of 122
patents
were issued to him.
Mr. Emmet was born
at Pelham, New York,
July 10,1859. He was educated at schools in Canada
and New York, and subsequently
entered the United States
Naval Academy in 1881. After graduation from Annapolis and a brief
career as a naval officer, William Emmet left the Navy and became a $7
per week
laborer on the night shift of the United States Illuminating Company.
Applying a
knowledge of electricity learned in college "to some problems that
cropped
up at the factory,” he gained the self-confidence that he had up to
that point
lacked.
Mr. Emmet continued his assocaition with
electrical work in 1887 when he entered the employ of the Sprague
Electric
Railway and Motor Company. He later went with the Buffalo Railway
Company as
electrical engineer, and soon afterwards accepted a position with the
Edison
General Electric Company in the Chicago District. He came to Schenectady in
1892 when the
Thomson-Houston-Company joined with the Edison General Electric Company
to form
the General Electric Company.
In 1901 he
took up the study of the Curtis steam turbine. He began experimenting
upon
arrangements different from those which Mr. Curtis had tried and, in a
very
short time, developed a large and successful industry which far
outstripped all
other turbine activities in the electrical field.
The next large
campaign to which Mr. Emmet devoted his energies was the development
of
electrical propulsion in ships. Through his efforts the electric drive
for
large warships was adopted by the Navy, the first of these being
installed in
the "New Mexico."
it was in the midst of his ship
activities that Mr. Emmet began work on the development of a process
embodying
the vaporizing of mercury instead of water in turbines for the
generation of
power. The vaporized mercury, after driving one turbine, is condensed,
and in
cooling it water is converted into steam to drive a second turbine from
the one
firebox. First plants of this type were installed at Hartford, Connecticut,
Schenectady, New York, Kearney,
New Jersey, Lynn
and Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Prior to his
achievements in the steam turbine field~ he attained prominence through
his
work in developing the general use of alternating current, and a number
of
inventions which since have come into universal use stand to his
credit. Among
his more important electrical inventions are the oil switch and
varnished
cambric cable. He also invented several types of transformers, several
different forms of insulation for alternators, and many devices that
are
employed in connection with the Curtis steam turbine. His most
brilliant
accomplishments, however, were more in the nature of an institutor of
new methods
and ideas than as an inventor, and a great deal of his most useful work
could
not be patented nor even classified as invention. His qualifications,
specially
fitted him for finding new scope for the talent and facilities of the
Company's
organization.
Mr. Emmet was
the author of The Autobiography of an Engineer. Alternating Current
Wiring
and Distribution, and of numerous important papers presented
before the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers and other engineering
societies. He
was a member of the American Philosophical Society, American Institute
of
Electrical Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Society
of
Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and of the wartime Naval
Consulting
Board of the United States. He received the honorary degree of D.Sc.
from Union College
in 1910, and later the same degree from Trinity College.
He was awarded the Gold Medal for vertical shaft turbines at the St. Louis Exposition, the Gold Medal for electric
ship
propulsion at the San
Francisco
Exposition, and the Elliott Cresson Medal in 1920.
William
Emmet died September 26, 1941, at the age of eighty-two.
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