Updated 31-XII-2018

Edwin Wilbur Rice, Jr.
This article was written by fellow lamp engineer and collector Edward J. Covington, and originally appeared on his own website of biographical sketches of persons involved in the lamp industry. Following his passing in February 2017, and with kind permission of his family, Ed's words have been preserved here in the hope of maintaining access to his writings for the benefit of subsequent generations.


Edwin R. Rice3

Biography
An early associate of Elihu Thomson was Edwin Wilbur Rice, Jr. He was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin on 6 May 1862. Thomson decided to take on an assistant and this event will be described in Woodbury's words4:
"Young Rice had just graduated and was eighteen years old. A bond of friendship had grown up between him and Thomson, for their minds were much alike and their interests identical. The youth had marked experimental ability; he was eager and earnest and as much a glutton for work as Thomson himself. And, like everyone else, he had fallen under the Thomson spell. His experience so perfectly demonstrates the inspiration which the Professor transmitted over and over again through the years, and upon which so many great inventions were built, that it is worth examining for a moment now.

"At Elihu Thomson's eightieth birthday dinner, Dr. Rice, now a top-ranking celebrity in the electrical industry himself, looked back tenderly, thus:

"He has been 'my professor' ever since I met him away back in the year 1876 in the Central High School. He was the youthful instructor of chemistry in his twenty-third year and I a young student of fourteen....On my side it was a case of love at first sight, and what a discovery! What a mine of knowledge, ready to be explored, as willing to give as I was to receive its richness. There was no question that I asked to which I failed to obtain a satisfactory reply, expressed in language that I could understand....He explained to me his method of grinding a glass mirror for a telescope. He also taught me how to grind lenses for microscopes and explained the mystery of the rainbow."
This meeting between Thomson and Rice resulted in a person who not only led the Thomson-Houston Company but also the General Electric Company - from 1913 to 1922. It's not surprising that in addition to being a top executive Rice also was an inventor of the first rank. Some of his U.S. patents are listed below.


Patents
  1. US 344,692 - 29 Jun 1886 - Holder for Incandescent Lamps, with Elihu Thomson
  2. US 354,233 - 14 Dec 1886 - Distributing Appliance for Electric-Lighting Systems
  3. US 396,602 - 22 Jan 1889 - Combination of Electric Generators
  4. US 400,486 - 02 Apr 1889 - Transfer System of Electric Distribution
  5. US 416,745 - 10 Dec 1889 - Shade-Holder
  6. US 421,193 - 11 Feb 1890 - Transmission of Power by Electricity
  7. US 426,471 - 29 Apr 1890 - Brush and Holder for Electrical Machines
  8. US 428,633 - 27 May 1890 - Method of Measuring Electric Currents
  9. US 430,320 - 17 Jun 1890 - Method of Synchronizing Alternate-Current Machines
  10. US 440,654 - 18 Nov 1890 - Lightning-Arrester
  11. US 442,668 - 16 Dec 1890 - Regulation of Electric Motors
  12. US 448,260 - 17 Mar 1891 - Motor-Suspension for Railway Work
  13. US 451,520 - 05 May 1891 - Electric Meter
  14. US 455,454 - 07 Jul 1891 - Electric Railway /Thomson-Houston
  15. US 455,887 - 14 Jul 1891 - Armature for Dynamo-Electric Machines / Thomson-Houston
  16. US 460,364 - 29 Sep 1891 - System of Electrical Distribution / Thomson-Houston
  17. US 462,452 - 03 Nov 1891 - Electric Fuse Cut-Out / Thomson-Houston
  18. US 465,292 - 15 Dec 1891 - Electric-Motor Switch / Thomson-Houston
  19. US 466,802 - 12 Jan 1892 - Electric Switch / Thomson-Houston
  20. US 467,358 - 19 Jan 1892 - Regulator for Electric Generators / Thomson-Houston
  21. US 485,658 - 08 Nov 1892 - Electric Transmission of Power / Thomson-Houston
  22. US 508,638 - 14 Nov 1893 - Means for Regulating Multiphase Currents / Thomson-Houston
  23. US 508,838 - 14 Nov 1893 - Electric Distribution / General Electric (GE)
  24. US 508,839 - 14 Nov 1893 - System of Electric Distribution / GE
  25. US 510,487 - 12 Dec 1893 - System of Electric Distribution / GE
  26. US 516,835 - 20 Mar 1894 - System of Electric Distribution / GE
  27. US 516,837 - 20 Mar 1894 - Armature for Dynamo-Electric Machines / GE
  28. US 521,671 - 19 Jun 1894 - Armature for Dynamo-Electric Machines / GE
  29. US 523,779 - 31 Jul 1894 - Alternating-Current Generator / GE
  30. US 526,743 - 02 Oct 1894 - Dynamo-Electric Machine / GE
  31. US 537,549 - 16 Apr 1895 - System of Electric Distribution / GE
  32. US 539,446 - 21 May 1895 - System of Electrical Distribution / GE
  33. US 546,190 - 10 Sep 1895 - Regulator for Alternating-Current Dynamos / Thomson-Houston
  34. US 556,865 - 24 Mar 1896 - Alternating-Current System / GE
  35. US 556,866 - 24 Mar 1896 - Electric Elevator / GE
  36. US 567,197 - 08 Sep 1896 - Constant-Potential Alternating Generator / GE
  37. US 583,944 - 08 Jun 1897 - Rotary Converter / GE
  38. US 584,482 - 15 Jun 1897 - System of Distribution / GE
  39. US 595,413 - 14 Dec 1897 - Braking Alternating-Current Induction-Motors / GE
  40. US 608,301 - 02 Aug 1898 - System of Train Control / GE
  41. US 620,965 - 14 Mar 1899 - Alternating-Current Motor, with C. P. Steinmetz / GE
  42. US 625,806 - 30 May 1899 - Operating Dynamo-Electric Machines / GE
  43. US 645,671 - 20 Mar 1900 - Electric Meter / GE
  44. US 659,828 - 16 Oct 1900 - System of Electrical Distribution / GE
  45. US RE11,916 - 25 Jun 1901 - Electric Arc Lamp / GE
  46. US 677,375 - 02 Jul 1901 - System of Electrical Distribution / GE
  47. US 678,905 - 23 Jul 1901 - Controlling High-Potential Circuits / GE
  48. US 679,006 - 23 Jul 1901 - System of Electrical Distribution / GE
  49. US 706,598 - 12 Aug 1902 - Rotary Transforming Apparatus / GE
  50. US 717,507 - 30 Dec 1902 - Exciting-Alternator / GE
  51. US 727,690 - 12 May 1903 - Electric Arc-Lamp / GE
  52. US 728,299 - 19 May 1903 - System of Electrical Distribution / GE
  53. US 728,300 - 19 May 1903 - Electric Regulator / GE
  54. US 732,654 - 30 Jun 1903 - Means for Maintaining Synchronous Rotation of Dynamo-Electric Machines, with Ernst J. Berg / GE
  55. US 769,637 - 06 Sep 1904 - Electric Lamp / GE
  56. US 812,880 - 20 Feb 1906 - Switch or Circuit Breaker for High Potential Circuits / GE
  57. US 905,459 - 01 Dec 1908 - Flat-Iron Stove / GE
  58. US 1,476,418 - 04 Dec 1923 - Control System for Aeroplane Superchargers / GE


References & Bibliography
  1. "The Story of Electricity", T. Commerford Martin & Stephen Leidy Coles, The Story of Electricity Company, New York, New York, 1919, p.607.
  2. "Obituary, Edwin Wilbur Rice, Jr.", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Vol.79, 1936, pp.697-698
  3. "Men and Volts - The Story of General Electric", John Winthrop Hammond, J. B. Lippincott Company, New York, 1941.
  4. "Beloved Scientist, Elihu Thomson - A Guiding Spirit of the Electrical Age", David O. Woodbury, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1944.
  5. "Edwin Wilbur Rice, Jr.", Who Was Who in America, Vol 1 (1897-1942), p.1026. 6)
  6. "The General Electric Story 1876-1986", A Hall of History Publication, Schenectady, New York, 1981.