Thomas Davenport
Thomas Davenport c. 1850
Born	July 9, 1802(1802-07-09) Williamstown, Vermont
Died	July 6, 1851 (aged 48) Salisbury, Vermont 1
Occupation	blacksmith
Known for	inventing the electric motor

Thomas Davenport (9 July 1802 – 6 July 1851) was a Vermont blacksmith who invented the first D.C. electrical motor in 1834.²

He lived in Forest Dale, a village near the town of Brandon.

With the help of his wife (Emily Davenport), and a colleague Orange Smalley, Davenport received the first patent on an electric machine in 1837, U. S. Patent No. 132.

Further reading

• Detailed biographical sketch. Thomas Davenport
• Frank Wicks. "The Blacksmith's Motor. Electricity, magnetism, and motion: A self-taught Vermonter pointed the direction for lighting the world."   Mechanical Engineering, July 1999.

• Patent 132. http://www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2002/feb25b.htm

• Smalley and Davenport's shop. http://www.uvm.edu/~histpres/SD/hist.html

References

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