English electrician and physicist, born in Garvagh, a town in Ulster, Ireland, in 1850; graduated at Queen’s University of Ireland, in 1870, as bachelor of engineering. In 1882 the university senate conferred upon him the honorary degree of master in engineering. From 1870 to 1874 he lectured on physics at Clifton College; was secretary of the A section, British Association, in 1874; and in the same year became the assistant and associate of Sir William Thomson. In 1875 he read a paper on The Electric Conductivity of Glass as Dependent on Temperature, before the Royal Society of London; and another paper, conjointly with Sir William Thomson, on Capillary Surfaces of Revolution, before the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1875 he went to Japan as instructor in the Imperial College of Engineering, returning home in 1879. In 1882 he became professor of mechanical engineering and applied mathematics in the Finsbury Technical College, conjointly with Professor William E. Ayrton. He was inventor of a large number of practical electric appliances, among which are meters of various sorts, a dynamo, motors, accumulators, switches, an electric lamp, and many others. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1885; and the degree of doctor of science was conferred on him by the Royal University of Ireland. Perhaps his most valuable invention is the electric-supply meter. Besides the papers mentioned, he wrote upon The Future Development of Electrical Appliances (1881), and a number of others in partnership with Professor Ayrton.
