Elihu Thomson was an English-born American engineer and inventor who was instrumental in the founding of major electrical companies in the United States, the United Kingdom and France
English-American engineer and inventor whose discoveries in the field of alternating current phenomena led to the development of successful alternating current motors. Thomson invented electric welding and other important inventions in electric lighting and power among his lifetime total of about 700 patents. Thomson was also a cofounder of the General Electric Company (in 1892, in a merger with the Edison Company) industry.
Thomson left England for Philadelphia as a child and later taught chemistry and mechanics at the Central High School there. With a fellow teacher, Edwin J. Houston, he designed an arc lighting system and in 1880 established the American Electric Company in New Britain, Conn. In 1882 the group sold it to Lynn, Mass which in 1883 was renamed the Thomson–Houston Electric Company, and remained there as a consultant to the General Electric Company, which was formed in 1892 by the merger of Thomson–Houston with the Edison General Electric Company.
Thomson invented the high-frequency generator (1890), the high-frequency transformer, the three-coil generator, electric welding by the incandescent method, and the watt-hour meter. Thomson also did important work in radiology, improving X-ray tubes and pioneering in making stereoscopic X-ray pictures. He held some 700 patents and received many awards.