Edwin W. Rice

Electrical engineer, Academic

1862 – 1935

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Who was Edwin W. Rice?

Edwin Wilbur Rice, Jr. was a president and considered one of the three fathers of General Electric.

He attended the Boys' Central High School in Philadelphia and was a student of Elihu Thomson. Rice graduated in 1880 and considered going to Yale but decided to join Thomson in New Britain, Connecticut, at the American Electric Company as Thomson's assistant at $30 a month.

In 1883 he continued with Thomson, and moved from New Britain to Lynn, Massachusetts to work for the newly formed Thomson-Houston Electric Company. There he worked on converting Thomson's inventions into manufactured products. In 1885 he became the factory superindent when John Meech moved to Europe to head up Thomson-Houston International. Under Rice the Lynn factory grew from almost nothing in 1883 to an enterprise with $10 million in sales and 4,000 employees in 1892. Primary products included arc light systems, electrical generators, dynamos, meters, transformers, and electric motors. By 1892 the primary products were electric trolley car systems and the company had built over 2700 electric trolley cars and 870 electric generator stations. The entire factory reported to Rice and in 1890 supervisors who reported to him included D.M Barton - Production Manager, I.F.Baker - Mechanical Superintendent, G.E.Emmons - Factory Auditor, W.H.Knight - Chef Electrical Engineer, and A.I.Rohrer - Chef Assistant.

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Born
May 6, 1862
Also known as
  • Elwin Rice
Profession
Lived in
  • Wisconsin
Died
Nov 25, 1935

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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