Davidson, Robert

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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b. 18 April 1804 Aberdeen, Scotland

d. 16 November 1894 Aberdeen, Scotland

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Scottish chemist, pioneer of electric power and builder of the first electric railway locomotives.

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Davidson, son of an Aberdeen merchant, attended Marischal College, Aberdeen, between 1819 and 1822: his studies included mathematics, mechanics and chemistry. He subsequently joined his father's grocery business, which from time to time received enquiries for yeast: to meet these, Davidson began to manufacture yeast for sale and from that start built up a successful chemical manufacturing business with the emphasis on yeast and dyes. About 1837 he started to experiment first with electric batteries and then with motors. He invented a form of electromagnetic engine in which soft iron bars arranged on the periphery of a wooden cylinder, parallel to its axis, around which the cylinder could rotate, were attracted by fixed electromagnets. These were energized in turn by current controlled by a simple commutaring device. Electric current was produced by his batteries. His activities were brought to the attention of Michael Faraday and to the scientific world in general by a letter from Professor Forbes of King's College, Aberdeen. Davidson declined to patent his inventions, believing that all should be able freely to draw advantage from them, and in order to afford an opportunity for all interested parties to inspect them an exhibition was held at 36 Union Street, Aberdeen, in October 1840 to demonstrate his "apparatus actuated by electro-magnetic power". It included: a model locomotive carriage, large enough to carry two people, that ran on a railway; a turning lathe with tools for visitors to use; and a small printing machine. In the spring of 1842 he put on a similar exhibition in Edinburgh, this time including a sawmill. Davidson sought support from railway companies for further experiments and the construction of an electromagnetic locomotive; the Edinburgh exhibition successfully attracted the attention of the proprietors of the Edinburgh 585\& Glasgow Railway (E \& GR), whose line had been opened in February 1842. Davidson built a full-size locomotive incorporating his principle, apparently at the expense of the railway company. The locomotive weighed 7 tons: each of its two axles carried a cylinder upon which were fastened three iron bars, and four electromagnets were arranged in pairs on each side of the cylinders. The motors he used were reluctance motors, the power source being zinc-iron batteries. It was named Galvani and was demonstrated on the E \& GR that autumn, when it achieved a speed of 4 mph (6.4 km/h) while hauling a load of 6 tons over a distance of 1 1/2 miles (2.4 km); it was the first electric locomotive. Nevertheless, further support from the railway company was not forthcoming, although to some railway workers the locomotive seems to have appeared promising enough: they destroyed it in Luddite reaction. Davidson staged a further exhibition in London in 1843 without result and then, the cost of battery chemicals being high, ceased further experiments of this type. He survived long enough to see the electric railway become truly practicable in the 1880s.

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Bibliography

1840, letter, Mechanics Magazine, 33:53–5 (comparing his machine with that of William Hannis Taylor (2 November 1839, British patent no. 8,255)).

Further Reading

1891, Electrical World, 17:454.

J.H.R.Body, 1935, "A note on electro-magnetic engines", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 14:104 (describes Davidson's locomotive).

F.J.G.Haut, 1956, "The early history of the electric locomotive", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 27 (describes Davidson's locomotive).

A.F.Anderson, 1974, "Unusual electric machines", Electronics \& Power 14 (November) (biographical information).

—1975, "Robert Davidson. Father of the electric locomotive", Proceedings of the Meeting on the History of Electrical Engineering Institution of Electrical Engineers, 8/1–8/17 (the most comprehensive account of Davidson's work).

A.C.Davidson, 1976, "Ingenious Aberdonian", Scots Magazine (January) (details of his life).

PJGR / GW