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William Sturgeon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Sturgeon (May 22, 1783 - December 4, 1850) was an English physicist and inventor who made the first electromagnets, and invented the first electric motor.
Sturgeon was born in Whittington, Lancashire and apprenticed to a shoemaker. He joined the army in 1802 and taught himself mathematics and physics. In 1824 he became lecturer in science at the Royal Military College at Addiscombe in Surrey and in the following year he exhibited his first electromagnet. In 1828 he put into practice Ampere's idea of a solenoid.
In 1832 he was appointed to the lecturing staff of the Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science in London, where he first demonstrated the DC electric motor incorporating a commutator. In 1836 he established the journal Annals of Electricity, and in the same year he invented a galvanometer.
In 1840 he became superintendent of the Royal Victoria Gallery of Practical Science in Manchester. The Gallery closed in 1842, and he earned a living by lecturing and demonstrating. He died in Prestwich in 1850.