Henri Tudor

Henri Owen Tudor ( born September 30, 1859 at the Diesburgerhof Ferschweiler, † May 31 1928 in Rosport ) was a Luxembourgian engineer and inventor of the first practical lead-acid battery.

Henry Tudor, son of Englishman John Thomas Tudor and Luxemburgian Marie Loser, graduated from high school in the Belgian Chimay and studied from 1879 to 1883 in Brussels at the Ecole Polytechnique engineering. Already during his studies he became interested in electrical engineering, in particular in connection with electric light and power and therefore did research in the field of electric accumulators. Tudor said to have been in contact with Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb: This invention has encouraged him to use a rechargeable battery to store the electrical energy during hours with low consumption, in order to then distribute during peak hours. 1882, while still a student, he managed to build a DC power system. The products developed by him accumulators that were powered by a dynamo, which was operated by the water mill Rosport, went 16 years without a break. The Castle of the Tudors was also one of the first buildings in Europe, the electric around the clock light was available. 1886 Tudor had his invention patented in Luxembourg and 1887 in France.

1884 Henri Tudor developed the "energy -car " (energy - cart ), a mobile power station for agriculture ( for threshing, sawing and lighting ), which was powered by a rechargeable battery. In 1886 he established a central facility in Echternach, to supply the entire city with electric light. In Rosport he built, along with his cousin Nicholas Schalkenbach, a factory to produce the batteries can.

Although he temporarily employed 30 workers, the production will soon no longer came to; the costs ( import duties on lead, export duties on the finished plants) have very complicated his business. Therefore he opened Tudor factories in Belgium ( Florival ) and in France, then in other European countries, including Germany and the UK. 1890 was more than 1200 Tudor batteries all over the world in action. At times, 25,000 people worked in factories Tudor.

1928 Henri Tudor died from the effects of lead poisoning, which he had contracted in his research. 1987, a public research in Luxembourg was named after Henri Tudor.

To commemorate the pioneer of electricity a museum in the restored parish seat was (upper castle in Rosport ), built by Henri Tudor O. opened in 2009.