Robert Davidson (inventor)

Robert Davidson (* 1804 in Aberdeen, † 1894 ) was a Scottish inventor who in 1837 built the first known electric locomotive.

He spent his life in northeast Scotland, where he was a wealthy chemist and dyer, among other things, worked. Davidson studied at Marischal College, where he studied for a year with a scholarship, which he received in exchange for a job as a lab assistant. He was particularly interested in the new emerging technologies related to electricity. In 1837 he built according to his own principles small electric motors, while William H. Taylor from 1838 in the United States built similar engines. Both men worked independently on each other and without knowledge.

Davidson staged in 1840 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and later in the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly in London an exhibition of electrical machines. Among the machines were located and electrically -powered rotary printing machines. His electric rail- locomotive was tested in 1842 on the route Edinburgh - Glasgow. The first known and functional electric locomotive was built in New England, at the instance of Davidson, it was only a working model. On October 4, 1835 is already a model in Troy, New York was shown by its inventor Thomas Davenport.

Davidson was able to show the model of an electric locomotive in 1837. His model " Galvani " from 1842 was a machine with four wheels, which drew its power from a zinc - acid batteries. He thus attained a speed of four miles per hour. The vehicle was not designed for the transport of passengers or goods.

In a later report it was calculated that a zinc battery was forty times more expensive than coal-burning in an enclosed space. Subsequent experiments in the United States confirmed these numbers. Battery-powered locomotives thus would not be economical. This point was he was defeated in competition with the steam engineers. Therefore, he crashed the " Galvani " for fear of the potential competitors in his shed. An economical electric traction was developed in the 1860s, as the dynamo was invented and perfected. All of these developments has yet experienced and perceived Davidson. His reaction to the opening of the Metro City & South London 1890: The printing of business cards, on which it says: " Robert Davidson: father of the electric locomotive ".