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Elihu Thomson

Elihu Thomson, English-American engineer and inventor (died 1937)

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Born
March 29, 1853
Died
March 13, 1937
Zodiac sign
Aries
Birth year
1853

About Elihu Thomson

Elihu Thomson was an English-American engineer and inventor who was instrumental in the founding of major electrical companies in the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Houston, a former teacher and later colleague of Thomson's at Central High School, Thomson founded the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. Notable inventions created by Thomson during this period include an arc-lighting system, an automatically regulated three-coil dynamo, a magnetic lightning arrester, and a local power transformer. Thomson attended Central High School in Philadelphia and graduated in 1870.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Elihu Thomson was born

Elihu Thomson was born in 1853. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineCrimean War begins
  • Technology milestoneFirst potato chips created (Saratoga Springs, NY)
  • Notable inventionPotato chips
  • World population~1.33B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin Pierce
  • U.S. population25.0M

1853 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Elihu Thomson's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18532026
Population25.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.