John Dixon Gibbs

John Dixon Gibbs was a British engineer and financier who, together with the French engineer Lucien Gaulard, is often credited as co-inventor of the AC step down transformer. Their device was first demonstrated in 1883 at London's Royal Aquarium, at a time before the word transformer existed, so it was called a secondary generator instead. Although he is usually credited equally with Gaulard, Gibbs's role in the invention was more that of a financial backer and businessman, and he was one of the initial subscribers to the National Company for Distribution of Electricity by Secondary Generators, registered in 1883. Their transformer design was purchased for its American rights by George Westinghouse in 1885, and after a patent dispute with Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, Gibbs and Gaulard ultimately lost the case on appeal to the House of Lords, a defeat that left Gibbs financially ruined.