Elihu Thomson was a British-American electrical engineer and prolific inventor, co-founder of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, which in 1892 merged with Edison General Electric to form the General Electric Company. Thomson developed key improvements to alternating current generators, transformers and electric arc welding, and his patents on AC distribution equipment made Thomson-Houston one of the two dominant electrical manufacturing firms of the late nineteenth century alongside Edisons companies. He held hundreds of patents across generation, transmission and industrial applications of electricity over a career spanning six decades. His technical and business leadership helped establish the large integrated electrical manufacturing corporation as the model that would supply the growing American power industry.
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Co-invented practical AC transformer and arc lighting systems; co-founder of the company that became General Electric.
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