Death of Lamme

"B. G. Lamme is dead. How many of our 112,000,000 know his name? He was one of the four greatest electricians in the country. Edison, Tesla, and Steinmetz were the other three. Lamme and Steinmetz are gone."

-- ARTHUR BRISBANE, Hearst Editor.

At Ohio State University the young Benjamin Lamme studied electricity but slightly. He was a prodigy in mathematics -- which explains his later power to perfect the most intricate inventions in his mind, without pencil or paper. Differential calculus and high-range multiplication were his diversions. Upon graduation, in 1888, he entered the employ of the Westinghouse Co. He began inventing then, and stopped only at his death, after having given the world 150 useful devices.

His more important achievements: the "umbrella" generators to which the waters of Niagara Falls were first harnessed; the high tension system of power transmission; the synchronous converter employed on New York City subways for converting alternating to direct current; the generating equipment for the first big railway electrification (on the N. Y., N. H. & H.); the single-phase alternating current; the single reduction-gear streetcar motor, which, although designed in 1890, is the type still used. His conception of the single-phase alternating-current railway system, now in universal use, is declared to have revolutionized the industry. The 62,500-kilowatt generator which he recently designed was larger than Steinmetz had conceded to be possible.