"William Hochhausen, a New Yorker, developed a system which was introduced in 1883 by Henry Edmunds, an enterprising English capitalist who was largely interested in electrical development and who financed and introduced in England the Wallace-Farmer and Brush systems as well as the Swan incandescent lamp. He is still constantly engaged in experiment and invention, and may be confidently depended upon to add frequently to the long list of useful appliances that bear his name and are of use in the practical applications of electricity."Ī brief write-up about Hochhausen appeared in The Story of Electricity 3: Hochhausen has, moreover, developed an incandescent lighting system, a variety of ingenious apparatus for regulation and measurement, and a series of excellent motors for the constant current and constant potential circuits. Since that time the system, which was illustrated in our columns as far back as the beginning of 1884, has been steadily improved, and its merit is shown by the fact that it ranks among the leading survivors of a period of intense and perhaps unparalleled industrial and technical competition. This was an interesting period of his career, and was marked by various changes in his commercial relationships, until in 1881, the merits of his work in the new field of electric lighting being recognized by capitalists, the Excelsior Electric Company was organized to manufacture under his patents and to place his apparatus for lighting, plating, etc., upon the market. Hochhausen found himself busy building dynamos for plating and deposition, and then for arc lighting. Alfred Holcomb, and from this point of departure plunged deeply into the mysteries and difficulties of dynamo construction as then practiced. Hochhausen, who had followed closely the evolution of magneto and dynamo electric machines, built his first dynamo to the order of Mr. When the American District Telegraph system came into vogue he built all the necessary plant for it. Hochhausen went into business on his own account, making a specialty of telegraph apparatus and experimental work, doing a large amount of construction for the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company. Chester, pioneers in the installation of fire alarm systems in this city and makers also of telegraph instruments. Hochhausen was not long in forming a connection with the old and noted house of Charles T. But California in those days offered little inducement to an electrician, and so at last, in 1867, he made his way to New York, via the Central American route. Then he made a remove to the Sandwich Islands, and from that remote place he sailed to California, where he spent some eight months. Arrived in the Antipodes, he devoted himself for two and a half years to engineering. He set out accordingly on a trip around the globe, leaving Hamburg for Australia. Hochhausen felt himself cramped in his opportunities, and like many another Teuton longed to see something of the world beyond the borders of the fatherland, or even of Europe. Hochhausen joined the Vienna branch of the house and also worked for other firms, chiefly in the manufacture of instruments of precision and all kinds of electrical apparatus. At the age of 18 he went to Berlin and entered the employ of Siemens & Halske, a firm still in prosperous existence, and one in whose service many able electricians have learned the electrical arts. Here the young Hochhausen showed a strong bent for physics and mechanics, and spent some time under the tuition of the University mechanician. He was born in Jena, Germany, so celebrated for the great battle fought there by Napoleon and was educated at the well-known University of Jena, with which are associated the famous names of Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Voss, Schlegel and others. William Hochhausen, whose face we have the pleasure of presenting on this page in our series of Electrical World Portraits, is a German by birth, and thus belongs to one of the strongest and best elements that go to the making of the new American nation. The one copied verbatim below is from The Electrical World 1. There are at least two biographical sketches of William Hochhausen that were written about 1889-1890 1,2.
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