Francis Robbins Upton - Work Life

Work Life

Upton was hired by Edison in 1878 on the recommendation of the world famous "scientist-sage" Hermann von Helmholtz. Upton had just finished a year of graduate studies with Helmholtz in Germany after obtaining his M.S. from Princeton. Helmholtz had recommended Upton to Edison as a man with good theoretical skills who might be just the type of assistant Edison was seeking. Edison was largely self-educated. He was brimming over with ideas but needed someone with advanced mathematical skills who could do calculations and research the scientific literature to help solve intractable problems. Despite his inveterate suspicion of academic scientists, Edison found Upton highly engaging and quite useful. They worked together on many key inventions such as the incandescent lamp, the watt-hour meter, the parallel circuit distribution grid and the new constant voltage dynamo. Upton was of crucial importance to Edison in the design of Edison's power plant and distribution system put into service at the Pearl Street generating station in Lower Manhattan on September 4, 1882. Upton published articles in Scribner's Monthly and Scientific American. Since 1958, the Princeton University has had the Francis Upton Graduate Fellowships. In 1890, Upton patented the first electric fire alarm and detector along with a Mr. Fernando J. Dibble, an accomplishment of his which is often overlooked, stemming most probably from a typographical error that labels the device a "Portable Electric Tire-Alarm." (Google Books; U.S. Congressional Serial Set).