Heritage, Awards
The effect of Sprague's developments in electric traction was to permit an expansion in the size of cities, while his development of the elevator permitted greater concentration in cities' commercial sections and increased the profitability of commercial buildings. Sprague's inventions over 100 years ago made possible modern light rail and rapid transit systems which still function on the same principles today.
Sprague was awarded the gold medal at the Paris Electrical Exhibition in 1889, the grand prize at the St. Louis Exhibition in 1904, the Elliott Cresson Medal in 1904, the Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, now IEEE, in 1910 'For meritorious achievement in electrical science, engineering and arts as exemplified in his contributions thereto', the Franklin Medal in 1921 and the John Fritz Gold Medal (posthumously) in 1935.
"All through his life and up to his last day, Frank Sprague had a prodigious capacity for work," his son Robert wrote in 1935. "And once having made up his mind on a new invention or a new line of work, he was tireless and always striving for improvement. He had a brilliantly alert mind and was impatient of any half-way compromise. His interest in his work never ceased; only a few hours before the end, he asked to have a newly designed model of his latest invention brought to his bedside."
Frank and Harriet Sprague had two sons, Robert and Julian. Robert founded the Sprague Electric Company which became a leading manufacturer of capacitors and other electronic components. The company was later bought by Vishay in the 1990s.
After Sprague died in 1934, his widow Harriet turned over a substantial amount of material from his collection to the New York Public Library, where it remains today accessible to the public via the rare books division. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, and she was interred beside him after her death in 1969.
In 1959, Harriet Sprague had donated funds for the Sprague Building at the Shore Line Trolley Museum at East Haven, Connecticut, not far from Sprague's boyhood home in Milford. The museum is the oldest operating trolley museum in the United States, and has one of the largest collections of trolley artifacts in the United States.
In 1999, two of Frank and Harriet's grandsons, John L. Sprague and Peter Sprague, cut the ribbon and started an 1884 Sprague motor at a new exhibit at the Shore Line Trolley Museum. There, a permanent exhibit, "Frank J. Sprague: Inventor, Scientist, Engineer", helps tell the story of the part electricity played in the growth of cities as well as the role of the Father of Electric Traction. Entrepreneur Peter Sprague was Chairman of National Semiconductor from 1965 until 1995. John Sprague was President and Chief Executive Officer of Sprague Electric Company from 1981 to 1987.
Sprague's engines were used as far afield as Sydney Harbour, Australia. A five-horsepower Lundell electric motor used at the Cockatoo Island dockyard between 1900 and 1980 is now in the collection of the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
In 2012, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum adopted a stray cat, naming it after Sprague: Frank the Trolley Cat.
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