Jorge Newbery - Biography

Biography

Son of the American dentist Ralph Newbery and the Argentinian, Jorge was born in the family home on Florida Street, Buenos Aires. At the age of eight he visited the United States alone. Later, back in Argentina, he studied in the Scottish school in Olivos, graduating from secondary school in 1890. He travelled to the United States to study engineering at Cornell University. In 1893 he continued his studies at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, where he was a student of Thomas Edison, and in 1895 received the title of electrical engineer.

On returning to his home country he began working as the head of the “Rio de la Plata Light and Traction Company”. In 1897 he joined the Argentine Navy as electrical engineer during the border conflicts with Chile. He worked as a swimming teacher at the Naval School, and in 1899 he was sent to London to acquire electrical matericals. His naval career lasted until 1900, when he was named Director General of Electrical, Mechanical and Lighting Installations of the Municipality of Buenos Aires City, a public role which he would hold until his death.

In 1904 he became Professor of Electrical Engineering at the National Industrial School (later the Otto Krause Technical School), which was founded and directed by the engineer Otto Krause in 1893. In the same year he travelled to the United States once more to attend the International Electricity Congress which took place in the city of Saint Louis, where he was vice president of the section on “Power and Light Transmission” and at which he presented an eighty-page work entitled “General considerations on the transfer of lighting services to municipal ownership”, which would be included in the Annals of the Argentine Scientific Society.