Robert Davidson (inventor)

Robert Davidson (inventor)

Robert Davidson (1804–1894) was a Scottish inventor who built the first known electric locomotive in 1837. He was a lifelong resident of Aberdeen, northeast Scotland, where he was a prosperous chemist and dyer, amongst other ventures. Davidson was educated at Marischal College, where he studied for one year on a scholarship - he had an education in return for being a lab assistant. He became interested in the new electrical technologies of the day. From 1837, he made small electric motors on his own principles, though William H. Taylor in the U.S. made similar motors from 1838. Both men worked independently without knowledge of the other's work.