John Kruesi
John Kruesi (1843-1898)
1899 Obituary [1]
JOHN KRUESI, who died at Schenectady, on the 22nd of February, 1899, after an illness of four or five days, was born in 1843 at Speicher in Switzerland.
Beginning his mechanical experience in machine shops in his own country, he proceeded to Paris at the age of twenty-four, and to London three years later, whence, after a short stay, he continued his journey to America. He at once found employment at Elizabeth, New Jersey, with the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and in 1874 was engaged by Mr. Edison, with whom he remained until 1881.
His indomitable energy, combined with his mechanical skill and readiness of resource, and with the absolute honesty of his character, led to his rapid preferment, and in the year last named he became general manager of the Electrical Tube Company, which was concerned with the installation of street electric light conduits ; two years later he was appointed assistant general manager of the Edison Machine Works in New York, and both designed and erected the new works at Schenectady.
In 1892, when the Edison and Thomson-Houston Companies united under the name of the General Electric Company, he became general manager, and, in 1896, chief mechanical engineer of the company.
He was elected a Foreign Member of this Institution on the 23rd of May, 1895.