Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and
manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 167,719 pages of
information and 247,131 images on early companies, their products and the
people who designed and built them.
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and
manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of
information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the
people who designed and built them.
Credited with inventing the oil-immersed circuit breaker, in 1892 <ref>[http://manweb-remembered.co.uk/elecsupplychronology1977.pdf] Electricity Supply in Great Britain - A Chronology-From the beginnings of the industry to 31 December 1976 by The Electricity Council, second edition, 1977, p.9</ref>
Credited with inventing the oil-immersed circuit breaker, in 1892 <ref>[http://manweb-remembered.co.uk/elecsupplychronology1977.pdf] Electricity Supply in Great Britain - A Chronology-From the beginnings of the industry to 31 December 1976 by The Electricity Council, second edition, 1977, p.9</ref>
Surrey, following a short illness, of Gerald William
Partridge, who was associated with the [[London Electric Supply Corporation|London Electric Supply Corporation, Ltd.]] for over half a
century, rising from assistant engineer to engineer-in-chief, and managing director of the Corporation.
A pioneer of the electric lighting industry, his
death leaves a gap in the ranks of those who did so
much to develop London's electric supply systems.
He was born in June, 1864, and received his early
education at St. Marks School Windsor.
In 1882, he went to Germany for two years to the Technical
College at Essen, where be began his scientific training.
On his return to England in 1884, he
entered the [[Hammond Electrical Engineering College]] at Red Lion Square, where he gained
practical experience in electrical engineering work.
After leaving college he joined the [[Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation|Anglo-American Brush Engineering Company]], and spent three years going through the various shops and departments.
For a short time he was a pupil in the office of [[Woodhouse and Rawson|Messrs. Woodhouse and Rawson]].
In 1888, he was appointed assistant engineer of the
London Electric Supply Corporation, which had
then been formed to take over the Grosvenor
Gallery installation, and to carry out Dr. Ferranti's
larger scheme for high-voltage distribution from
the new station at Deptford.
In 1892 Mr. Partridge was appointed chief electrician of the
Corporation, and two years later he became
second engineer with charge of the distribution
station, the installation department, testing and
mains.
In 1899 he succeeded [[Patrick Walter D'Alton|Mr. P. W. d'Alton]],
who was appointed chief engineer when Dr. Ferranti
left the company, as engineer-in-chief of the
Corporation. Later he became managing director
of the company, and he continued to hold that
position until his death.
At the Commemoration Meeting of the Institution
of Electrical Engineers which took place on
February 23rd, 1922, to commemorate the first
ordinary meeting of the Institution (then the
Society of Telegraph Engineers) on February 28th,
1872, Mr. Partridge read a paper in which he
referred to his early experiences with the Anglo-American
Brush Company, and his work under Dr. Ferranti in the founding of the London Electric
Supply Corporation in 1887, and the difficulties
experienced with the transformers and high tension
mains. He it was who overcame the trouble
experienced in charging the 10,000 volt mains, by
the introduction of charging gear. The mains,
we may recall, consisted of two concentric brazed
copper tubes of equal cross sectional area separated
by paper insulation impregnated with ozokerite
wax, which were made in 20ft. lengths. The
cables were enclosed in a 2lin. diameter thin
iron tube with a brazed seam which was filled
with wax. Following his paper, Mr. Partridge
presented to the Institution a 10,000 volt coil,
transformer, cables and other apparatus as a
record of that pioneer installation.
Mr. Partridge kept in close touch with the
work of the scientific institutions and was a member
of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the
Institution of Electrical Engineers. He served on
the Council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers
for some years, and was elected Vice-President in
1917. In later times he devoted his time to the
administration and financial sides of the electric
Credited with inventing the oil-immersed circuit breaker, in 1892 [1]
See Also
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Sources of Information
↑[1] Electricity Supply in Great Britain - A Chronology-From the beginnings of the industry to 31 December 1976 by The Electricity Council, second edition, 1977, p.9
