William Sturgeon

was an electrical engineer and scientific lecturer who devised the first electromagnet capable of supporting more than its own weight. It led to the invention of the telegraph, the electric motor, and numerous other devices basic to modern technology.

1783 William Sturgeon was born on 22 May, at Whittington, Lancashire. He was the only son of John Sturgeon, shoemaker, and his wife, Betsy.

1783 Sturgeon's father was a harsh man and after his mother died, when William was ten, he was sent away as a shoemaker's apprentice and subjected to years of mindless toil. Although he lived for several years in slavish conditions, he learned both musical and mechanical skills, and was capable of cleaning timepieces.

1802 He enlisted in the Westmorland militia, in which he served for two years, before joining the 2nd battalion of the Royal Artillery as a private and gunner.

Sturgeon was posted to the Royal Artillery base in Woolwich. He married a widow, Mary Hutton, who kept a shoe shop there. They had three children but all died in infancy, and his wife died in the 1820s. Sturgeon never saw active service and spent some time in Newfoundland, where he was sent shortly after his marriage. He used the periods of inactivity to improve himeself with the help of a sergeant from whom he borrowed many books. He taught hiself mathematics, as well as some Greek, Latin, French, German, and Italian. He also studied optics and other branches of natural philosophy, and improved his mechanical skills. While in Newfoundland, Sturgeon witnessed a massive thunderstorm which kindled his interests in electrical phenomena.

1820 Sturgeon left the army, went back to his native north-west and to his trade of shoemaking, but soon returned to Woolwich.

The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, which trained gentleman cadets for the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers, had one of the largest concentrations of scientific men in the London area at that time. These included Peter Barlow, Samuel Hunter Christie, Olinthus Gilbert Gregory, who all taught mathematics there; and James Marsh, who taught practical chemistry. All were very interested in electromagnetism, discovered by the Dane, Hans Christian Oersted in 1820, and then from the work of many others in the early 1820s, particularly André-Marie Ampère in Paris and Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution in London.

1824 He became lecturer in science at the Royal Military College, Addiscombe, Surrey.

1825 He exhibited his first electromagnet - a 7-ounce (200-gram) magnet that was able to support 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of iron using the current from a single cell.

1832 Sturgeon built an electric motor and invented the commutator, an integral part of most modern electric motors.

1836 In June, Sturgeon offered his first paper to the Royal Society, on magnetic electric machines. Although it was read, it was refused publication in the Philosophical Transactions - he never published anything again in the Philosophical Magazine. In October, he founded the monthly journal Annals of Electricity. He also invented the first suspended coil galvanometer, a device for measuring current.

1840 Sturgeon was invited to become superintendent of the Royal Victoria Gallery of Practical Science in Manchester. He resigned his positions in London and returned to the north-west.

1847 Sturgeon suffered a severe attack of bronchitis from which he never fully recovered. His illness forced him to move to Prestwich, Lancashire, for better air.

1850 At the end of November he caught a cold and died on 8 December in Barnfield Terrace, Prestwich, Lancashire. He was buried in the churchyard there.

See Also

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Sources of Information

• [1] Encyclopaedia Britannica Online
• [2] Oxford DNB