Brush, Charles F.

Charles F. Brush was a good scientist and a great businessman. In 1879, his electric arc lights made Cleveland the first city in the world to illuminate its streets extensively with electric lights. Over the next five years, cities all over the world ordered "Brush lights." Suddenly, Brush was very famous and very wealthy.

But Brush didn't invent the electric arc light. He improved it and combined it with a practical power source.

Though less celebrated than the arc light, the power source was a far more significant contribution. In 1876, Brush patented an open-coil dynamo, a power source that ultimately led to development of the modern generator. What he learned from the dynamo allowed him to connect arc lights in series, rather than using a single power source for each.

Two years after the arc light premiered in Cleveland, Scientific American magazine described Brush's achievement this way: "Occasionally a new invention will appear which will greatly affect a whole range of allied inventions and industries in such a way as to change entirely time-honored customs, inaugurate new practices and establish new arts. The commercial development of electricity is a notable example of this."

The arc light itself was at best a transitional technology. It produced an intensity too great for direct viewing with the naked eye. It wasn't appropriate for use in homes or small factories. Thomas Edison and others already were at work on the incandescent light.

Brush's consistent experimentation with electricity led to the more than 50 patents that made him a millionaire. Businesses with which he was affiliated led to the creation of Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., General Electric Co., Medusa Corp. and Euclid National Bank.