Emily Davenport

Emily Goss Davenport Weeks (April 29, 1810 – October 5, 1862) was an American inventor from Vermont. Together with her husband Thomas Davenport, they invented an electric motor and electric locomotive around 1834.^[1][2][3]

Emily Goss Davenport
Born	Emily Goss (1810-04-29)April 29, 1810 Brandon, Vermont
Died	October 5, 1862(1862-10-05) (aged 52) Brandon, Vermont
Citizenship	American
Known for	inventing the electric motor
Spouse(s)	Thomas Davenport John Mosely Weeks
Children	2

Davenport kept detailed notes and actively contributed to the process of the inventions.^[3] Needing to insulate the motor's iron core, Davenport cut her wedding dress into strips of silk to insulate the wire windings.^[4] She is also credited with the idea of using mercury as a conductor, enabling the motor to function for the first time.^[4] With her husband Thomas, and colleague Orange Smalley, she received the first American patent on an electric machine in 1837, U. S. Patent No. 132.^[5] This electric motor was used in 1840 to print The Electro-Magnet, and Mechanics Intelligencer - the first newspaper printed using electricity.

She was born Emily Goss in Brandon Vermont, one of five children born to Rufus Goss a local merchant and Anna Green.^[6] She and Thomas Davenport lived in Salisbury, Vermont and had two children, George Daniel Davenport and Willard Goss Davenport. Thomas Davenport died in 1851 and Emily moved to Middlebury.^[7] On January 6, 1856 she married John Mosely Weeks in Salisbury, the inventor of the Vermont beehive.^[7] She died in 1862 and is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Brandon, Vermont.^[2]

Further reading

• Wicks, Frank (July 1999). "The Blacksmith's Motor". Mechanical Engineering. 121 (7). American Society of Mechanical Engineers: 66–69. doi:10.1115/1.1999-JUL-8. Archived from the original on 2007-02-05.