Peter Cooper Hewitt Explained

Peter Cooper Hewitt
Birth Date:May 5, 1861
Birth Place:New York City, New York, U.S.
Death Place:Paris, France
Burial Place:Green-Wood Cemetery,
Brooklyn, New York
Nationality:American
Alma Mater:Stevens Institute of Technology
Columbia University
Known For:Arc discharge lamp, mercury-arc valve
Prizes:Elliott Cresson Medal (1910)
Signature:Signature of Peter Cooper Hewitt.png

Peter Cooper Hewitt (May 5, 1861 – August 25, 1921) was an American electrical engineer and inventor, who invented the first mercury-vapor lamp in 1901.[1] Hewitt was issued on September 17, 1901.[2] In 1903, Hewitt created an improved version that possessed higher color qualities which eventually found widespread industrial use.[1]

Early life

Hewitt was born in New York City, the son of New York City Mayor Abram Hewitt and the grandson of industrialist Peter Cooper. He was educated at the Stevens Institute of Technology and the Columbia University School of Mines.[3] [4]

Career

In 1901, Hewitt invented and patented a mercury-vapor lamp that was the forerunner of the fluorescent lamp. A gas-discharge lamp, Hewitt's invention used mercury vapor produced by passing current through liquid mercury. His first lamps had to be started by tilting the tube to make contact between the two electrodes and the liquid mercury; later he developed the inductive electrical ballast to start the tube. The efficiency was much higher than that of incandescent lamps, but the emitted light was of a bluish-green unpleasant color, which limited its practical use to specific professional areas, like photography, where the color was not an issue at a time where films were black and white. For space lighting use, the lamp was frequently augmented by a standard incandescent lamp.[5] The two together provided a more acceptable color while retaining some efficiency advantages.

In 1902, Hewitt developed the mercury arc rectifier, the first rectifier that could convert alternating current power to direct current without mechanical means. It was widely used in electric railways, industry, electroplating, and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power transmission. Although it was largely replaced by power semiconductor devices in the 1970s and 1980s, it is still used in some high power applications.

In 1903, Columbia University awarded Hewitt the degree of Honorary Doctorate of Science in recognition of his work.[6]

In 1907, he developed and tested an early hydrofoil. In 1916, Hewitt joined Elmer Sperry to develop the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, one of the first successful precursors of the cruise missile.

Personal life

Hewitt's first wife was Lucy Bond Work.[7] [8] Work was the daughter of Franklin H. Work (1819–1911), a well-known stockbroker and protégé of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and his wife, Ellen Wood (1831–1877),[9] who was the sister of Frances Ellen Work.[10] Thus he was an uncle of Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, the maternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales. Cooper Hewitt and his first wife had no children and divorced in December 1918.[11]

While married to Work, Hewitt had an extramarital relationship with Marion (aka Maryon) Jeanne Andrews[12] that resulted in the birth of Ann Cooper Hewitt (July 28, 1914-1956). Hewitt later married Andrews in 1918, right after his divorce to Work, and formally adopted Ann.

Prior to Hewitt, Andrews was married in 1902 to Dr. Peder Sather Bruguiere (brother of American photographer Francis Bruguière, brother-in-law of heiress Margaret Post Van Alen and grandson of banker Peder Sather)[13] and in 1907 to wealthy New York broker Alexander Turner Stewart Denning.[14] [15]

After Hewitt, Andrews married in 1922 to Baron Robert Frederic Emile Regis D'Erlanger[16] and in 1926 to George William Childs McCarter[17] (grandson of American author Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson, great-grandson of Judge John Bouvier and nephew-in-law of American publisher George William Childs).

Ann Cooper Hewitt

See main article: Ann Cooper Hewitt.

Peter Cooper Hewitt died in 1921. His will left two-thirds of his estate to Ann and one-third to her mother Marion; but Ann's portion would revert to her mother if Ann (Gay Bradstreet)[14] died childless.[18]

In 1935, just before Ann's 21st birthday when she would have attained legal majority, she was hospitalized for appendicitis. Ann's mother told the surgeons that Ann was "feebleminded" and paid them to sterilize her while performing her appendectomy.[19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] Ann retaliated by suing her mother in San Francisco court and telling the press about Maryon's gambling and alcohol addictions. The mother-daughter dispute riveted the public; and the unconventional use of sterilization (it occurred in private practice, not a public asylum) forced a public debate of eugenics.[33]

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Peter Cooper Hewitt. Encyclopædia Britannica.
  2. Web site: Method of Manufacturing Electric Lamps. United States Patent and Trademark Office.
  3. Shaw, Albert . June 1908 . Leading Articles Of The Month: Peter Cooper Hewitt, Inventor . . XXVII . 6 . 724 . 2009-08-07 .
  4. University, Columbia . September 6, 1903 . Commencement Day . Columbia University Quarterly . V . 4 . 397–398 . 2009-08-07 .
  5. The Boy Electrician by J.W. Simms, M.I.E.E (Page 280)
  6. . Obituary . The Engineer. 236 . 2 September 1921 . 20 February 2015.
  7. Book: Guérin, Polly. The Cooper-Hewitt Dynasty of New York. Arcadia Publishing. 9781614237822. November 2012. 27 August 2022.
  8. Web site: Lucy Bond Hewitt. geni_family_tree. 19 October 2018.
  9. Williamson, D. (1981) The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer In: Genealogist’s Magazine vol. 20 (no. 6) p. 192-199 and vol. 20 (no. 8) pp. 281–282.
  10. News: WORK ESTATE ACCOUNTING.; Trustees of $15,000,000 Property Ask Advice on Lackawanna Stock.. 26 October 2017. The New York Times. 2 June 1922.
  11. News: HEWITT DIVORCED AND REMARRIED; Former Wife Sails for Europe, Where, It Is Said, She Will Engage in War Work. DIVORCE KEPT FROM PUBLIC Date of Wedding and Whereabouts of Bride and Bridegroom Not Revealed.. The New York Times . December 20, 1918 . 9 January 2022.
  12. Web site: Marion Jeanne Andrews. geni_family_tree. 19 October 2018.
  13. Web site: Dr. Peder Sather Bruguiere. geni_family_tree. 19 October 2018.
  14. Web site: Maryon Jeanne Andrews Bruguiere Denning Hewitt d'Erlanger McCarter dies. The San Francisco Examiner. 1. 1 May 1939. 28 August 2022.
  15. Web site: Stewart Denning. geni_family_tree. 19 October 2018.
  16. Web site: Baron Robert Frederic Emile Regis D'Erlanger. geni_family_tree. 19 October 2018.
  17. Web site: George William Childs McCarter. geni_family_tree. 19 October 2018.
  18. Web site: The Curious Case of the Socialite Who Sterilized Her Daughter. July 8, 2019.
  19. Web site: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Eugenics Crusade. Jennifer. Robinson. kpbs.org. October 11, 2018 . 19 October 2018.
  20. Web site: California Eugenics. www.uvm.edu. 19 October 2018.
  21. Currell, Susan, and Christina Cogdell. 2006. Popular Eugenics. Athens: Ohio University Press.
  22. News: The sordid story of the once-popular eugenics movement. Washington Post. 19 October 2018.
  23. Web site: Sterilizing The Heiress. Romeo Vitelli. Providentia. 19 October 2018.
  24. Web site: A new deal for the child: Ann Cooper Hewitt and sterilization in the 1930s. Kline. Wendy. repository.library.georgetown.edu. 19 October 2018.
  25. Web site: EUGENICS IN CALIFORNIA, 1896-1945 by Joseph W. Sokolik. txstate.edu. 19 October 2018.
  26. Book: Kline, Wendy. Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom. registration. 107. Ann.. 21 November 2005. University of California Press. 9780520246744. 19 October 2018. Internet Archive.
  27. Web site: History. University of Cincinnati. 19 October 2018.
  28. Web site: The Curious Case of Ann Cooper Hewitt . April 2010 . Payne . G.S. . History Magazine .
  29. Book: Popular Eugenics: National Efficiency and American Mass Culture in the 1930s. Susan. Currell. Christina. Cogdell. 19 October 2018. Ohio University Press. 9780821416914. 19 October 2018. Google Books.
  30. Web site: Kirsten Spicer. "A Nation of Imbeciles": The Human Betterment Foundation's Propaganda for Eugenics Practices in California. Chapman University.. chapman.edu. 19 October 2018.
  31. Web site: American Experience The Eugenics Crusade Premieres Tuesday, October 16 on PBS A Cautionary Tale About the Quest for Human Perfection . 2020-05-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181019063339/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mds9v6K2k0UJ:pressroom.pbs.org%2F-%2Fmedia%2FCA7F190ED076499BA837220EE20E47D3.ashx . 2018-10-19 . live .
  32. Web site: The Curious Case of the Socialite Who Sterilized Her Daughter. Farley. Audrey Clare. Pocket, from Narratively. First published 2019 . 8 July 2019. 10 April 2020. It was January of 1936, and heiress Ann Cooper Hewitt was suing her mother in a San Francisco court for . The plaintiff claimed that her mother paid doctors to “unsex” her during an appendectomy in order to deprive her of an inheritance from her millionaire father’s estate. The defendant argued that she was merely protecting her daughter — and society — from the consequences of Ann becoming pregnant.. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200410142523/https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-curious-case-of-the-socialite-who-sterilized-her-daughter. 10 April 2020.
  33. Farley, Audrey Clare (April 2021). The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt. Grand Central. https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/audrey-clare-farley/the-unfit-heiress/9781538753347/

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