Houston, Edwin James

Edwin James Houston, (born July 9, 1847, Alexandria, Va., U.S.—died March 1, 1914, Philadelphia), U.S. electrical engineer who influenced the development of commercial lighting in the United States.

A Philadelphia high school teacher, Houston collaborated with Elihu Thomson in experimenting on induction coils, dynamos, wireless transmission, and the design of an arc lighting system (patented in 1881) that was widely successful and led to further improvements in lighting techniques. The Thomson–Houston Electric Co., organized in 1883 at Lynn, Mass., merged with Thomas Edison’s company in 1892 to form the General Electric Company. In 1893 Houston was appointed chief electrician at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where he implemented George Westinghouse’s two-phase alternating-current power system.