Almarian William Decker (born 1852, Ohio; d. Aug. 1893, Sierra Madre, California; interred

Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery, is a cemetery and a historic landmark in Sierra Madre, California. History In 1881, Nathaniel Coburn Carter purchased land located along Central Ave., later renamed Sierra Madre Boulevard, for use as a Cemetery ...

) was an American pioneer of

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

involved in the early development of three-phase electrical power. In 1892 he was hired by H. H. Sinclair and Henry Fisher of the Redlands Electric Light and Power Company, a

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

n generating company, to design a new three-phase generator for the Mill Creek No. 1 hydroelectric plant. The plant opened in 1893 and is still in operation today (2004). This was the first commercial application of three-phase electrical power in the United States and probably the world. Its success led to the widespread adoption of three-phase power, in preference to single-phase and direct current. Decker was also hired by Prof. Thaddeus Lowe of the

Mount Lowe Railway The Mount Lowe Railway was the third in a series of scenic mountain railroads in the United States created as a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, north of Los Angeles, California. The railway, originally incorporated by Thadd ...

which opened in

Altadena, California Altadena () ("Alta", Spanish for "Upper", and "dena" from Pasadena) is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in the Verdugo Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, approximately 14 miles (23 km) from the downtown ...

in 1893. Decker was responsible for the daily supervision of the electrical installations on the railway, and had also computed the electrical requirements for the Great Incline operating system, even considering a series of rechargeable batteries since there was such a lack of resources for hydroelectric generation. Decker suffered from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

which left him so weak that he had to be ferried out to the work sites in a wheelbarrow daily to oversee the electrical installations. He died a little more than a month after the railroad opened. Many of Decker's theories of electrical methodology were underestimated during his life, and it wasn't until after his death that his theories were put to test and proved applicable.

External links

IEEE History Center - Mill Creek generator
{{DEFAULTSORT:Decker, Almarian 1852 births 1893 deaths People from Cleveland American electrical engineers 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis People from Sierra Madre, California Engineers from California Engineers from Ohio Tuberculosis deaths in California