Arthur James Arnot (26 August 1865 – 15 October 1946) was a Scottish

electrical engineer 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 ...

and inventor, best known for patenting the world's first electric drill. He later designed the Spencer Street Power Station.

Biography

Arnot was born in Hamilton, Scotland to William and Elizabeth Helen Arnot. He received his education at the

West of Scotland Technical College West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

, Glasgow, while working part-time at an electrical company. In 1889 he traveled to Melbourne, Australia to build the alternating current power plant at Spencer Street. The same year, on 20 August, he patented the electric drill. Originally on a two-year contract by Union Electric Company, Arnot was appointed City Electrical Engineer in 1891. During the first two years of this tenure he was responsible for the installation of the city's

street light A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution ...

ing system. In the years 1894–1901, he designed and later managed the Spencer Street Power Station. From 1901 to 1929 Arnot held the position of Australasian Manager of Babcock & Wilcox. In 1928, one year before his retirement, Arnot became involved in a corruption scandal over a May 1926 contract acquired by Babcock & Wilcox. The investigation revealed that alderman S. J. Maling had demanded a £10,000 bribe. Arnot, who had represented Babcock & Wilcox in the negotiations, was admonished, and the company was fined. Maling received a six-month prison sentence.

Personal life

Arnot married Cornelia Ann, daughter of former mayor

Cornelius Job Ham Cornelius Job Ham (13 January 1837 – 10 December 1909) was a politician in colonial Victoria (Australia), mayor of Melbourne 1881–82 and a member of the Victorian Legislative Council 1882–1904. Ham born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, Eng ...

, in August 1889. They had four children. He later married Dora Christine, née Shewan, with whom he had two children Wendy Barbara and David Macdonald. In his later years, Arnot acquired a farm in Batlow, New South Wales. Originally intended for his two sons, the of apple and pear trees were tended by Arnot, after his sons turned to sheep farming. He is described as a "keen fisherman", and was also a member of the Royal Sydney Golf Club.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnot, Arthur James Australian electrical engineers 19th-century Australian inventors 19th-century Scottish inventors People from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia 1865 births 1946 deaths Scottish electrical engineers Alumni of the University of Strathclyde