Emily Goss Davenport Weeks (April 29, 1810October 5, 1862) was an American inventor from

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. Together with her husband Thomas Davenport, they invented an

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...

and electric locomotive around 1834. Davenport kept detailed notes and actively contributed to the process of the inventions. Needing to insulate the motor's iron core, Davenport cut her

wedding dress A wedding dress or bridal gown is the dress worn by the bride during a wedding ceremony. The color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants. In Western cultures and Anglo ...

into strips of

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...

to insulate the wire windings. She is also credited with the idea of using mercury as a conductor, enabling the motor to function for the first time. With her husband Thomas, and colleague Orange Smalley, she received the first American

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

on an electric machine in 1837, U. S. Patent No. 132. 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. She and Thomas Davenport lived in

Salisbury, Vermont Salisbury is a town in Addison County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,221 at the 2020 census. History Salisbury was chartered on November 3, 1761 as one of the New Hampshire Grants issued by Benning Wentworth. The town may have be ...

and had two children, George Daniel Davenport and Willard Goss Davenport. Thomas Davenport died in 1851 and Emily moved to Middlebury. On January 6, 1856 she married John Mosely Weeks in Salisbury, the inventor of the Vermont beehive. She died in 1862 and is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Brandon, Vermont.

References

1810 births 1862 deaths People from Brandon, Vermont 19th-century American inventors Women inventors 19th-century American women {{US-inventor-stub

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