St George William Lane Fox-Pitt (born 14 September 1856 in Malta, died 6 April 1932 in South

Eaton Place Eaton Place is a street in London's Belgravia district. It runs off the top left hand corner of Eaton Square and then parallel to it until a junction with Upper Belgrave Street. The Embassy of Hungary, London is at no 35. The 1971 TV series '' U ...

) was a British electrical engineer and student of psychic phenomena.

Life

His parents were Lieutenant General

Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (14 April 18274 May 1900) was an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for innovations in archaeological methodology, and in the museum display o ...

(1827–1900) and Alice Margaret (1828–1910, née Stanley). His younger sister was the essayist

Agnes Geraldine Grove Agnes Geraldine Grove born Agnes Geraldine Lane Fox also Agnes Geraldine Fox-Pitt; Lady Grove (25 July 1863 – 7 December 1926) was an English aristocrat, diarist and essayist. She wrote to support women's suffrage, anti-vivisection and anti-vac ...

. On the death of his father's cousin

Horace Pitt-Rivers, 6th Baron Rivers Horace Pitt-Rivers, 6th Baron Rivers (12 April 1814 – 3 March 1880), known as Horace Beckford until 1828 and Hon. Horace Pitt from 1828 until 1867, was a British peer and army officer. He was born on 12 April 1814 in London, the younger son of ...

, the family took the name ''Fox Pitt-Rivers'' on May 25, 1880. In 1878, Fox-Pitt was granted a patent on a

light bulb An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...

with a

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

iridium Iridium is a chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, it is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density of ...

filament. The patent also describes a system for

power distribution Electric power distribution is the final stage in the delivery of electric power; it carries electricity from the transmission system to individual consumers. Distribution substations connect to the transmission system and lower the transmissio ...

using incandescent lamps in parallel."Mr. FOX Pitt." (obituary) ''Times'' ondon, England7 Apr. 1932: 14. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 4 Aug. 2014. On 12 December 1879,

Charles Francis Brush Charles Francis Brush (March 17, 1849 – June 15, 1929) was an American engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Biography Brush was born in Euclid Township, Ohio to Isaac Elbert Brush and Delia Williams Phillips. Isaac Brush ...

founded the Anglo-American Electric Light Company Ltd in the UK, and in the same year acquired the patent rights to produce the Lane-Fox incandescent lamp. On 24 March 1880, he founded a new company, Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation, which took over the previous one. About 1880, Fox-Pitt is said to have successfully experimented with charred plant fibres as the filament material. That was about the same time as the development of the light bulb with carbon filament by Edison in the United States. By 1883, Fox-Pitt had obtained further patents. Fox-Pitt wrote books on the philosophy of science, education, and social problems. He was temporarily Vice-President of the Moral Education League and organized the

International Moral Education Congress The International Moral Education Congress was an international academic conference held in Europe six times between 1908 and 1934. It convened because of an interest in moral education by many countries beginning a decade before the inaugural eve ...

. He was also one of the first active members of the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...

. In 1891, he repurchased the patent rights of the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation and built himself a small lamp factory. In 1898, he participated in a railway concession in

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

. In 1899, he married Lady Edith Gertrude Douglas (1874–1963), the daughter of

John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry (20 July 184431 January 1900), was a British nobleman, remembered for his atheism, his outspoken views, his brutish manner, for lending his name to the " Queensberry Rules" that form the basis of ...

Works

* ''The Purpose of Education'', 1914, Cambridge University Press,"Cambridge University Press." Times ondon, England12 June 1914: 4. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 4 Aug. 2014. * ''Free Will & Destiny'', 1920, Constable Books, London

References

External links

''St George Lane Fox-Pitt''
Biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox-Pitt, Saint George Lane British electrical engineers 1856 births 1932 deaths British inventors