Bancroft Gherardi Jr. (April 6, 1873 – August 14, 1941) was a noted American

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

and business executive as vice-president of the

American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT&T Corporation, an abbreviation for its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was an American telecommunications company that provided voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to busi ...

(AT&T). He was known for his pioneering work in developing the early telephone and transmission systems in the United States. Recognized as one of the foremost authorities in telephone engineering, Gherardi was instrumental in developing the transcontinental telephone service in 1915 and the trans-Atlantic radio telephone service in 1927. He was awarded the

IEEE Edison Medal The IEEE Edison Medal is presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) "for a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering, or the electrical arts." It is the oldest medal in this fi ...

in 1932 for "contributions to the art of telephone engineering and the development of electrical communication".

Education

Gherardi was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

on April 6, 1873, son of Bancroft and Anna Talbot (Rockwell) Gherardi. Gherardi received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1891, and his M.E. and M.M.E degrees from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1893 and 1894, respectively. He received an honorary D. Eng. degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1933.

Professional career

Gherardi started his industrial career in 1895 as engineering assistant in the Metropolitan Telephone and Telegraph Company and the

New York Telephone Company Verizon New York, Inc., formerly The New York Telephone Company (NYTel), was organized in 1896, taking over the New York City operations of the Bell Telephone Company, American Bell Telephone Company. Predecessor companies The Telephone Company ...

where he became its Traffic Engineer four years later. In 1907, he was selected to join the

(AT&T) as equipment engineer for the

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the AT&T Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America fo ...

, and rose through the ranks to Chief Engineer. He was finally appointed to the position of Vice-President of AT&T in 1920, in charge of the Department of Operation and Engineering, which he held until his retirement in 1938.''Obituary of Gherardi'', The New York Times, August 16th, 1941, New York. Gherardi is widely recognized as one of the foremost authorities on early telephone engineering for his role in several landmark projects such as the transcontinental telephone service in 1915 and the trans-Atlantic radio telephone service in 1927. He also personally supervised the construction of a "loaded" cable between New York City and Newark, New Jersey, the first such application based on the invention of Michael I. Pupin that improved the transmission on telephone circuits. Gherardi was a fellow of the

American Institute of Electrical Engineers The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States–based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Inst ...

, and served as its president from 1927 to 1928. He was a member of the United Engineering Society,

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing edu ...

American Standards Association The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private nonprofit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organiz ...

, New York Electrical Society, and the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

. He was also inducted into the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, and served as the president of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn's alumni association.

References

External links

National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gherardi, Bancroft Jr. 1873 births 1941 deaths Cornell University College of Engineering alumni American electrical engineers American people of Corsican descent Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni 19th-century American engineers 20th-century American engineers Engineers from California Engineers from San Francisco IEEE Edison Medal recipients