Harvey Hubbell
| Harvey Hubbell II | |
|---|---|
 Harvey Hubbell II | |
| Born | 1857 |
| Died |
December 17, 1927 (aged 70) Bridgeport, Connecticut |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Electrical engineering |
| Institutions | Harvey Hubbell, Incorporated |
Harvey Hubbell II (1857 – December 17, 1927), was an American inventor, entrepreneur and industrialist. His best-known inventions are the U.S. electrical plug[1] and the pull-chain light socket.[2]
In 1888, at the age of thirty-one, Hubbell quit his job as a manager of a manufacturing company and founded Hubbell Incorporated in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a company which is still in business today, still headquartered near Bridgeport. Hubbell began manufacturing consumer products and, by necessity, inventing manufacturing equipment for his factory. Some of the equipment he designed included automatic tapping machines and progressive dies for blanking and stamping. One of his most important industrial inventions, still in use today, is the thread rolling machine. He quickly began selling his newly devised manufacturing equipment alongside his commercial products.
Hubbell received at least 45 patents;[3] most were for electric products. The pull-chain electrical light socket was patented in 1896, and his most famous invention, the U.S. electrical power plug, in 1904, this brought the convenience of portable electrical devices, already enjoyed in Great Britain since the early 1880s, to the U.S.[4]
References
- ↑ U.S. Patent #774,250, Separable Attachment Plug
- ↑ U.S. Patent #565,541, Socket for Incandescent Lamps
- ↑ "Hubbell Sockets". Antique Light Sockets. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
Between 1896 and 1909 he was granted 45 patents on a wide variety of electrical products.
- ↑ John Mellanby, "The History of Electric Wiring" (1957), p165, London: Macdonald.