Edwin Fitch Northrup

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Edwin Fitch Northrup (born February 23, 1866 – May 13, 1940) was a professor of physics known for his contributions to the study of substances at high temperatures and electronic conductivity. He was a professor at Princeton University from 1910 to 1919, an officer and adviser of Ajax Electro-Thermic Corp for twenty years and was affiliated with Leeds & Northrup for seven years. He held 104 patents on high-temperature measurement for new methods and instruments for the production and measurement of high temperatures.[1]

Northrup was born in Syracuse to Ansel Judd Northrup and Eliza Sophia Fitch Northrup. He graduated from Amherst College in 1892 and dis some post-graduate studies at Cornell University before earning a Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1895.[1] He then became assistant to Prof. Henry Augustus Rowland (died 1901) in the development of telegraph systems and became chief engineer at the newly-founded Rowland Printing Telegraph Company. In 1903 he co-founded Leeds & Northrup with Morris E. Leeds.

Northrup founded the Pyro-electric Instrument Company and served as its president from 1916 to 1920. From 1920 until his death in 1940 he served as vice president and technical adviser for Ajax Electro-Thermic Corp.[1]

Northrup invented the Ajax-Northrup high-frequency induction furnace, which in 1931 produced a temperature of 3,600 degrees.[1] That year he was awarded the Acheson Award by the Electrochemical Society.[2]

In 1937, Dr. Northrup published the science fiction novel Zero to Eighty under the pseudonym of Akkad Pseudoman.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Methods of Measuring Electrical Resistance(McGraw-Hill, 1912) ISBN 9781358324970
  • Laws of Physical Science (Knopf, 1917)
  • Zero to Eighty (as Akkad Pseudoman) (Knopf, 1937) ISBN 9781625790248

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "DR. E.F. NORTHRUP, INVENTOR, IS DEAD". The New York Times. May 2, 1940. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 1, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  2. ^ "Edward Goodrich Acheson Award Recipients". Electrochemical Society. Retrieved 1 November 2015.

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