Archives Biographies: Colonel R.E.B Crompton
Biographical information on Colonel R.E.B Crompton, pioneer in the electrical industry in the late 19th and early 20th century and twice President of the Institution.
Twice President of the Institution and Faraday Medallist, Colonel REB Crompton was a truly remarkable character whose achievements and talent spread far beyond the poetry to the right. He was the major pioneer of the electrical industry in the late 19th/early 20th century, but also a celebrated soldier and, by all accounts, a man of unmatched benevolence.
Entry into the Navy at age eleven, and receipt of a Crimean War Medal and Sebastopol Clasp before twelve, marked an early beginning to an illustrious military career. Col. Crompton was senior captain of the royal Engineers and a founder and the commanding officer of the Electrical Engineers volunteers during the Boer War.
After the army Crompton pursued a career in electrical engineering sparked during his commission in India where he developed steam engines. Once of his first accomplishments was the installation of a Gramme dynamo and arc lamps, to improve night work conditions, at his brother's foundry.
In 1875 Crompton joined T.H.P. Dennis & Co. Three years later he formed his own company, Crompton & Co., which rapidly became a major force in the electrical industry.
Crompton & Co not only produced virtually every electrical device of the time including instruments, domestic appliances and lamps but, he was the first major British manufacturer of generators, and his power station at Kensington Court, which began supply in 1887, provided the first practical house to house electrical supply scheme. In 1899, a Crompton dynamo produced the first unit of electricity generated in Calcutta. Three years earlier he had authored India's first Electricity Act.
Crompton's work with arc lamps began with Dennis & Co. Dissatisfied with the French lamps he was importing Crompton designed a lamp of his own based on the successful Serrin lamp. He placed the mechanism above the carbons so that it cast no downward shadow, and improved the regulating mechanism to reduce the amount of flickering. Crompton's design based upon the Pochin lamp produced one of the best arc lamps available.
He used his arc lamp design to develop the military searchlight. In 1880 he published one of the first lighting manuals, The Electric Light for Industrial Uses. In the same year he met Joseph Swan, and was impressed by Swan's incandescent lamp. Crompton and Swan worked together, their joint company installing both arc and filament lamps.
Using his own electric light design Crompton mounted spectacular demonstrations at the Henley Regatta and Alexandra Palace in 1879. His installations included the Windsor Castle, the Law Courts, King's Cross station as well as the Opera House and several other public buildings in Vienna.
Colonel Crompton took a strong interest in the development of the domestic use of electricity and worked closely with the Electrical Association of Women. Crompton & Co produced one of the first electric cookers. He was instrumental in the formation of the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1906 and in 1926 was awarded the Faraday Medal.
