August Uno Lamm

August Uno Lamm (May 22, 1904 – June 1, 1989) was a Swedish electrical engineer and inventor. He was sometimes called "The Father of High Voltage Direct Current" power transmission. During his career, Lamm obtained 150 patents. In 1980 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) developed the Uno Lamm High Voltage Direct Current Award for contributions to the field of high voltage electrical engineering.

Biography Lamm was born in Gothenburg, Sweden to Fredrik Hjalmar Lamm and Aino Maria Lovisa Wilhelmina Wijkander. He obtained his master's degree at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1927. After a short time in compulsory military service he joined ASEA, the Swedish electrical conglomerate, initially working in their training program. In 1929 he was made manager of the project to develop a high-voltage mercury arc valve. Valves at the time operated only up to about 2500 volts, and if higher-voltage valves were available they could have practical use in the transmission of large quantities of electric energy over long distances.

In 1943 Lamm obtained his Ph.D. from the Royal Institute of Technology, studying part-time while developing the mercury arc valve. After twenty years or so of development work to produce a valve with the necessary rating for HVDC transmission, ASEA obtained a contract for the HVDC Gotland project in 1950, which when completed in 1955 became the first modern fully commercial HVDC system. By the end of 1964 Lamm had moved to southern California.

Lamm's Ph.D. thesis was titled "The Transductor, DC Pre-Saturated Reactor". While describing this device at a lecture in the United States he also mentioned that the same principle could be applied to resistors, making a transistor. This was the name later applied to the solid-state amplifier.

Personal life Lamm was married twice and had four children.