Francis Robbins Upton

Francis Robbins Upton (1852 in Peabody, Massachusetts – March 10, 1921, in Orange, New Jersey) was an American physicist and mathematician. Upton worked alongside Thomas Edison in the development of incandescent light bulbs, electric generators, and electric power distribution. He was the first president of the Edison Pioneers.

Early life Francis Upton was the son of Elijah Wood Upton and Lucy Elizabeth Winchester. Elijah was well educated and after, he did European travel. Later he was forced to take over his father's glue business due to his father's illness. Francis was 16 by this time and studying at Phillips Academy in Andover, after he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1875 at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. There he met Elizabeth F. Perry, later to become his wife.

Francis Upton also attended Berlin University and Princeton University. Francis was the first ever to officially receive his doctoral degree from Princeton University. Upton was then hired by Thomas Edison. One of Edison's biographers described the hired man thus: Two years Edison’s senior, Boston-born graduate of Bowdoin College and Princeton, expert in calculus, tempered by a year of postgraduate study at the University of Berlin with Hermann von Helmholtz.

Upton married Elizabeth F. Perry in September, 1879, in Brunswick, Maine. Their daughter Elizabeth Fenno Upton was born August 24, 1880. Upton's sister Sadie, a frequent visitor in Menlo Park, is described as a "smart attractive lady with a distinguished swing".

Initially experiments ran currents through metals. Upton attended the 28th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and spoke "On the phenomena of heating metals in vacuo by means of electric current".

As evidence of the Upton's use of algebra, his approach to finding the appropriate cross-section S for a wire of length L carrying W amperes at V volts, was to take resistance R = L / S. Upton applied Ohm's law to obtain S = (W L) / V.

Upton contributed to other key inventions such as the watt-hour meter, the parallel circuit distribution grid and the new constant voltage dynamo. Upton was of crucial importance to Edison in the design of Edison's power plant and distribution system put into service at the Pearl Street Station in Lower Manhattan on September 4, 1882. Like Maxwell with Faraday, Upton was the one who interpreted Edison’s ideas and translated them into mathematical form. What he did was a classical piece of pioneer investigation conducted under extreme difficulties. His work paved the way for more elaborate work of Hopkinson and Knapp.

Since 1958, the Princeton University has had Francis Upton Graduate Fellowships.

Later life In 1894 Francis Robbins Upton left Edison's electrical business which he had managed up to his departure. Upton returned after four years. He assisted in the Edison Ore-Milling Company, extracting iron from sand, and the remaining sand Upton sold to concrete manufactures. Upton eventually left the business in 1911 but still continued to sell bricks and concrete.

On February 3, 1918, the Edison Pioneers elected Upton as their first President.

Francis Robbins Upton died in Orange, New Jersey, on March 10, 1921.