c. 1890

Slattery Motor

Marmaduke Marcellus Slattery (1851-1892) was born in Ireland. As a young man he developed his in-ventive nature in the lab and workshop of George Lane Fox in London. He came to the United States in 1881 and worked as an electrical engineer in New York and Boston before accepting the position of "electrician" at Fort Wayne Jenny Electric Light Company in 1887. He was a wizard in electrical power generation used in his "Alternating Incandescent Lighting System." By 1889 he was working on a storage battery to run electric motors for vehicle propulsion. He was often seen around town on his motorized tricycle that he invented operated by "Slattery's Battery." His achievements with electrical transmission garnered him the title of "father of the theory of Alternating Current (AC)." Duke, as many called him, rivaled even Nikola Tesla in the field of electricity. This c.1890 direct current motor was built at the Fort Wayne works and later General Electric engineers speculated it was designed by Slattery to drive his ex-perimental tricycle.