Chester Thordarson
Encyclopedia
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s. He was instrumental in the development of the modern energy transmission grid with his work in transformers. He achieved his first distinction at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, where for the Purdue University exhibit he designed and built the first million-volt transformer. For his efforts he won the gold medal from the 1904 World's Fair.
Biography
Thordarson immigrated to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
in 1873. During his lifetime he founded a successful manufacturing company in Chicago, Illinois, and established a private vacation retreat on Rock Island
Rock Island (Wisconsin)
Rock Island is a wooded island off the tip of Wisconsin's Door Peninsula at the mouth of Green Bay. The uninhabited island is almost entirely owned by the Wisconsin DNR, which maintains Rock Island State Park. It is the northernmost part of the Town of Washington.-History:Rock Island was...
, an island off the tip Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
's Door Peninsula
Door Peninsula
The Door Peninsula is a peninsula in eastern Wisconsin, separating the southern part of the Green Bay from Lake Michigan. The peninsula begins in northern Brown and Kewaunee counties and proceeds northeast to include all of Door County. It is the western portion of the Niagara Escarpment. Well...
.
Book collection
At his death in 1945 he bequeathed his book collection to the University of Wisconsin. The Thoradson collection was estimated to be worth one million dollars in 1945 and led to the establishment of the Rare Books Department. Dr. Jen Christian Bay, a member of the Bibliographical Society of AmericaBibliographical Society of America
The Bibliographical Society of America is the oldest learned society in North America that studies books and manuscripts as physical objects. Established in 1904, the society promotes bibliographical research and issues bibliographical publications...
commented on the collection in 1929:
- "Of William Copland, The Craft of Grafting (1560), two copies are known, one in the Thordason Collection"
- "Of the greatest [herbal] of all, the Hortus Sanitatis, Mr. Thordarson's copy of the edition of 1561 is a remarkably beautiful copy...."
- [Of the 1540 A Boke of the Proertyes of Herbes:] "This book is one of Mr. Thordason's discoveries; no copy is known in any other library."
- [Of H. Baker's The Wellspring of Sciences:] "The British MuseumBritish MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
seemingly possesses no copy with an earlier date then 1574. Mr Thordarson's copy [of 1564] seems unique."
Rock Island estate
Several years after his death Rock Island, and Thordarson's estate there, were designated Rock Island State ParkRock Island State Park (Wisconsin)
Rock Island State Park is a Wisconsin state park located on Rock Island, off the tip of the Door Peninsula in Lake Michigan. The only public transportation to the island is by the passenger ferry "Karfi" from Washington Island. However, there is mooring/dock space for people with their own...
. His buildings have been added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as the Thordarson Estate Historic District.
Company
Thordarson's company is now called Thordarson Meissner, Inc., and has locations in Mount Carmel, IllinoisMount Carmel, Illinois
Mount Carmel is a city in and the county seat of Wabash County, Illinois, United States. At the time of the 2000 census, the population was 7,982, while the next largest town in Wabash County is Allendale, population 528. Located at the confluence of the Wabash, Patoka, and White Rivers, Mount...
, and in Henderson, Nevada
Henderson, Nevada
-Demographics:According to the 2000 census, there were 175,381 people, 66,331 households, and 47,095 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,200.8 people per square mile . There were 71,149 housing units at an average density of 892.8 per square mile...
.
Other sources
- "Rock Island, a part of the Washington Township," by Eaton, Conan Bryant, 1969, published by the Door County Advocate, Sturgeon Bay, WI.
- Ralph Hagedorn, "Bibliotheca Thordarsoniana: The Sequel," in PAPERS of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vo. 44 (Q1, 1950). Dr. Bay's essay later formed a chapter in his the Fortune of Books, (Chicago, 1941), 105-121