Edwin J. Houston was an American electrical inventor. He graduated from New York Central High School in 1864. While teaching physics at Central High School in Philadelphia (a degree-granting institution rather than an ordinary high school), he helped design an arc light

Arc Light

Arc Light is the debut novel by Eric L. Harry, a techno-thriller about limited nuclear war published in 1994 and written in 1991-2.As China and Russia clash in Siberia in June 1999, nuclear missiles strike the United States. The U.S. retaliates against Russia, and World War III begins...

 generator

Electrical generator

In electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...

 with his former student colleague Elihu Thomson

Elihu Thomson

Elihu Thomson was an American engineer and inventor who was instrumental in the founding of major electrical companies in the United States, the United Kingdom and France.-Early life:...

. Together, they created the Thomson-Houston Electric Company

Thomson-Houston Electric Company

The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was a manufacturing company which was one of the precursors of the General Electric Company.The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was formed in 1883 in the United States when a group of Lynn, Massachusetts investors led by Charles A...

 in 1879. In 1892, Thomson-Houston merged with the Edison General Electric Company to form General Electric

General Electric

General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...

, with management from Thomson-Houston largely running the new company. In 1894, Houston formed a consulting firm in electrical engineering with Arthur Kennelly. Houston was twice president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers

American Institute of Electrical Engineers

The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was a United States based organization of electrical engineers that existed between 1884 and 1963, when it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers .- History :The 1884 founders of the...

. He died from heart failure in 1914.

Books by Edwin J. Houston

• E. J. Houston and A. E. Kennelly Electric Arc Lighting (New York : Electrical World & Engineer, 1902)
• Electric incandescent lighting (New York, The W.J. Johnston Company, 1896)
• E. J. Houston and A. E. Kennelly Electro-dynamic machinery for continuous currents (New York, The W.J. Johnston Company, 1896)
• E. J. Houston and A. E. Kennelly The electric motor and the transmission power (New York, The W.J. Johnston Company, 1896)
• E. J. Houston and A. E. Kennelly Electric Heating(New York, The W.J. Johnston Company, 1895)
• E. J. Houston and A. E. Kennelly Alternating Electric Currents(New York, The W.J. Johnston Company, 1895)
• E. J. Houston and A. E. Kennelly Electric street railways (New York, The W.J. Johnston Company, 1896)
• E. J. Houston and A. E. Kennelly Electrical engineering leaflets : advanced grade (New York : Electrical World & Engineer, 1895)
• E. J. Houston and A. E. Kennelly Electrical engineering leaflets : intermediate grade (New York : Electrical World & Engineer, 1895)
• E. J. Houston A dictionary of electrical words, terms and phrases (volume 1) (New York : P. F. Collier, 1902)
• E. J. Houston A dictionary of electrical words, terms and phrases (volume 2) (New York : P. F. Collier, 1902)