The Late Dr. Ferranti

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 30, 7 February 1930, Page 7

The Late Dr. Ferranti

An Untimely Death BY the recent untimely death of Dr. . S. Z. Ferranti, the famous pioneer in the science of electricity, England lost one of her foremost inventors. Dr. Ferranti was born at Liverpool in 1886, and even as a child showed phenomenal promise in mechanical construction. He completed his education at the age of sixteen, and immediately joined Messrs. Siemens Bros., a. well-known, electrical engineering fiym. Ferrant¥s main work was the esign and construction of the apparatus for town-lighting schemes, and his ideas and inventions, though completely successful, were so original that for years his contemporaries were antagonistic towards him. At the beginning of 1884 the Hammond Company, which owned numerous patents on Ferranti’s inventions, went into liquidation. Ferranti, however, succeeded in buying back the patents, and, having purchased a few tools, started manufacturing on his own account, and practically founded the extensive concern which exists to-day as 8S. Z. de Ferranti, Limited. Having founded this, one of the best known radio firms in the world, Dr. Ferranti continued his experiments, paying great attention to radio. At the time of his death he was still ex-.-perimenting, but the theme of these experiments is not known, and it is ‘very doubtful whether a successor can pick up the thread. .