Benjamin Garver Lamme
| Benjamin G. Lamme | |
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| Born | Benjamin Garver Lamme January 12, 1864 near Springfield, Ohio |
| Died | July 8, 1924 (aged 60) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Fields | Electrical engineering |
| Notable awards | IEEE Edison Medal (1918) |
Benjamin Garver Lamme (January 12, 1864 – July 8, 1924) was an American electrical engineer and chief engineer at Westinghouse, where he was responsible for the design of electrical power machines. Lamme created an efficient induction motor from Nikola Tesla's patents and went on to design the giant Niagara Falls generators and motors and the power plant of the Manhattan Elevated Railway in New York City.
Lamme was born on a farm near Springfield, Ohio, on 12 January 1864. From an early age he tinkered with machinery and made experiments of his ideas on the Lamme family farm. He liked things that rotated, especially at high speed. In later years he was able to solve complex problems in his engineering work using mental calculations. Lamme graduated from Olive Branch High School near New Carlisle, Ohio in 1883 and subsequently entered Ohio State University and graduated with an engineering degree in 1888.
In early 1889, Lamme read an article about Westinghouse forming the Philadelphia Natural Gas Company of Pittsburgh. Westinghouse hired Lamme and within a few months transferred him to the Westinghouse Electric Company.
Lamme took over the stalled project of developing a practical version of Nikola Tesla's patented induction motor from Westinghouse engineer Charles F. Scott and came up with a more efficient cage winding design. Over a period of several years, he designed a variety of electrical motors and generators. Among his eight US patents were inventions on induction motors, electrical ship propulsion, and Gyroscopic stabilizer systems. He designed the single-reduction motor for street railways (replacing the double-reduction motors), the Rotary Converter, railroad electrification systems, the Westinghouse Type C Induction Motor, and the first 5000 kW generators for the giant hydroelectric generators in the Adams Power Plant at Niagara Falls, for many years the largest power station in the world. Bertha Lamme Feicht worked alongside her brother in the design of the turbogenerator at Niagara Falls. Operation began locally in 1895 and power was transmitted to Buffalo, New York, in 1896.
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