Robert Davidson (inventor)

Robert Davidson (1804–1894) was a Scottish inventor who built the first known electric locomotive in 1837. He was a lifelong resident of Aberdeen, northeast Scotland, where he was a prosperous chemist and dyer, amongst other ventures. Davidson was educated at Marischal College, where he studied second and third year classes of Marischal College from 1819-1821 [1], including lectures from Professor Patrick Copland. He got this education in return for being a lab assistant.

In the 1820s he set up in business close to the Aberdeen-Inverurie Canal, at first supplying yeast, before becoming involved in the manufacture and supply of chemicals.[2]

He became interested in the new electrical technologies of the day. From 1837, he made small electric motors on his own principles, though William H. Taylor in the US made similar motors from 1838. Both men worked independently without knowledge of the other's work.

Davidson staged an exhibition of electrical machinery at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1840, Edinburgh, one year later—where it was visited by the young James Clerk Maxwell and later at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly in London, where he hoped to attract sponsorship for his work.[3] Amongst the machines shown were electrically operated lathes and printing presses.

Davidson made a model electric locomotive in 1837. His Galvani of 1842 was a four-wheeled machine, powered by zinc-acid batteries. It was tested on the Edinburgh-Glasgow line in September 1842 and, although found capable of carrying itself at 4 mph, it did not haul any passengers or goods.

In a later report it was calculated that consuming zinc in a battery was forty times more expensive than burning coal in a firebox and later experiments in America proved these figures correct. Battery powered locomotives were not economically viable, a point lost on some steam mechanics who smashed the 'Galvani' in its shed, fearing the potential competition to their new trade.

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