William Joseph Hammer (February 26, 1858 – March 24, 1934) was an American pioneer electrical engineer, aviator, and president of the Edison Pioneers.
Biography
He was born in Cressona, Pennsylvania on February 26, 1858 to William Hammer (1827–1895) and Martha Augusta Beck (1827–1861).
He became a laboratory assistant to Thomas Edison in December 1879, and assisted in the development of the incandescent light bulb. He became one of the world's earliest experts in electric power distribution. He also built the world's first advertising sign using incandescent electric lights. He was chief engineer when the English Edison Electric Light company built a central station in London to power 3,000 incandescent lamps on the Holborn Viaduct. This was the first large scale demonstration of a central station powering incandescent lighting, preceding the Pearl Street Station in New York City. Hammer invented the electric advertising sign, by constructing a ten foot long, four foot high sign with 12 bulbs for each letter of the name "Edison," which had a rotating drum switch to light the letters one by one and then all at once. It was exhibited at The Crystal Palace in London in February 1882.
He collected examples of the Edison lamp at various stages of development, as well as pioneering incandescent lamps by other inventors. The collection eventually was purchased by General Electric placed in the Greenfield Village Museum, established by Henry Ford.
