IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2016 - 96

but marginalized. He started more companies: Sprague Safety Control and Signal
Corporation (1906), Standard Third Rail
Company with William Wilgus (1907),
and Sprague Signs, Inc. (1929). While
none were a commercial success, he always maintained that the Safety Company
was some of his best work.
Sprague served as a key member of
the Electric Traction Commission that
planned the electrification of Grand Central Terminal in the early 20th century
and during World War I served on the Naval Advisory Board chaired by Thomas
Edison. May 1913 entries in the Sprague
guest book, made when Edison and his
second wife, Mina, visited Sprague and
his wife Harriet in New York City, hint
at the complexity of the relationship:
Edison: Everything comes to those who
hustle while they wait. Mina: It is only
the great hearted who can be true friends.
The mean, the cowardly can never know
what true friendship means.
Still, if the two men maintained some
form of a limited truce during this service,

figure 10. Frank J. Sprague on his
75th birthday, 25 July 1932. (Photo
courtesy of John L. Sprague.)

they were at it again after the war. Following an interview with Edison, a 10 August
1919 New York Sun article credited him
with the invention of the street railway
system. Recalling his Richmond success,
a furious Sprague replied, "Neither of us
invented the dynamo-electric machine,

whether used as a generator or motor, and
except that both were founded on basic
principles developed by others, there was
no more similarity between the Edison dynamo and the Sprague motor than between
a brindle pup and a greyhound." It should
be noted that, while Sprague is often found
arguing about words someone else has
credited to Edison, the "Wizard" seldom, if
ever, took issue with their validity.
Another view on where credit is due
can be found in a letter T-H cofounder
Elihu Thomson wrote in May 1932 to
Sprague for the 25 July 1932 celebration
of Sprague's 75th birthday (see Figure 10).
At the time, Thomson was director of the
Thomson Research Laboratory of GE in
Lynn, Massachusetts.
My Dear Sprague,
I remember well the time we
first met at the Franklin Institute
Electrical Exhibition in Philadelphia in the fall of 1884 when you
explained the work in which you
were engaged, in the design of advanced types of electrical motors



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