Jonas Wenström

Jonas Wenström (4 August 1855 in Hällefors – 22 December 1893 in Västerås) was a Swedish engineer and inventor, who in 1890 received a Swedish patent on the same three-phase system independently developed by Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky. This formed the basis for ASEA (later ABB). The possibility of transferring electrical power from a waterfall at a distance was explored at the Grängesberg mine. A $45 m$ fall at Hällsjön, Smedjebackens kommun, where a small iron work had been located, was selected. In 1893, a three-phase $9.5 Kilovolt|kv$ system was used to transfer 400 horsepower a distance of $15 km$, becoming the first commercial application.

About the invention of electric light, Wenström wrote: "Edison's new invention of electric light: a glowing carbon strip, is the same thing that I discovered a year ago ... If I had his laboratory, and resources, I would have done the same and better ... a graphite strip between two mica plates provide a more effective light than Edison's."