Talk:Daniel McFarlan Moore

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On 21 Feb 2005, this article was nominated for deletion. The result was keep. See Votes for deletion/Daniel McFarlan Moore for a record of the discussion. &mdash;Korath (Talk) 11:29, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

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Here is a slightly revised biography of Moore that was published while he was still alive, in a directory of prominent citizens of New Jersey, where he lived: DANIEL MCFARLAN MOORE is an electrical engineer and inventor. He was born at Northumberland, Pa., on February 27, 1869; son of the Rev. Alexander Davis and Maria Louisa (Douglas) Moore. He married Mary Alice Elliott, of New York City, on June 5, 1895. They had three children: Dorothy Mae, born 1900; Elliott McFarlan, born 1902; Beatrice Jean, born 1912.

D. McFarlan Moore’s earliest paternal ancestors settled on the eastern shore of Maryland before the Revolutionary War. Moore's great-grandfather was captain of one of the guns, and Moore's grandfather was a “powder monkey” at the storming of Fort McHenry, where the Star Spangled Banner was written. “The powder monkey” later became the editor of the old “National Intelligencer,” of Washington, D. C., and was closely associated with the early history of the United States. He was a Grand Sire of the Odd Fellows. His son, the Rev. Alexander Davis Moore, the inventor’s father, was a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and the Pastor of the Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia; he died in 1910. An uncle, Col. William G. Moore, was the Private Secretary of President Andrew Johnson. Among Moore's maternal ancestors were Sir Arthur Johns and the Earl of Gray. His great great grandfather was Col. Archibald Orme, a member of Gen. Washington’s staff.

Mr. Moore was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania, the Moravian Parochial School, Ulrich’s Preparatory School and Lehigh University. He entered immediately into the employ of the United Edison Manufacturing Company, and for four years was in close touch with many of the largest early electric light installations on both land and sea. He also had charge of the installation and trial cruise of the first war vessel to be steered by electricity. He told of his experiences in an article published in Frank Leslie’s Magazine in 1893. In 1894, he left Edison's employ to organize the Moore Electrical Company and later the Moore Light Company, and was Vice President and General Manager of both companies for eighteen years, at the end of which time the Moore Light interests were absorbed by the General Electric Company.

Mr. Moore early developed an absorbing interest in inventions. His first patent was granted to him in 1893, and since that time more than 100 additional inventions have been patented in the United States. For many years he pursued the production of electric light by the flow of electricity through various gases, not through solid wires as is the case with the ordinary incandescent electric lamp.

Mr. Moore is widely known because of his having exhibited the Moore Light in its various stages of development at many electrical shows, and of his numerous scientific lectures in various parts of the country before such bodies as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences, National Electric Light Association, American Electro-Chemical Society, Johns Hopkins University, and Columbia University. Moore Light Companies were organized in France, Switzerland and Russia.

In 1893, Mr. Moore contributed to the transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, a paper on “A New Method for the Control of Electric Energy,” and in 1894, “Cassier’s Magazine,” published his article entitled: “The Light of the Future,” which was the first attempt to treat this subject in a concrete manner. and attracted wide attention. His paper in 1896, before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on “Recent Developments in Vacuum Tube Lighting,” excited much comment, so that a few months later, the “Moore Light” became the object of principal interest to thousands at New York’s first Great Electrical Show at the Grand Central Palace. During the Electrical Show at Madison Square Garden in 1898 the “Moore Chapel,” lighted with vacuum tubes aroused interest, as did somewhat similar exhibitions in Boston, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. Later the long glass tubes of the Moore Light came into general commercial use.

Among the modified forms of the Moore Light exhibited at the Electrical Show in New York in 1916, were, a unit provided with Neon gas, and another using carbon dioxide gas, the color of the light of which is exactly the same as that of the best quality of daylight and it is therefore used as the standard of color values throughout the world, and is particularly valuable to the textile industry. In 1910, he was awarded by the City of Philadelphia. through the Franklin Institute, the John Scott medal, and in 1912, Sir William Ramsay presented Mr. Moore, in recognition of his work, with a very valuable bottle of Neon gas, the element which Ramsay discovered.

Mr. Moore was a member of a score of organizations and is a public spirited citizen. He was a Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, member and past Chairman of the Illuminating Engineering Society, the New York Electrical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Society of the War of 1812 and was Vice President of Orange Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.