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Charles Grafton Page From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born	January 25, 1812 Salem, Massachusetts Died	May 5, 1868 Washington, D.C. Nationality	United States Field	Electrical Chemistry Alma Mater	Harvard University, M.D. Cambridge University Publications	American Journal of Science; Annals of Electricity, Magnetism, and Chemistry; Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers Notable Award	National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2006

Charles Grafton Page (January 25, 1812 in Salem, Massachusetts – May 5, 1868 in Washington, D.C.) was an American electrical physicist. Some people think of him as an inventor, scientist, and technician, while others recognize him as a historian, scholar, novelist, and mathematician. In a time period when many scientists invented to exploit the utility of their inventions, Page experimented to quench his curious thirst for knowledge. Page published over 40 articles in the American Journal of Science, appeared 41 times in the Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers (1800-1863 volume), and contributed to William Sturgeon’s Annals of Electricity, Magnetism, and Chemistry. Page valued the induction (Ruhmkorff) coil as his prized invention, but he also deserves credit for “Galvanic Music,” Compound Magnet and Electrotome, Vibrating Armature, Reciprocating Armature Engine, and Model of Axial Engine. Just before his death in 1868, Congress granted Page the original patent for the Ruhmkorff coil. Contents 1 Life 2 Education 3 Scientific Work 4 Controversy 5 See Also 6. References 7 Patents 8 External Links

LIFE Charles Grafton Page was born to Captain Jere Lee Page and Lucy Lang Page on January 25, 1812 in Salem, Massachusetts. He had eight siblings, four of each gender. While not much information on his sisters is available, his brothers were plagued. One died in infancy. George died from typhoid at the age of sixteen. Jery died on an expedition to the Caribbean at the age of twenty-five, and the last one, Henry, suffered from poliomyelitis. In one of his last letters to Charles, Jery captured the family’s situation with the following quotation: “You are the only classical Page in our book.” At an early age, Charles’s parents noticed he excelled in rhetoric and wrote with grace. They thought he was strong, quick, cultured, and brilliant. When he was nine years-old, Charles climbed on top of his house with a fire-shovel and attempted to catch electricity during a thunderstorm. When he was ten years-old, he built an electrostatic machine that he used to shock his friends. At the age of sixteen, Charles developed the “portable electrophorus,” which served as the foundation for his first published article in the American Journal of Science. In 1838, Page moved to northern Virginia. He took a job as principal examiner in the United States Patent Office in Washington, D.C. in 1841. His liberal views began to conflict with the policies of the stringent Patent Office, and in 1852 he resigned. In 1861, he returned to the Patent Office. Page spent twenty-six years as a patent examiner, examiner’s adversary, and private agent. He also served as a formal consultant to the committees in charge of the construction of the Smithsonian Institute and the Washington Monument. Page married Priscilla Sewall Webster and had four kids with her. Although one child died in infancy, they brought up three healthy children: Emmie, Charlie, and Harriet. EDUCATION After attending grammar school with Henry Wheatland, Page entered Cambridge University as an undergraduate. He received an M.D. from Harvard University, where he formed an influential bond with Professor John White Webster. In the 1840s and 1850s, Page taught night classes at Columbian College (George Washington University) in Washington, D.C. SCIENTIFIC WORK One of the reasons it is so difficult to pigeonhole Page in the classification of scientists is because he was a Jacksonian scientist – that is, he had no predetermined goals. Page was less intrigued by the usefulness of an idea, and he was more motivated by a pure interest in science. His early interests included botany, entomology, and floriculture. However, his tastes and training guided him on the path to be an electrical physicist. Physical work experimentation completed by Page was done in isolation, but he collaborated closely with America’s Joseph Henry and England’s William Sturgeon. Joseph Henry was the leading American electrical chemist at in the 1830s, and William Sturgeon was his English counterpart. Page is responsible for linking the concepts explored by Henry to the postulations made by Sturgeon. Henry discovered self-induction in 1832, and he was experimenting with it in 1835 when he “got electrostatic effects… due to momentary interruptions of the circuit” by “winding a piece of insulated copper ribbon into a helix, connecting an end of it to one pole of a Calorimotor, and drawing the other end across a piece of rough metal wired to the other pole.” Page repeated Henry’s experiment, but Page used copper at intermediate points instead of only the extremities. His goal was “to determine if the intensity of the sparks and shocks increased in fixed relation to each other and proportionately to the length of the circuit.” Page’s experiment let Sturgeon to believe that “a segment of the coil exterior to the battery circuit could act as a secondary to a segment within it.”  At the time, Page called his invention the Dynamic Multiplier, and it is more commonly known as the autotransformer. Page’s induction coil involved “a primary coil of some turns of heavy copper around a bundle of soft iron rods and a secondary coil of many turns of fine wire wrapped on the outside of this primary coil.” It included a self-acting circuit breaker. In addition to his Galvanic Music, Compound Magnet and Electrotome, Vibrating Armature, Reciprocating Armature Engine, and Model of Axial Engine, Page focused on electric motors. On April 29, 1851, Page conducted a failed experiment when he attempted to run a battery-powered motor over a five-mile track. Throughout his life, Page published approximately one-hundred articles over the course of three distinct periods: the late 1830s, the mid-1840s, and the early 1850s. The first period lasted for three years and was especially crucial in developing his analytic skills. Many of the ideas crafted by Page were turned into products that were manufactured and marketed by Daniel Davis, Jr., a friend of Page’s. This is evidence that Page was motivated more by the inquisitive part of science rather than the utilitarian aspect. CONTROVERSY Much of Page’s work is overshadowed by four bitter controversies he encountered, starting in the 1850s. First, Page accepted a $20,000 government grant to conduct his failed experiment on April 29, 1851. This was one of the first scientific government grants because it was considered unethical to obtain this type of financial aid for private purposes. The unethical action coupled with the failure of the experiment effectively ostracized Page from the scientific sector. Second, Page’s views contrasted with the views of his employer, the United States Patent Office. In the 1850s, it was increasingly more difficult for an inventor to obtain a patent. The Patent Office instituted stricter standards to compensate for its inefficiency, and as a result, a dangerously low number of patents were issued each year. Since the liberal views of Page could not be reconciled with the conservative views of the Patent Office, Page was forced to resign from his position. Third, a mob of Union soldiers broke into Page’s laboratory and destroyed his equipment in 1863. After this devastating occurrence, Page was unable to continue acting on his passion for science. Fourth, Page was embroiled in a conflict with Heinrich Ruhmkorff for the rights to the patent for the induction coil. He had to petition Congress for this patent, and even though Congress granted Page the patent, Ruhmkorff still receives the bulk of the recognition for the coil. SEE ALSO Ruhmkorff coil REFERENCES 1. Post, Robert C. (1976). Physics, Patents, and Politics: A Biography of Charles Grafton Page. Science History Publications: New York, 1976. 2. "Charles (Grafton) Page (1812-1868)." Hutchinson's Biography Database (07 July 2003): 1. EBSCO MegaFILE. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 19 Nov. 2008 . PATENTS •	C.G. Page, U.S. Patent 20,507, "Head Rest" •	C.G. Page, U.S. Patent 76,654, "Induction Coil Apparatus and Circuit Breaker " EXTERNAL LINKS •	“Charles Grafton Page”. http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/page.html •	“PV Scientific Instruments: About Induction Coils”. http://www.arcsandsparks.com/aboutinductioncoils.html

DOYCER (talk) 16:12, 19 November 2008 (UTC)Royce