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- Benjamin Garver Lamme was a pioneering American electrical engineer. Lamme spent most of his life working for the Westinghouse Electric Company as an inventor and a developer of electrical machinery. Benjamin Lamme was born on a farm near Springfield, Ohio, on 12 January 1864. From an early age Lamme tinkered with machinery and made experiments of his ideas on the Lamme family farm. Lamme liked things that rotated, especially at high speed. It was required he learn multiplication tables to 12 times 12; however, Lamme developed the ability to 25 times 25, then 36 times 36. In later years he solved complex problems in his engineering work using mental calculations. Lamme entered Ohio State University in 1883 and did well in engineering courses. Following graduation, in early 1889 Lamme read an article about Westinghouse forming the Philadelphia Natural Gas Company of Pittsburgh. Westinghouse hired Lamme and within a few months transferred him to the to the Westinghouse Electric Company, where he remained the rest of his working life. The resulting improvements he made in machine performance and increased output resulted in Lamme being put in charge of the Test Rooms, and the design of new machines. His development of design technology for electric machines was impressive. It included the single-reduction motor for street railway that took the industry by storm and replaced the double-reduction motors, the Rotary Converter, railroad electrification systems, the Westinghouse Type C Induction Motor, and the first 5000 kW generators for power development at Niagara Falls. After Nichola Tesla left Westinghouse, Lamme redesigned the induction motor, making it as we know it today. Mr. Lamme spent many years developing advanced analysis and computational methods for designing machines, doing much of the work at night. The importance of Lamme’s methodology was realized in 1893 when Westinghouse began designing the first Niagara Falls 5000 kW generators using his computation methods. Lamme designed much of the apparatus for the Westinghouse exhibit at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, including alternating-current generators, induction motors, and rotary converters. In addition to his design work on the Niagara Falls alternators, Lamme designed the “monster machines” for the power plant of the Manhattan Elevated Railway in New York City. Lamme became chief engineer at Westinghouse in 1903 and held the position for the rest of his life. Lamee received the IEEE Edison Medal on May 16, 1919, in the Auditorium of the Engineering Societies Building-the site that preceded the United Engineering Building of recent times-in New York City. The citation was “For Invention and Development of Electrical Machinery. ” The Edison Medal is presented for “a career of meritorious achievements in electrical science or electrical engineering or electrical arts. ” On January 11, 1923 Ohio State University presented Mr. Lamme with the Joseph Sullivant Gold Medal; the initial presentation of that award. As the technology advanced, one of Mr. Lamme’s responsibilities was to recruit, evaluate, and train new engineering graduates employed by the Westinghouse Company. He developed criteria for selecting the most talented persons for the design engineering work. He developed and taught the Westinghouse Engineering Course in which those selected spent full time for six months. Lamme’s great interest in the people with whom he worked was returned by their affection, esteem and admiration for him as a great engineer. He was addressed by his friends and colleagues as well as his family by the affectionate “B.G. ” Very fond of classical music, Lamme accumulated a large collection of records. Lamme never married and made his home with sisters. His sister Bertha Lamme graduated from Ohio State University with an engineering degree. She was the first woman who graduated in a major field of engineering other than areas related to civil engineering. She worked at Westinghouse as an electrical design engineer under her brother’s direction until she left to marry Russell S. Feicht, a member of the engineering department. Lamme died July 8, 1924 in Pittsburgh, PA. , at the age of 60. In his will, Lamme provided for a gold medal to be awarded by the AIEE for meritorious achievement in the development of electrical apparatus or machinery, and a gold medal to be awarded by the American Society for Engineering Education for accomplishment in technical teaching. He also provided for a medal to be awarded by Ohio State University for meritorious achievement in engineering or the mechanical arts by a graduate of a technical department.
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