Ernst Fredrik Werner Alexanderson


  1. The world's first radio programme
  2. 344 patents
  3. The station at Grimeton, Sweden
  4. The first television play
  5. Knight of the Order of the Northern Star
Other articles

Telemuseum home page

 From the very beginning of his employment at General Electric, Alexanderson - parallel with his regular duties in the design and testing departments - had been busy on various inventions, above all in the field of motors and generators. In 1905, this resulted in his first six approved patents. During his long period of service with GE, and including his years in retirement, he obtained a total of 344 patents, of which 11 private, 34 together with colleagues, and the rest as assignor for GE. Each new patent was followed by a "latent patent" (a patent under development) which, when it had been processed and approved, was followed by new patents and latent patents in a long chain over the years.

He left practically no aspect of electrical engineering untested. It is thus possible, from his life's work, to sketch the development of electrical engineering from power engineering to the more and more important field of electronics. A complete list of his patents provides convincing evidence of his ability to span wide sectors of technology - not to mention the numerous designs and technical solutions he fathered, but which dit not result in any patents. An exhaustive list includes all the patents he obtained between the years 1905 and 1973.

In 1910 Alexanderson enrolled in the famous mathematician and electrical engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz' Consulting Engineering Department, which afforded him still greater opportunities to concentrate on continued work with the alternator. In 1918 Alexanderson became manager of the newly established Radio Engineering Department.

by Bengt V Nilsson
Webmaster: angel@telemuseum.se 1996-06-24