SCANNING OUR PAST

Electrical Engineering Hall of Fame

JOHN B. WHITEHEAD

I N 1941, the American Insti-

tute of Electrical Engineers

(AIEE) selected John B.

Whitehead (Fig. 1) as the

recipient of the Edison Medal. He was

cited Bfor his contributions to the field

of electrical engineering, his pioneer-ing and development in the field of

dielectric research, and his achieve-

ments in the advancement of engi-

neering education.[ After beginning

his professional career in the electrical

power industry, he spent more than

four decades as an educator and

administrator at The Johns HopkinsUniversity, Baltimore, MD. He au-

thored several books and was a con-

sultant on the electrification of steam

railroads and to the military during

both World Wars.

I . MENTORS ATJOHNS HOPKINS

John Boswell Whitehead was born on

August 18, 1872, in Norfolk, VA. He

attended the Norfolk Academy before

enrolling as an undergraduate at The

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,

MD. He completed a program on

applied electricity offered by thedepartment of physics. His principal

mentors were Henry A. Rowland

(Fig. 2) and Louis Duncan (Fig. 3).

Rowland had taught at Johns Hopkins

since the school was established in

1876. He was well known for his work

in the development of magnetic cir-

cuit theory and his precise measure-ments of the magnetic properties of

materials including iron, nickel, and

cobalt. His early research had provid-

ed much of the foundation for the

rational design of electrical dynamos

and other electrical apparatus. Duncan

had graduated from the U.S. Naval

Academy in 1885. The following year,he joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins

as director of the applied electricity

option. He assigned his students to

perform experiments using electrical

In 1941 the AIEE awardedthe Edison Medal to

John B. Whitehead for hiscontributions in the fields ofelectrical engineering anddielectric research, and for

his achievements inengineering education.

Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JPROC.2008.928767

Fig. 1. John B. Whitehead (Courtesy of

IEEE History Center).

Fig. 3. Louis Duncan (Courtesy of

IEEE History Center).

Fig. 2. Henry A. Rowland

(Courtesy of Smithsonian).

Vol. 96, No. 10, October 2008 | Proceedings of the IEEE 17330018-9219/$25.00 �2008 IEEE

machines donated to the university by

the Westinghouse Electric Company.In March 1890, Duncan presented a

technical paper at an AIEE meeting

discussing efficiency tests that he and

his students had conducted on a large

Westinghouse alternating-current (ac)

generator and several Westinghouse

transformers. He reported they had

found that the hysteresis loss intransformers varied very nearly as the

square of magnetic flux density.

Charles P. Steinmetz (Fig. 4), who

was in the audience, subsequently

developed a comprehensive theory of

hysteresis and eddy-current losses.

II . WESTINGHOUSECOMPANY

Soon after graduation from Johns

Hopkins in 1893, Whitehead joined

the engineering staff of the Westing-

house Company, Pittsburgh, PA. It

was an exciting time to be a young

engineer with Westinghouse, a com-pany that had emerged as an industry

leader in the field of ac power. An

impressive exhibit of its latest ac

motors and generators could be seen

at the Columbian Exhibition (Figs. 5

and 6) held in Chicago, IL, during

1893. In October 1893, Westinghouse

was awarded a large contract to

manufacture and install ten 5000 hp

ac generators in what was to be the

world’s largest power plant at Niagara

Falls, NY. The company’s engineers,

including Charles F. Scott, who had

graduated from Johns Hopkins in

1888, were actively investigating the

limits of high-voltage power transmis-

sion. It was in this context that

Whitehead developed what was to be

a lifelong interest in the properties of

high-voltage insulating materials. He

worked for the Niagara Falls Power

Company during 1896–1897 at a time

when it initiated power transmission

from Niagara Falls to Buffalo, NY,

using a high-voltage line.

III . EDUCATOR, AUTHOR,AND CONSULTANT

Whitehead returned to Johns Hopkinsin 1897, where he taught in theapplied electricity program whileworking on an advanced degree. Hereceived his doctorate in 1902 andremained on the faculty, where he be-came a Full Professor in 1910. Duringthe early twentieth century, he didlaboratory work for the National Bu-reau of Standards and for the CarnegieInstitution in Washington, DC. Heauthored a book entitled ElectricOperation of Steam Railroads publishedin 1909. He continued to do researchon high-voltage phenomena and

Fig. 4. Charles P. Steinmetz (Courtesy of

General Electric).

Fig. 5. Westinghouse backdrop at the Columbian Exhibition (Courtesy of IEEE History Center).

Fig. 6. Exterior of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition (Courtesy of IEEE History Center).

Scanning Our Past

1734 Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 96, No. 10, October 2008

presented an AIEE paper on the elec-tric strength of air in 1910. He was

elected a Fellow of the AIEE in 1912.

Whitehead received a commission

as a major in the U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers in 1917 and also did

research for the Naval Consulting

Board on methods of detecting enemy

submarines. He was dean of theSchool of Electrical Engineering at

Johns Hopkins from 1919 to 1938. He

was the author of a book on the theory

of dielectrics and insulation publishedin 1927 and also a book on electricity

and magnetism published in 1939. He

was a Johns Hopkins Exchange Pro-

fessor in France during 1927 and

received the Elliot Cresson Medal

from the Franklin Institute in 1932.

He served a term as president of the

AIEE during 1933–1934. He waselected to the National Academy of

Sciences and was a member of the

National Research Council. He was

Director of the School of Engineering,Johns Hopkins, from 1938 to 1942.

Whitehead retired in 1942 but

continued to use laboratory facilities

at the university. During World War II,

he helped work on techniques to pro-

tect ships from magnetic mines and

also did research for the Army Air

Force. He died on November 16, 1954,in Baltimore at age 82. h

JAMES E. BRITTAIN

Scanning Our Past

Vol. 96, No. 10, October 2008 | Proceedings of the IEEE 1735