Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Gordon, James Edward Henry
GORDON, JAMES EDWARD HENRY (1852–1893), electrical engineer, son of James Alexander Gordon (1793–1872) [q. v.], was born at Barford, Surrey, on 26 June 1852. He was educated at a private school at Brighton, and afterwards at Eton. He studied physics, under Professor W. G. Adams, F.R.S., at King's College, London, and afterwards proceeded to Caius College, Cambridge, where he was admitted on 8 July 1871. He worked in the laboratory of Professor Clerk Maxwell, was a junior optime in the mathematical tripos, and graduated B.A. in 1875. After leaving Cambridge he carried on research work at a laboratory of his own at Dorking, and the results of his work were given in two papers presented to the Royal Society, and published in the 'Philosophical Transactions' (1877, p. 1, and 1879, p. 417). These researches dealt with the subjects of electro-magnetic rotation of polarised light, and the specific inductive capacity of dielectrics.
He occupied the post of assistant secretary to the British Association for two years from 1878, and during this period he published a treatise on electricity and magnetism, and also delivered a course of lectures at the Royal Institution on electrostatic induction.
He was a British delegate to the Paris exhibition of 1881, and shortly afterwards designed a dynamo which was exhibited at the works of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company. In 1883 he became manager of the electric lighting department of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, and was responsible for the design and equipment of the electric lighting plant at Paddington railway station.
In 1887 he took an active share in the formation of the Whitehall Electric Supply Company, which in the following year amalgamated with the Metropolitan Electric Supply Company, of which company he then became the engineer. This post he retained until 1889, when he set up in practice in partnership with Mr. W. J. Rivington as a consulting electrical engineer and contractor. His firm carried out the electric lighting installations at Carlow, Larne, Bray, Sydenham, and many other towns.
He became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 1 April 1890.
His career was cut short by a fatal fall from his horse at Croydon on 3 Feb. 1893.
His published works, in addition to the two papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' are: 1. ' Four Lectures on Static Electric Induction,' London, 1879. 2. 'A Physical Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism,' London, 2 vols. 1880; 2nd edit. 1883. 3. 'A Practical Treatise on Electric Lighting,' London, 1884. 4. 'Improvements in Electrical Distribution—Tomlinson's Patents,' London, 1890.
[Obituary notices in Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. vol. cxiii.; Electrician, 10 Feb. 1893; The Caian, ii. 3; Venn's Biogr. Hist. of Gonville and Caius Coll. ii. 398.]