Edith Clarke was the first woman to be professionally employed as an electrical engineer in the United States, and the first female professor of electrical engineering in the country.
18 Facts About Edith Clarke
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Edith Clarke was the first woman to deliver a paper at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the first female engineer whose professional standing was recognized by Tau Beta Pi, and the first woman named as a Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
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Edith Clarke specialized in electrical power system analysis and wrote Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Systems.
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One of nine children, Edith Clarke was born to lawyer John Ridgely Clarke and Susan Dorsey Owings on February 10,1883, in Howard County, Maryland.
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Edith Clarke used her inheritance to study mathematics and astronomy at Vassar College, where she graduated in 1908.
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Edith Clarke computed for George Campbell, who applied mathematical methods to the problems of long-distance electrical transmissions.
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Unable to find work as an engineer, Edith Clarke went to work for General Electric as a supervisor of computers in the Turbine Engineering Department.
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Edith Clarke filed a patent for the calculator in 1921 and it was granted in 1925.
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In 1921, Edith Clarke took a leave of absence from GE to teach physics at the Constantinople Women's College in Turkey because she was not allowed to do electrical engineering work, was not earning the same salary and had a lower professional status as men doing the same work.
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The paper was of importance because transmission lines were getting longer, leading to greater loads and more chances for system instability, and Edith Clarke's paper provided a model that applied to large systems.
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Edith Clarke worked on the design and building of hydroelectric dams in the West Hoover Dam, contributing her electrical expertise to develop and install the turbines that generate hydropower there to this day.
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In 1943, Edith Clarke wrote an influential textbook in the field of power engineering, Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Systems, based on her notes for lectures to GE engineers.
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Edith Clarke adopted this system to the three-phase components that are the basis of the electrical grid in the United States.
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Edith Clarke taught for 10 years and retired in 1957.
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Edith Clarke was the first female engineer to achieve professional standing in Tau Beta Pi.
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In 1948, Edith Clarke was the first female Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
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Edith Clarke was the first woman to be accepted as a full voting member in the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
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In 2015, Edith Clarke was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.