Francis Robbins Upton

American mathematician and physicist

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Francis Robbins Upton (born 1852, Peabody, Mass., U.S.—died March 10, 1921, Orange, N.J.) was an American mathematician and physicist who, as an assistant to Thomas Edison, contributed to the development of the American electric industry.

Upton studied at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; Princeton University; and—with Hermann von Helmholtz—Berlin University. In 1878 he joined Edison at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J. There he worked out mathematical problems arising during the development of such devices as the incandescent lamp, the watt-hour meter, and large dynamos. He was a partner and general manager of the Edison Lamp Works, established in 1880.

Upton also helped Edison publicize his new inventions by writing descriptive articles for such popular magazines as Scribner’s Monthly and Scientific American.