John Hopkinson

John Hopkinson (born July 27, 1849, Manchester, Eng.—died Aug. 27, 1898, Mount Petite Dent de Veisivi, Switz.) was a British engineer and physicist who invented the three-wire system for electricity distribution and improved the design and efficiency of electric generators. In 1872, he became the engineering manager of Chance Brothers and Company, a glass manufacturer in Birmingham, where he studied the problems of lighthouse illumination and advocated the use of flashing groups of lights for...