Stanley, William

Stanley, William (1858–1916) electrical engineer, inventor; born in Brooklyn, N.Y. A lawyer's son, he enrolled at Yale as a prelaw student but soon dropped out and returned to New York. In the early 1880s, working as an assistant to Hiram Maxim and, later, to Edward Weston, he became interested in electricity. During his tenure as chief engineer for George Westinghouse, he demonstrated the first practical use of the transmission of high tension electricity, in Great Barrington, Mass. (1886). Stanley left Westinghouse and with two partners devised a large-scale system for the distribution of alternating current to provide electric power for industry. Among his inventions were a condenser, a two-phase motor, and an alternating current watt-hour meter.