Background
He was born on November 11, 1859 at Liskeard, Cornwall, England, on the farm of his parents, Daniel and Jane (Yates) Sargent. He early developed a taste for mechanics.
He was born on November 11, 1859 at Liskeard, Cornwall, England, on the farm of his parents, Daniel and Jane (Yates) Sargent. He early developed a taste for mechanics.
He became an apprentice in the famous engineering works of John Elder & Company on the Clyde, near Glasgow. While serving his apprenticeship, he attended night classes at Anderson's College, Glasgow.
In 1880 he came to the United States and found employment designing marine steam engines in the shipbuilding yards on the Atlantic Coast. The following year he was designer for the Sioux City (Iowa) Engine Company and in 1882 went to Milwaukee to join the engineering staff of E. P. Allis & Company.
He soon became acquainted with the Western Edison Light Company of Chicago and in 1884 went to work for them; on the organization of the Chicago Edison Company in 1887 he became its consulting engineer, holding this connection with the Edison Company and its successor, the Commonwealth Edison Company, until his death. To the duties of this post he added, in 1889, those of chief engineer of the Edison United Manufacturing Company, with headquarters in New York, and on the reorganization of this concern as the Edison General Electric Company he became its assistant chief engineer.
In August 1890 he returned to Chicago to establish himself as a consulting electrical and mechanical engineer, and in 1891 formed the firm of Sargent & Lundy. He was consulting engineer for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1891 and 1892.
During the World War, he was consulting engineer for the government in connection with the Edgewood Arsenal and other projects.
His designs were usually in advance of the times, but his experimenting was held in restraint by sound practical common sense. A genius in the design and operation of steam electric generating stations, he left his imprint indelibly on the central-station industry of his generation.
He died at his home in Glencoe, Ill.
He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Western Society of Engineers, and other organizations.
Sargent had an active mind and a broad outlook; his thinking was always simple, direct, and practical.
He married at Sioux City, Iowa, in 1885, Laura S. Sleep, daughter of William H. Sleep, a manufacturer, of Plymouth, England. His wife, with two sons and a daughter, survived him.