Background
He was born at York Factory, Manitoba, Canada, the son of Joseph and Sarah Jane (Mason) Fortescue. His father, who came of an old Devonshire family, was chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company.
He was born at York Factory, Manitoba, Canada, the son of Joseph and Sarah Jane (Mason) Fortescue. His father, who came of an old Devonshire family, was chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Young Fortescue was educated at Dawlish, Devon, England, and at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and was the university's first graduate in electrical engineering.
His alma mater subsequently granted him an honorary LL. D.
He graduated with the degree of B. Sc.
After graduation in 1898 he joined the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company at East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he remained throughout his entire professional career. Starting as an apprentice in the Westinghouse shop, Fortescue was quickly noticed by Benjamin Garver Lamme, who put him to work on devising new designs and new methods of building armature coils for electric motors and generators.
After his success with this problem, Fortescue was transferred to the transformer department, where he did much to rationalize the design of transformers. This immediately brought him into contact with the important problem of insulation and the creepage of current along insulating surfaces when placed within a dielectric field.
These studies led him to consider the design of porcelain line insulators and to apply to their design the so-called "faradoid" principle, whereby the insulator surfaces are shaped to conform to the electric field about the insulator.
Fortescue next devoted considerable attention to problems of railway electrification and power supply, working particularly on the electrification of the New Haven, Pennsylvania, and Norfolk & Western railroads. He is best known, however, for his later work in the field of power transmission.
Fortescue was a prolific inventor, the recipient of some 185 patents. He was a very able theoretician but yet had the ability to put theory to practical use. Because of the nature of his work, he associated mainly with other engineers and was not generally known to the public. But through his contributions to the electric power industry he helped to bring about the tremendous increase that took place in the availability and use of electric power, a matter of very real public interest.
Fortescue was prominent in the activities of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, serving on many technical committees and contributing many technical papers.
Fortescue died in Pittsburgh after a lingering nephritic condition and was buried in Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
His study of high-voltage measurements during this period also led him to propose that the sphere-gap test be used as a standard for the measurement of high voltages, a test which became standard practice. It was characteristic of Fortescue's work that improvements in details of design invariably led him into fundamental principles of design that had wide application. Most notable was his development of the method of symmetrical components or coordinates, a mathematical tool which has come into universal use for computing the performance of polyphase alternating current systems; for its development he was awarded the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1932. The use of this method led to many improvements in high-power transmission lines and in alternating-current motors and generators, and it substantially reduced the time required for the analysis and design of such equipment. Second only in importance to Fortescue's method of symmetrical components was his contribution to the art of lightning protection of cross-country transmission lines. In recognition of his work, the Charles LeGeyt Fortescue Fellowship, awarded by the Institute, was established for the purpose of fostering graduate study in electrical engineering.
He was the first to propose and develop the "direct stroke" theory of lightning protection. Before his work in this field, it was assumed that it was possible to protect only against the effect of induced strokes, and that it would be necessary to accept a line short-circuit for every direct stroke. His work showed that it is possible to make a transmission line essentially proof against lightning of any kind.
Quotations: In the words of C. A. Powel: "The problem of meshing together the ends of armature coils--primarily a problem in 3-dimension geometry--was a fertile field in which the mathematically minded young engineer had full scope for imagination and for adapting theoretical schemes to practical necessities. "
He was a member of the committees of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
He had a vigorous personality.
His wife, Louise Cameron Walter, and their daughter, Jane Faithful, survived him.
