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Edward Goodrich Acheson was born on March 9, 1856 in Washington, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of William Acheson, a merchant, and Sarah Diana (Ruple) Acheson, daughter of Colonel James Ruple of the same town. He was a grandson of David Acheson, of Scottish descent, who emigrated from County Armagh, Ireland, in 1788. When Edward was five years old the family moved to Monticello (later renamed Gosford), Pennsylvania, where his father became manager of a blast furnace.
Acheson attended a district school of Monticello conducted by a neighboring farmer. Beginning in 1869 he spent one year at a boarding school in North Sewickley, then transferred to the academy at Bellfonte. He was called home during the fall term of 1872, his father anticipating the depression of 1873-1874.
Acheson first became timekeeper at the blast furnace. During spare hours he invented and secured a patent, March 5, 1873, for a rock-boring machine to be used in the coal mines. This project had been suggested and all expenses met by his father, who was deeply interested in mechanics. After his father's death in 1873 the son held a number of temporary positions, among them being that of ticket agent for the Allegheny Valley Railroad, assistant surveyor, assistant engineer on a railroad construction job, and oil tank gauger.
In 1880 Acheson decided to go to New York to secure employment in the fast-growing electrical industry, his interest in that field having been aroused by articles in the Scientific American. Fortunately, he found a position as draftsman with Thomas A. Edison at Menlo Park. Acheson was then twenty-five years old; Edison, thirty-three. Within a short time the new employee was working on research problems in the experimental department and preparing to assist with the lamp exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1881. Thereafter he spent over two years in various countries of Europe, helping to install electric lighting plants.
Soon after returning to Menlo Park he secured financial assistance from friends to start his own experimental laboratory. The money was soon spent and late in 1885 Acheson returned to Gosford. There he experimented on the reduction of iron ore by natural gas. The results were unsatisfactory. Acheson was at last able to sell the rights to a previously invented anti-induction telephone wire and to obtain as part payment a position with the Standard Underground Cable Company. At the end of three years he became interested in the construction of an electric plant for lighting the town of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. This work was undertaken chiefly to secure the daytime power for experimental purposes.
While he was working on iron ore, certain observations, together with a statement by George F. Kunz that a good abrasive was one of the important industrial needs, led him in March 1891 to attempts to "harden clay" (probably to make diamonds). Acheson mixed the clay with powdered coke and electrically fused the mixture in a plumber's pot. On examining the cooled melt he found two or three shiny specks that were hard enough to scratch glass. Their discovery led to further experiments, development of the electric furnace, and a suitable procedure for making the desired product, silicon carbide, which he had named "carborundum" before analysis disclosed its real nature. Then came the usual trouble incidental to the manufacture and sale of a new product: financial problems in establishing the Carborundum Company and moving it to Niagara Falls in 1895, the settlement of rival claims to patent rights and, finally, the loss of controlling interest in the organization. Undaunted, Acheson turned to the development of the Acheson Graphite Company, which he had incorporated in 1899. In earlier experimental work he had noted that overheating carborundum had resulted in the production of practically pure graphite. He soon found anthracite coal satisfactory as a raw material. This work led to the manufacture and sale of graphite products: solid for electrodes and crucibles, colloidal solutions for lubricating purposes, and inks.
In 1903 he brought his various interests together in a family corporation, the Acheson Company. Acheson obtained in all sixty-nine patents, covering abrasives, graphite products, reduction of oxides, and refractories. He was instrumental in starting and successfully establishing at least five industrial corporations more or less closely dependent upon electrothermal processes. He became internationally known for his inventions.
He died of pneumonia at the home of a daughter in New York, when he was in his seventy-fifth year.
Acheson discovered the abrasive Carborundum and perfected a method for making graphite. He received a number of honors, notably the John Scott medal, conferred in 1894 for the discovery of carborundum, and again in 1901 for the production of artificial graphite; the Count Rumford Premium, conferred by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1908 for products of the electric furnace; and the Perkin medal, awarded in 1910 by the Society of Chemical Industry, the American Chemical Society, and the American Electrochemical Society. In 1928 he gave $25, 000 to the last-named organization to establish a prize to be awarded every two years. In 1929 the first award of the Acheson medal was made to him for the discovery of carborundum and artificial graphite and the development of their commercial manufacture. In 1997, Acheson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. His house, the Edward G. Acheson House in Monongahela, Pennsylvania is a National Historic Landmark.
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Acheson was a member of the American Electrochemical Society.
On December 15, 1884, Acheson married Margaret C. Maher of Brooklyn, New York, by whom he had five sons and four daughters--Veronica Belle, Edward Goodrich, Raymond Maher, Sarah Ruth, George Wilson, John Huyler, Margaret Irene, Jean Ellen, and Howard Archibald.
