Frank William Peek

Background

Frank William Peek was born on August 20, 1881 in Mokelumne Hill, Calaveras County, California, United States. He was the son of Frank William and May (Stedman) Peek.

Education

Frank William Peek prepared for college in his native town and was graduated in 1905 from Leland Stanford University with the A. B. degree. During his vacations he acquired practical experience with the Standard Electric Company of California and the California Gas & Electric Company.

Career

For a year following his graduation, Frank William Peek was employed as test man at the Schenectady, New York, plant of the General Electric Company and then he assumed direction of a special test in engineering research, joining the power and mining engineering department of the company in 1907. It was in this capacity that he began the research which first drew attention to him as an investigator of high voltage phenomena. In connection with this project he spent the summers of 1907 and 1908 in the mountains of Colorado studying lightning and the protection of electric transmission lines and in 1910 was amongst the first to join the newly formed consulting engineering department of the General Electric Company organized by Charles Proteus Steinmetz in Schenectady.

During his first two years here, Frank William Peek was engaged in studying the problems of electric transmission at 250, 000 volts and in the course of this work he established the laws of corona and investigated electric line insulators. At the same time he took graduate work at Union College, receiving the degree of M. E. E. from that institution in 1911. He continued his research in Schenectady until 1916 when he was transferred to the Pittsfield, Massachussets, works of the company and placed in charge of the general transformer engineering department. He was later made chief engineer, which position he held at the time of his death. High voltage and power transmission with related developments were subjects of special research for Peek after 1916. He became increasingly active in the investigation of lightning, designing and building several lightning generators one of which was capable of producing a 5, 000, 000 volt lightning flash.

In 1931 Frank William Peek built a machine which produced 10, 000, 000 volts, the highest voltage ever controlled by man. During his long career in this special field he was a frequent contributor to technical literature, his articles on the laws of corona, high voltage phenomena, transmission lines calculations and allied problems exceeding two hundred in number. He was the author of Dielectric Phenomena in High Voltage Engineering (1915), also published in French (1924). For his paper "High Voltage Power Transmission, " published in the Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. XLVIII, no. 9, and read in 1922 before the society, he was awarded the Thomas Fitch Rowland prize of that organization. For his paper "Lightning, " delivered as an address before The Franklin Institute in 1924, and published in the Journal for February 1925, he was awarded the Levy Gold Medal of that society.

Frank William Peek was a director of the American Society of Electrical Engineers, representing the society on the National Research Council for a number of years. He died on July 26, 1933 when his automobile was struck by a train at Port Daniels, Quebec, Canada.

Achievements

• Frank William Peek was best known as a director of the American Society of Electrical Engineers.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Dielectric Phenomena in High Voltage Engineering (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Dielectric Phenomena in High Voltage Enginee...)

Membership

Frank William Peek was a member of the American Physical Society, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Society of Electrical Engineers.

Connections

On August 9, 1913 Frank William Peek married Merle A. Bell of Oswego, New York.

Father:

Frank William Peek

Mother:

May (Stedman) Peek

Spouse:

Merle A. Bell Peck