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Edith Clarke
Edith Clarke (February 10, 1883 – October 29, 1959) was an American electrical engineer and academic. Clarke specialized in electrical power system analysis and is credited with laying the foundation for the smart grid - helping the electric grid of the future grow, remain stable and reliable. She was the first person who used an analyzer to obtain data about power networks. The U.S. Department of Energy calls her efforts “the first step toward smart grid technology. She could be called the Smart Grid’s ‘Founding Mother.’”. She wrote the textbook used by power engineers for decades titled Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Systems.
Clarke's legacy includes being the first woman to be professionally employed as an electrical engineer in the United States and the first female professor of electrical engineering in the country. She was the first woman to deliver a paper at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
One of nine children, Edith Clarke was born in Howard County, Maryland to lawyer John Ridgely Clarke and Susan Dorsey Owings on February 10, 1883. After being orphaned at age 12, she was raised by an older sister. She used her inheritance to study mathematics and astronomy at Vassar College, where she graduated in 1908 with honors (Phi Beta Kappa).
After college, Clarke taught mathematics and physics at a private school in San Francisco and at Marshall College. She then spent the 1911-1912 academic year studying civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but left to become a "computer" at AT&T in 1912. She computed for George Campbell, who applied mathematical methods to the problems of long-distance electrical transmissions. While at AT&T, she studied electrical engineering at Columbia University at night.
In 1918, Clarke enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the following year she became the first woman to earn an M.S. in electrical engineering from MIT. Her thesis at MIT was supervised by Arthur E. Kennelly and was titled "Behavior of a lumpy artificial transmission line as the frequency is indefinitely increased."
Unable to find work as an engineer, Clarke went to work for General Electric as a supervisor of computers in the Turbine Engineering Department. Here she directed women computers who were calculating the mechanical stresses in turbines. In 1921, Clarke took a leave of absence from GE to teach physics at the Constantinople Women's College in Turkey because she was not allowed to do electrical engineering work, was not earning the same salary and had a lower professional status as men doing the same work.
In 1922, when she returned from Turkey, she was offered a job by GE as a salaried electrical engineer in the Central Station Engineering Department – the first professional female electrical engineer in the United States.
Clarke’s area of specialty was electric power systems and problems related to their operations. She developed charts that served as calculating devices to enable GE engineers to determine how currents were distributed among transmission lines. Her charts saved valuable calculating time during World War II.
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Edith Clarke
Edith Clarke (February 10, 1883 – October 29, 1959) was an American electrical engineer and academic. Clarke specialized in electrical power system analysis and is credited with laying the foundation for the smart grid - helping the electric grid of the future grow, remain stable and reliable. She was the first person who used an analyzer to obtain data about power networks. The U.S. Department of Energy calls her efforts “the first step toward smart grid technology. She could be called the Smart Grid’s ‘Founding Mother.’”. She wrote the textbook used by power engineers for decades titled Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Systems.
Clarke's legacy includes being the first woman to be professionally employed as an electrical engineer in the United States and the first female professor of electrical engineering in the country. She was the first woman to deliver a paper at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
One of nine children, Edith Clarke was born in Howard County, Maryland to lawyer John Ridgely Clarke and Susan Dorsey Owings on February 10, 1883. After being orphaned at age 12, she was raised by an older sister. She used her inheritance to study mathematics and astronomy at Vassar College, where she graduated in 1908 with honors (Phi Beta Kappa).
After college, Clarke taught mathematics and physics at a private school in San Francisco and at Marshall College. She then spent the 1911-1912 academic year studying civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but left to become a "computer" at AT&T in 1912. She computed for George Campbell, who applied mathematical methods to the problems of long-distance electrical transmissions. While at AT&T, she studied electrical engineering at Columbia University at night.
In 1918, Clarke enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the following year she became the first woman to earn an M.S. in electrical engineering from MIT. Her thesis at MIT was supervised by Arthur E. Kennelly and was titled "Behavior of a lumpy artificial transmission line as the frequency is indefinitely increased."
Unable to find work as an engineer, Clarke went to work for General Electric as a supervisor of computers in the Turbine Engineering Department. Here she directed women computers who were calculating the mechanical stresses in turbines. In 1921, Clarke took a leave of absence from GE to teach physics at the Constantinople Women's College in Turkey because she was not allowed to do electrical engineering work, was not earning the same salary and had a lower professional status as men doing the same work.
In 1922, when she returned from Turkey, she was offered a job by GE as a salaried electrical engineer in the Central Station Engineering Department – the first professional female electrical engineer in the United States.
Clarke’s area of specialty was electric power systems and problems related to their operations. She developed charts that served as calculating devices to enable GE engineers to determine how currents were distributed among transmission lines. Her charts saved valuable calculating time during World War II.