Nathaniel S. Keith, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Nathaniel S. Keith

American chemist

Date of Birth: 14-Jul-1838

Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Date of Death: 27-Jan-1925

Profession: engineer, chemist, mining engineer, metallurgist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About Nathaniel S. Keith

  • Nathaniel Shepard Keith (July 14, 1838 – January 27, 1925) was an American manufacturer, chemist, inventor, writer, and electrical engineer.
  • Keith was born in Boston, Massachusetts and worked in his fathers laboratory.
  • He was instrumental in designing, manufacturing, and installing the original electric lighting and power system in San Francisco, California.
  • In 1884 he became editor of Electric World, co-founded the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) and served as the first secretary of the organization.
  • The AIEE merged with other societies in 1963 to become the IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Biography. N.
  • S.
  • Keith grew up experimenting in his father's laboratory in New York City.
  • He was educated in the common schools of Dover, N.
  • H.
  • and New York City, and attended the New York University Medical School, but never practiced medicine.
  • He also learned the basics of chemistry in the laboratory of his father, Bethuel Keith & Co., a physician and chemist in drug manufacturer (Bethuel Keith 1811-1884).
  • In 1860, at age 22, he followed the Pikes Peak Gold Rush to Colorado where he spent nearly a decade mining and milling in the Central City-Blackhawk area.
  • He experimented with various processes to work the rebellious gold ores (see "Ore Roasting Furnace" Patent No.
  • 36437, Sept 9, 1862).
  • Although the "Keith Process" of ore crushing and smelting worked in the laboratory, he failed to perfect the system on an industrial scale.
  • He was superintendent of several mining operations, including the well known Mammoth mine, which closed when the vein pinched out. Returning to the East by 1870, he became a respected New York City chemist and began experimenting with electricity.
  • He operated nickel plating works in Newark and patented a method to remove tin from scrap, patented in 1876.
  • He also patented early electric lights and motors, among the earliest patents.
  • He was active in professional organizations, being a co-founder of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and editor and founder of Electronic World.
  • At the same time he authored Magnetic and Dynamo-Electric Machines (1884) and translated German texts on electric motors.
  • Lured West again, in 1884 he built the first electric plant for San Francisco.
  • Between 1884 and 1893 he was among the first to apply electricity to mining, especially electro-metallurgy.
  • Located in San Francisco he served as consultant to mining companies across the West.
  • He would also patent several more pieces of mine machinery (a ball crusher [the "Keith Pulverizer"]) and amalgamation equipment (the commonly used centrifugal electrical amalgamation machine).
  • In San Francisco, he also sold electric motors to meet burgeoning demand, but sold out with the crash of 1893. During much of 1893-1897 he was in England trying to promote his electro-metallurgical process for the extraction of precious metals from their ores.
  • He returned to the United States and became an advisor to Thomas Edison, based in Philadelphia.
  • He worked on the ill-fated electro-magnetic mining operations funded by Edison.
  • He also worked on electric extraction of copper from its ores, helping organize a company to test his process in the old copper mines of New Jersey.
  • At the time of his death he was still director or officer in a number of mining companies, including the Metals Recovery Company and the American Mines & Venture Corporation.He married Anna Tait Swan in New York in 1860 and all three of their daughters were born in Black Hawk, Colorado—Virginia (1862), Harriet (1866), and Elma (1867).
  • None married, but taught in a college in New York City.
  • Anna Keith died July 2, 1909 in Philadelphia.
  • Nathaniel Shepherd Keith died January 27, 1925 in Philadelphia.

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