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This chapter examines the motivations and inspirations behind Frank Sprague's inventions. It provides information on Sprague's family and educational background, and highlights the influence of the Hoosac Tunnel project and the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia on his path to electrical invention as a career and a life's work. The chapter discusses Sprague's apprenticeship with Thomas Edison's company, which provided him opportunities to exercise both his academic training and his engineering skills, and his admission of his desire for the acclaim of heroic invention.

This chapter relates the story of the discovery of Frank Sprague's artifacts in a large barn in Branford, Connecticut. One of the most important items found in the barn was Sprague's first stationary electric motor built in 1884. This motor was used to power looms and presses, which had been previously driven by hand, water or steam. It was restored by the Branford Museum and became a centerpiece of its permanent exhibit in the Sprague Building in 1999.

This chapter examines Frank Sprague's inventions and business ventures during the period from 1884 to 1888. It discusses Sprague's founding of the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company (SERM) in 1884 as way to commercial his invention and his work to develop electric railcars for a group of New York investors led by Maurice B. Flynn in Richmond, Virginia. The chapter also considers the capitalization problems encountered by Sprague and his marriage to Mary Keatinge in April 1885.

This chapter examines Frank Sprague's career and business ventures during the period from 1890 to 1898. It explains that Sprague became a free agent in 1891 after the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company (SERM) was absorbed by the Edison General Electric (EGE) Company and discusses his venture into elevator engineering. Sprague formed the Sprague Electric Elevator Company (SEEC) with Charles Pratt, and they were able to secure and complete the contract for the installation of an electric elevator at the Postal Telegraph Building in New York.

This chapter examines the market competition faced by Frank Sprague's Sprague Electric Company (SEC). It explains that after the company had staged the operational advantages of Sprague's multiple-unit (MU) control system at the South Side Elevated Railroad Company project, both Edison General Electric (GE) and Westinghouse formulated complex responses to the challenge posed by the MU control system. The chapter discusses GE's filing of a patent infringement suit against SEC and highlights GE's eventual acquisition of Sprague's third company.

This chapter examines Frank Sprague's engineering invention activities after the General Electric (GE) Company had acquired his Sprague Electric Company and the patents for his multiple-unit (MU) control system. It explains that GE paid Sprague royalties for the invention and that he was able to retain the Sprague name to describe the MU railway system. Although Sprague no longer needed to work, he did not abandon the field of electrical innovation, and played a prominent role in electrifying the New York Central Railroad, patented a third-rail design, and designed a dual elevator system.

This chapter examines Frank Sprague's development of the basic components of the multiple-unit (MU) system of railroad control during the period from 1895 to 1898. It explains that the MU system equipped electric traction for urban mass transit and discusses Sprague's founding of the Sprague Electric Company (SEC) as a way to commercialize the technology. The chapter suggests that the MU system was Sprague's most ambitious yet to engineer technology, and that the SEC was his most delicate feat of entrepreneurship.

This chapter examines the contribution of Frank Sprague's electric railcar project for the Richmond Union Passenger Railway. It suggests that while the project cannot be considered a heroic invention, it marked a turning point in the evolution of the technology, and that Sprague had accomplished a formidable feat of technological engineering and a dramatic staging of the innovation. The chapter highlights his efforts to refine the electric railways technology and the Edison General Electric Company's acquisition of the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company (SERM).

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the career of American inventor Frank J. Sprague. The book tells a story of innovation at a time when innovation became the basis of enterprise. It tells a story of invention in an era when personal convictions of the potential for heroic invention helped to drive significant technological transformation. The book traces how Sprague introduced several radical inventions including electric streetcars, elevators, and the controllers needed to operate electric trains, and explores the challenges that he faced in converting his ideas into products. It also explores how urbanization, the rise of big business, and the dynamics of capital markets constrained Sprague's actions and ultimately tamed his unruly creations.