1876
Weston Dynamo Electric Machine Company
Frustration with inadequate electricity supplies led to an obsession with power generation. In 1876 he patented a design for a dc generator, and in 1877 the Weston Dynamo Electric Machine Company – the first US factory of it’s kind – opened in New Jersey. To expand the market, he began making generators for arc lighting. Inevitably, innovations and improvements to the lamps themselves followed and, due to its success, the company changed its name to the Weston Electric Light Company, going on to win the contract to illuminate the new Brooklyn Bridge. At the same time, independent of Edison and others, Weston was experimenting with incandescent light. Using his knowledge of chemistry, electricity and mechanical engineering he designed a carbon filament of unprecedented uniformity and longevity, subsequently used in all incandescent lights until the introduction of tungsten 25 years later. From 1875 to 1884, Edward Weston was granted a total of 139 US patents, yet despite this prodigious output, his best was still to come...

1887
Weston Electrical Instrument Company
Since his early days in electroplating, Weston had been concerned about the lack of accurate, practical devices for measuring electrical parameters so in 1887, having withdrawn from the generator and lamp business, he established a laboratory. He developed the world’s first truly permanent magnet, alloys such as Constantan and Manganin and a method for manufacturing malleable aluminium... In 1888 the Weston Electrical Instrument Company began trading.

Here are some landmarks:

	1888 The first commercial double pivoted moving coil instrument for electrical measurement
	1908 The international conference on Electrical Units and Standards names the Weston cadmium cell the standard for electromotive force. The first commercial use of Bakelite
	1919 First direct measurement of high frequency radio signals
	1921 Steamproof train speedometer
	1932 The first exposure meter
	1933 Aircraft “blind landing” system
	1935 Bi-metal thermometer. The first “electric eye”

1936
The end
Edward Weston died in 1936, aged 86, with 309 patents to his name. Today, we at Weston Aerospace are proud to be associated with such an inventive man. His legacy lives on...

You can find out more in the Detailed History of Weston Aerospace