Sir D. Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons

Abstract

SIR D. GOLDSMID-STERN-SALOMONS, better known perhaps by his earlier name of Sir David Salomons, died at his residence at Broomhill, Tunbridge Wells, on April 19, at the age of seventy-three. He was educated at University College, London, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated in the Natural Science Tripos of 1873. His uncle was Sir David Salomons, who made a long fight for admission to the House of Commons and was the first of the Jewish faith to sit there. His uncle warmly encouraged Sir David's interest in physics and engineering. He equipped a physical laboratory for him, and a few years later a workshop and a small electric generating station were added to it. Sir David was undoubtedly one of the earliest pioneers of electric lighting for use indoors. He claimed that so far back as 1874 he used incandescent lamps for house lighting. He was a most enthusiastic inventor, making for himself all the electric switches and other devices which he required. He was one of the first to realise the difficulties in the way of heating and sparking that had to be overcome. No one outside the electrical profession realises the immense amount of research and ingenuity that has beenexpended in developing the ordinary domestic electric switch.