Bertha A. Lamme was the first woman to earn an electrical
engineering degree. She worked for
Westinghouse as a motor designer after graduation.
Born near Springfield, Ohio on December 16, 1869, Bertha
didn't show an interest in engineering until her older brother Benjamin
obtained a mechanical engineering degree from Ohio State University. He began working at Westinghouse the following
year.
Bertha built on her childhood interests of reading and math,
and decided to pursue a degree at Ohio State.
She graduated in 1893 with a degree in mechanical engineering and a
specialty in electricity. Benjamin's
connection to Westinghouse proved useful; her thesis was "An Analysis of Tests
of a Westinghouse Railway Generator."
This degree gave her several firsts:
- First female engineering graduate of Ohio State
- First American woman to graduate in an
engineering discipline other than civil engineering
After graduation, Bertha worked at Westinghouse as a motor
designer. The company completed several
major projects during the time of her employment:
- World's Columbian Exposition lit by alternating
current electrical power in 1893
- Electricity supplied to Buffalo, New York by
harnessing Niagara Falls' power in 1895
She "took up the work of calculation of machines and stayed
until she married" Russell Feicht, another Ohio State alum and her supervisor
at Westinghouse, in 1905. She resigned
from the company that year and the couple had a daughter in 1910. Bertha died on November 20, 1943.
The Westinghouse Educational Foundation and Society of Women
Engineers created a scholarship in her name in 1973. The Westinghouse/Bertha Lamme Scholarship is
awarded annually to a female freshman student studying electrical engineering.
Resources:
IEEE
Global History Network [image]
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
Wikipedia
- Bertha Lamme
Wikipedia -
Westinghouse
| 
