FARMER, MosEs GEnntsn (1820-92). An American inventor and electrician. lie was horn in Iloscawen (now NVebster), N. II., and was (shunted at Andover, N. IL his early inven tions included a new kind of window-shade and paper curtain, and by means of machinery he was able to supply the extraordinary demand for them that soon arose. Becoming interested in electrical science, he invented an electromag netic engine and electrical locomotive. Ile de vised the municipal fire-alarm which was adopted by the city of Boston, and very quickly by other cities all over the country. (See article FIRE ALARM.) He moved to Salem in 1848, and became superintendent of the telegraph line from Boston to Burlington, Vt., inventing many improvements in telegraphy, among them a quadruple system by which four messages were sent simultaneously over the same wire. In 1852 he invented an electrical cooking-stove. In 1855 he succeeded in electrically, depositing aluminum, and constructed for the Dudley -Astronomical Observatory in Albany a chronograph and electrical clock. In 1856 lie made an electric gyroscope so as to run continuously at uniform speed, and read a paper on multiplex telegraphy before the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In
1859 he lighted his parlor in Salem with an in candescent electric lamp, deciding, however, that a galvanic battery could not be used as a source of electric lighting. From 1894 to 1868 he ex perimented with alloys, and coated iron and steel wire with copper in order to combine great ten sile strength with high conductivity. In 1868 he had a dynamo made with which he lighted 40 in candescent lamps in multiple arrangement. In 1872 he was appointed electrician to the United States Torpedo Station at Newport, but re signed on account of paralysis in 1881. On July 26. 1897, on the fiftieth anniversary of the ex hibition at Dover, N. H., by Farmer of the first operative electric railway, the general meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers was held at Eliot, Me. Here are preserved Farmer's workshop and note-books, and here the inventor lies buried. Consult Dolbear, "Moses G. Farmer as an Electric Pioneer," in Electricity (New York, 1894).