The formation of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) in 1884 was a major milestone in the American electrical industry’s history. Nathaniel Keith, an electrometallurgical engineer, sent out a call in April 1884 “for the purpose of establishing a national electrical society” to various luminaries of the nascent American electrical industry, including such figures as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, to be modelled “somewhat after the model of the American Civil, Mechanical and Mining Engineers’ societies or institutes.” This preliminary meeting of the signers was held “at the rooms of the American Society of Civil Engineers” on 15 April, then located at 127 East 23rd Street in New York City, and on subsequent meetings on 13 May, the governance structure and rules were adopted, and the first meeting of the council held a week later on 20 May. There, “by vote, the Secretary was instructed to proceed to Philadelphia for the purpose of securing accommodations for the Institute during the Electrical Exhibition to be held there from September 2nd to Oct 11th, 1884.”
The Directors of the International Electrical Exhibition provided free use of the rooms in the exhibition building to the AIEE, under the condition that the rooms remain open. Space was provided to the AIEE for five and a half weeks, starting on 2 September 1884, and ending on 11 October 1884. The papers read during this meeting would form most of the content to appear in the first volume of the Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the first published record of an IEEE predecessor society. The majority of the papers were read between 7-8 October; one paper (“W.M. Callender’s “Underground Wires”) was read in September, and one paper (Edwin J. Houston’s “The Delany Synchronous-Multiplex System of Telegraphy”) was a reprint from the Journal of the Franklin Institute.
Numerous authors in the first volume served later in prominent positions within the AIEE. Houston, chief electrician of the exhibition and author of three papers, served as AIEE president during the 1893-1895 term; Rowland R. Hazard, author of “The Scientific City Street,” served as treasurer from 1884-1886; Cyrus F. Brackett, first Joseph Henry Professor of Physics and founder of the Electrical Engineering Department at Princeton, author of “An Experimental Method of Studying the Dynamo Machine,” served as an AIEE manager from 1886-1889; and Thomas Lockwood of the American Bell Telephone Co., author of “Earth Wires; or, The Earth as an Electric Circuit Completer,” served as a manager from 1889-1991 and a vice-president from 1891-1893.
The papers were published as transcriptions of what was said in the room, with the discussions of the papers included following the presentation of the papers, a tradition which Transactions of the AIEE would continue throughout its existence. Some of these discussions were slightly heated, such as William H. Preece’s comments on Callender’s paper, who prefaces his remarks by saying “I am bound to confess that my first sensation on hearing the title of Mr. Callender’s paper read was to take up my hat and walk, but that would have been an act of discourtesy to the members present.” Like the authors of the papers, numerous participants in these discussions were future AIEE leaders. These include future AIEE president Cyprien O. Mailloux (1913-1914), and future vice-presidents George Maynard (1886-1887) and Patrick Bernard Delany (1893-95). Other notable figures in attendance were Nathaniel Keith, the principal signer of the call to form AIEE, who also served as its first secretary; Elmer A. Sperry, founder of Sperry Gyroscope Company; Charles Stagl of Bernstein Electric Co., Boston; and Frankland Jannus, patent attorney and inventor of an improved brake for the penny-farthing bicycle.
In addition to the technical discussions, social issues also arose at the meeting, in particular two issues regarding the United States Patent Office. These were presented by Charles J. Kintner, the office’s principal patent examiner for electricity, who wrote an impassioned letter in March 1884, that was discussed at the preliminary May meetings. Kintner describes the poor conditions of the patent office: “the plumbing is in bad condition, and sewer gas escapes at the wash-basin. The floor is directly upon the ground, and hence excessive dampness results. There is much sickness and constant complaint on the part of the entire force, of headache and general indisposition.” In October, Kintner also presented a paper, in which, after apologizing for its “hasty preparation,” he pleaded with the AIEE to lobby the United States Congress to expand the funding for the Patent Office, for more staff, more physical space, and the establishment of a mechanical and chemical laboratory for the purpose of examining new inventions. Kintner urged the AIEE members to “go before Congress and express, in language unmistakable, your desires in this direction. You must buttonhole your individual members of Congress, and give them to understand plainly what you want in this direction. I tell you gentlemen, there is nothing that works upon a member of Congress like pressure from his immediate constituents.”
The inclusion of non-technical material in the first volume of Transactions of the AIEE is a reflected not only the breadth of the early electrical industry and its technologies revolving around communications, power distribution and lighting. It also represented the concerns that engineers had, both in terms of their ability to perform their jobs, and in how the new profession would be shaped by external non-technical factors, such as congressional legislation and regulation. The tradition of dedicating space to both technical and the relevant social issues that engineers face was continued throughout the years by the Transactions of AIEE, the publications within the Institute of Radio Engineers, and the material that IEEE publishes to this day, 140 years after this landmark meeting.
