The development and general use of the “arc” electric light is to
a very great extent the outcome of the researches of Charles F.
Brush. While the “arc” was by no means unknown to electricians prior
to Mr. Brush’s development of it, it was he who was responsible for
its becoming a commercial possibility. Mr. Brush was born in Euclid,
Cuyahoga county, Ohio, March 17, 1849. His father was Colonel Isaac
Elbert Brush, his mother being Delia Wissner (Phillips) Brush. Both
parents came from old lines of American families. After periods spent
in public schools in Ohio, Mr. Brush attended the Cleveland high school
and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1869. From the first
he displayed a fondness for electricity and chemistry, and subsequent
to his graduating became an analytical chemist and consulting
chemical expert in Cleveland. All this time, however, he was studying
electricity, foreseeing the time when it would be one of the chief
factors of modern civilization. In 1877 he devoted himself entirely to
electrical affairs and a year later presented to the public the light
with which his name is identified. In 1880 the Brush Electric Company
was formed and the “arc” light grew in favor. A year later it was
introduced into England and on the continent. Nevertheless Mr. Brush
had the usual experience of inventors, but was successful in litigation
and has the satisfaction of knowing that his claims of priority of
invention have been recognized by the leading scientific societies in
the world. He is interested in a number of electrical enterprises, is
a member of many clubs and scientific and charitable institutions. In
1875 he married Mary E. Morris, of Cleveland, by whom he has three
children.