William Wallace Biography

William Wallace

The son of English immigrants, he followed his father into the business of making wires, which he inherited upon his father's death. He expanded the business to include copper and brass, introducing dynamo-electric machinery into the factory in 1874. The innovative equipment allowed his workers to significantly improve the efficiency of the copper-plating process, eventually reaching the capacity to copper-plate 100 miles of wire at a time. Other inventions included the first commercial arc light.