Science & invention / Business & brands
Charles Van Depoele
1846–1892 · inventor, electrical engineer
Flemish-born craftsman who made church furniture in Detroit in the 1870s while experimenting with electric light, then became a pioneer of the electric streetcar and inventor of the trolley pole.
- Born
Lichtervelde, Belgium- Died
Lynn, Massachusetts
aged 45- Birth name
- Charles Joseph Van Depoele
- Also known as
- Karel Van de Poele
- Detroit years
- 1869–1880
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Van Depoele was born in Lichtervelde in West Flanders, the son of a furniture maker from Ghent. In 1869 he emigrated to Detroit, joining the city's Belgian community, and made his living manufacturing furniture and church woodwork while pursuing electrical experiments in his spare time. He went on to found the Van Depoele Electric Manufacturing Company. Around 1880 he moved his electrical work to Chicago, where his first electric railway opened in 1883. In 1885 he demonstrated the spring-loaded trolley pole, which lets a streetcar draw current from an overhead wire and became standard on electric railways worldwide. He sold his railway and lighting patents to the Thomson-Houston Company in 1888 and 1889 and died in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1892, holding more than 240 US patents.
Highlights
- Emigrated to Detroit in 1869
- Ran a furniture and church woodwork business in Detroit
- Demonstrated the trolley pole in 1885
- At least 243 US patents
- Sold his patents to Thomson-Houston, 1888–1889