Charles
Van Depoele was born in Lichtervelde, Belgium,
in 1846. He emigrated to the United States in 1869 eventually became
a successful manufacturer of church furniture. This provided him with
the money to pursue his interest in electricity. He developed an electric
generator in 1880 and three years later took out a patent for an electric
railway. In 1888 Van Depoele sold his electric-railway patents to
Thomson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts.
Other patents by Van Depoele included an alternating-current electric
reciprocating engine (1889), a telpher system for a car suspended
from cables (1890), a coal-mining machine (1891) and a gearless electric
locomotive (1894). Charles Van Depoele died in 1892.
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