Near the site of Thomas Davenport’s blacksmith workshop, where he learned his trade, today rests a commemorative flag, erected by his nephew, honoring the inventor of the first electric motor. Unlike some other famous American inventors, Davenport never formally studied math or engineering, but he was an inveterate tinkerer; he learned by doing. Davenport sold many of his worldly possessions to afford one of the new electromagnets used to separate ore, and proceeded to take it apart to learn its inner workings just as soon as he got it.

On this day, February 25, in 1837, based on his research into the inner workings of his disassembled magnet, Davenport obtained a patent for “Improvement in Propelling Machinery by Magnetism and Electro-Magnetism.”

Following the development of the motor itself, Davenport opened his own publication, The Electro-Magnet and Mechanics Intelligencer, printed on his own electric press. He proceeded to sketch out electricity-powered devices wholly impossible at the time: an electric piano, electric trains, and others. None would be built for at least another 50 years, but they all owed their existence in part to the inventor from Vermont.