Westinghouse was workplace for America's first female electrical engineer

In December 1893, a very pretty and petite young woman walked into the engineering department at Westinghouse Electric Co., which was located off Liberty Avenue on Garrison Alley (now called Garrison Way) in downtown Pittsburgh. She had been offered a position as an electrical engineer, and this was her first day on the job. She had received the degree of mechanical engineer (in electrical engineering) from Ohio State University in May of that year. The other engineers were surprised to see Bertha Lamme. You see, in 1893 companies just did not hire women engineers. But she was warmly accepted by her fellow workers, as Lamme was really a quite talented engineer. She took up the task of performing the complicated calculations and other engineering work required for the pioneering electrical accomplishments of Westinghouse during that dynamic period of time when the electrification of the world was taking place. Two years later, in 1895, she moved to the newly constructed East Pittsburgh Works of the Westinghouse Electric Co., where she stayed until 1905. She resigned from Westinghouse in September of that year. Lamme married fellow engineer Russell S. Feicht three months later, in December. The practice of the time was for a woman to resign from her work upon marriage.

Lamme had an older brother, Benjamin Lamme, who also was a very well-known Westinghouse engineer at that point in time. Benjamin Lamme greatly influenced his younger sister, and one gets a much better understanding of Bertha Lamme by better understanding this special relationship that she had with her older brother. Everyone had always wanted to harness the power of Niagara Falls, and this task was finally accomplished in the year 1895 when the first Alternating Current Electricity (sometimes referred to as Westinghouse Current) was transmitted from the three newly installed 5,000 horsepower Westinghouse generators. Benjamin Lamme is perhaps best known for having designed the three Westinghouse generators that were installed at Niagara Falls in the year 1895. The awesome power of Niagara Falls had been harnessed!

It is easy to conclude that Benjamin Lamme had influenced Westinghouse to hire his younger sister. However, old archival letters indicate that Benjamin Lamme really did not pave the way for the hiring of his younger sister. It is clear that he provided Westinghouse data to Bertha Lamme, which she in turn used for her thesis at Ohio State University. The title of her thesis was “An Analysis of Tests of a Westinghouse Railway Generator.” Apparently Westinghouse superintendent Albert Schmid, who was responsible for hiring new engineers at the Westinghouse Electric Co., saw the thesis and was impressed. Speculation is that he also had met Bertha Lamme when she was in Pittsburgh to visit with her brother and realized that she was extremely talented. Schmid made Bertha Lamme an offer to work at Westinghouse Electric Co. as an engineer. Speculation is that Bertha Lamme was quite surprised, for letters indicate that she had not applied for a job at Westinghouse. She really didn't expect that any company would hire her as an engineer. Benjamin Lamme wrote in his autobiography, “My younger sister Bertha took up the study of engineering at Ohio State University more for the fun of it than anything.” It is apparent from his autobiography that Benjamin Lamme also was surprised by the hiring of his sister as an engineer because no one expected that this would be done. In 1893, Westinghouse and other companies just did not hire women as engineers. But Bertha Lamme was hired in 1893 as an engineer by Westinghouse making her America's first woman electrical engineer.

Both Benjamin and Bertha Lamme were quite good in mathematics. This skill was one that they both used to advantage with their work at Westinghouse. Designing large rotating electrical machinery was done, at that point in time, mostly by trial and error. Benjamin Lamme was the first to apply mathematics to the analysis and design process at Westinghouse. It was quickly recognized by his colleagues as a great improvement over the old methods. Later, Bertha Lamme was also recognized as having considerable analytical skill related to applied mathematics in the analysis and design of electrical machinery.

Bertha Lamme's talent was obvious at an early age. Tucked away in the old Lamme family documents and artifacts there is a handwritten paper titled “The Necessity of Nonsense.” Bertha Lamme's high school commencement program shows that she read this paper at her 1887 high school commencement. The paper, in part, reads:

The poet says, “A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the best of men”.

A little nonsense, not wit, which hurts, and which is meant to hurt; not thoughtless gabble, which disgusts and does not instruct; but merry go-as-you-please thought, often without object and defective in sense, as its name implies, and whose purpose is to cause good-natured laughter...

There need not be monotony in tomfoolery, for there are different grades and varieties in this as in everything else. “Variety is the spice of life.” Nonsense is surely a spice which can make many unpalatable dishes palatable, but the spicing must be according to the dishes...

Then there are scientific and mathematical absurdities, in which starting with some humorous hypothesis, we reach some surprisingly ridiculous conclusion...

Most nonsense, like fire crackers, can be fired off only once, and like them, if not properly handled often ends in a fizzle...

So we see that when worn down by care, by sorrow, and by suffering; when the head is heavy and the body wearied by undue toil; there must be a change ... a rest... of some sort. And what can carry us away from our cares better than a little genuine humor. Solomon says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine..."

Then let us have a little fun now and then to keep up our spirits, that our strength may be renewed and our days be long in the land. And so may Life's cup be flavored with the cream of merriment and sweetened with the sugar of nonsense.

It is apparent from reading this 10-page paper, handwritten by Bertha Lamme, that her writing skills reflect those of one who is considerably older than 18. This paper is really just another piece of evidence showing the overall talent of this young woman.

This paper also reflects the potential of a young high school girl – a potential that was realized when she became America's first woman electrical engineer.

Bertha Lamme was raised on a farm near Springfield, Ohio. A small glimpse of her life is contained in one of her early letters, in which she writes that the activity that delighted her most of all was when she was riding the family mule. So here we have this great contrast: The woman who later in life played an important role in the electrification of the world enjoyed riding the family mule as a young girl.

Benjamin Lamme, five years her elder, graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1887. Bertha Lamme decided to follow in her older brother's footsteps and pursued an engineering degree at Ohio State University that same year. Bertha and Benjamin had talked about forming a company to design new toys. They agreed that it was an area of business that had great potential. This dream never came to be. Instead, they became engineers and played an important part in electrifying the world.

Just before graduating from Ohio State University, Benjamin Lamme wrote a letter to George Westinghouse explaining his work on the new area of natural gas. An old letter in the archives of the George Westinghouse Museum in Wilmerding shows that Westinghouse handed that letter to Albert Schmid and instructed him to hire Benjamin Lamme to work for The Philadelphia Co., Westinghouse's successful natural gas company also located in Pittsburgh. Benjamin Lamme came to Pittsburgh to work for The Philadelphia Co., and a few years later he transferred to the Westinghouse Electric Co. to work in the new field of electricity. By the time his sister graduated from Ohio State University, electricity had become a part of the curriculum. Her diploma shows she obtained a degree in electrical engineering.

Just a few months before Bertha Lamme started to work for Westinghouse, the company had successfully illuminated the Columbian Exposition, also was known as the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Opening night at the exposition was a dramatic success. A switch was thrown, and 250,000 Westinghouse stopper lamps (light bulbs) turned night into day. The “Great White Way,” as it came to be called, impressed people from around the world. People could now attend and enjoy events at night.

Bertha Lamme became friends with a young supervisor, Russell S. Feicht. The friendship evolved, and they made plans to be married in December 1905. In September of that year, Bertha Lamme resigned from her work as an engineer, ending a 12-year career at Westinghouse. The couple had one child, Florence, who, later in life, went on to become a physicist.

Benjamin Lamme had great success at Westinghouse and rose to the position of chief engineer at the age of 39. This was the highest level engineering position in Westinghouse at that time. He held the position until his death in 1924. After he died, Bertha's husband, Russell S. Feicht became chief engineer.

The story of Bertha Lamme, America's first woman electrical engineer, laid untold for some time in some dusty letters, newspapers and documents from the turn-of-the-century. The family artifacts were preserved by Florence Feicht and her children, Dorothy and John.

Bertha Lamme Exhibit

The “Bertha Lamme Exhibit” was recently completed at the George Westinghouse Museum, 325 Commerce St., Wilmerding. It contains many of the old Lamme family letters, documents and other artifacts including Bertha Lamme's original 1893 Ohio State University diploma, an original signed engineering drawing, her ornate late-Victorian-era beaded purse, her fancy, late-Victorian-era ivory and lace fan, her T-square, slide rule and a number of old photographs and postcards. The permanent exhibit will be on display on an ongoing basis.

Hours at the museum are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $3 for adults, $5 per couple. Children are admitted free. For information, call 412-823-0500.

Ed Reis is executive director of the George Westinghouse Museum in Wilmerding and a Pittsburgh freelance writer for the Tribune-Review.