St George Lane Fox-Pitt

St George William Lane Fox-Pitt (born 14 September 1856 in Malta, died 6 April 1932 in South Eaton Place) was a British electrical engineer and student of psychic phenomena.

Life

His parents were Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane-Fox (1827–1900) and Alice Margaret (1828–1910, née Stanley). His younger sister was the essayist Agnes Geraldine Grove.[1] On the death of his father's cousin Horace Pitt-Rivers, 6th Baron Rivers, the family took the name Fox Pitt-Rivers on May 25, 1880.

In 1878, Fox-Pitt was granted a patent on a light bulb with a platinum-iridium filament. The patent also describes a system for power distribution using incandescent lamps in parallel.[2]

On 12 December 1879, Charles Francis Brush founded the Anglo-American Electric Light Company Ltd in the UK, and in the same year acquired the patent rights to produce the Lane-Fox incandescent lamp. On 24 March 1880, he founded a new company, Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation, which took over the previous one.

About 1880, Fox-Pitt is said to have successfully experimented with charred plant fibres as the filament material. That was about the same time as the development of the light bulb with carbon filament by Edison in the United States.[3] By 1883, Fox-Pitt had obtained further patents.

Fox-Pitt wrote books on the philosophy of science, education, and social problems. He was temporarily Vice-President of the Moral Education League and organized the International Moral Education Congress. He was also one of the first active members of the Society for Psychical Research.[2]

In 1891, he repurchased the patent rights of the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation and built himself a small lamp factory.

In 1898, he participated in a railway concession in Ecuador.[4][5]

In 1899, he married Lady Edith Gertrude Douglas (1874–1963), the daughter of John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry.[6][7]

Lane–Fox–Pitt–Rivers family tree
Thomas Darcy, 1st Earl Rivers
(died 1640)
Elizabeth Savage, Countess Rivers
(1581–1650)		Thomas Savage, 1st Viscount Savage
(died 1635)
John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers
(1603–1654)
Sir Richard Lane, 1st Baronet
(died 1668)		George Pitt
(died 1694)		Jane Savage
(died 1676)		Thomas Savage, 3rd Earl Rivers
(died 1694)		Richard Savage
George Lane, 1st Viscount Lanesborough
(died 1683)		George Pitt
(died 1735)		Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers
(died 1712)		John Savage, 5th Earl Rivers
(1665–1737)
James Lane, 2nd Viscount Lanesborough
(1650–1724)		Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley
(died 1731)		Frances Lane
(died 1674)		Henry Fox
(died 1719)		George Pitt
(died 1745)
Harriet Benson
(died 1771)		George Fox-Lane, 1st Baron Bingley
{died 1773)		Sackville Fox
(died 1760)		George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers
(1721–1803)
Robert Lane
(1732–1768)		James Fox-Lane
(1756–1821)		Marcia Lucy Pitt
(1756–1822)		George Pitt, 2nd Baron Rivers
(1751–1828)		Louisa Pitt
(died 1791)		Sir Peter Beckford
(1740–1811)
George Lane-Fox
(1793–1848)		William Augustus Pitt Lane-Fox
(1796–1832)		Sackville Lane-Fox
(1797–1874)		Horace Pitt-Rivers, 3rd Baron Rivers
George Lane-Fox
(1816–1896)		Augustus Pitt Rivers
(1827–1900)		Sackville Lane-Fox, 12th Baron Conyers
(1827–1888)		George Pitt-Rivers, 4th Baron Rivers
(1810–1866)		Horace Pitt-Rivers, 6th Baron Rivers
(1814–1880)
James Thomas Richard Lane-Fox
(1841–1906)		Alexander Edward Lane Fox-Pitt-Rivers
(1855–1927)		St George Lane Fox-Pitt
(1856–1932)		William Augustus Lane Fox-Pitt
(1858– )		Douglas Fox-Pitt
(1864–1922)		Marcia Pelham, Countess of Yarborough
(1863–1926)		Violet Herbert, Countess of Powis
(1865–1929)		Henry Pitt-Rivers, 5th Baron Rivers
(1849–1867)
George Lane-Fox, 1st Baron Bingley
(1870–1947)		Edward Lane-Fox
(1874–1949)		Emily Rachel Forster (died 1979)George Pitt-Rivers
(1890–1966)		Rosalind Pitt-Rivers
(1907–1990)		William Augustus Fitzgerald Lane Fox-Pitt
(1896–1988)
Francis Lane Fox
(1899–1989)		Marcia Agnes Mary Lane-Fox
(1904–1980)		James Henry Lane-Fox
(1912– )		Felicity Lane-Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox
(1918–1988)		Michael Pitt-Rivers
(1917–1999)		Julian Pitt-Rivers
(1919–2001)		George Anthony Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers
(born 1932)		Valerie Pitt-Rivers
(born 1939)		William Oliver Lane Fox-Pitt
(1932–2012)
George Francis Lane Fox
(1931–2012)		Robin Lane Fox
(born 1946)		William Fox-Pitt
(born 1969)
Edward Lane Fox
(born 1976)		Martha Lane Fox
(born 1973)

Works
  • The Purpose of Education, 1914, Cambridge University Press,[8]
  • Free Will & Destiny, 1920, Constable Books, London

References
  1. "Grove, (Agnes) Geraldine [née (Agnes) Geraldine Lane Fox; afterwards (Agnes) Geraldine Fox-Pitt], Lady Grove (1863–1926), essayist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/55591. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  2. "Mr. FOX Pitt." (obituary) Times [London, England] 7 Apr. 1932: 14. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 4 Aug. 2014.
  3. Lane Fox – An Illuminating Letter, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, accessed 29 December 2008
  4. The New York Times online archive: Archer Harman is arrested, 5 February 1901, accessed 28 December 2008
  5. The New York Times online archive:Ecuador Railroad Suit; Shareholders Now Bring Action Against Two Companies, 5 June 1901, accessed 29 December 2008
  6. A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain, accessed 28 December 2008
  7. "Court Circular." Times [London, England] 27 Mar. 1899: 11. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 4 Aug. 2014.
  8. "Cambridge University Press." Times [London, England] 12 June 1914: 4. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 4 Aug. 2014.
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