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=                       Franklin Leonard Pope                        =
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                             Introduction                             
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Franklin Leonard Pope (2 December 1840 – 13 October 1895) was an
American engineer, explorer, and inventor.


                              Biography                               
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He was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in December 1840, the
son of Ebenezer Pope and Electra Wainwright. He was a telegrapher,
electrical engineer, explorer, inventor, and patent attorney.

He was also a major contributor to the technological advances of the
19th century. He was one of the leaders of the explorations related to
the Collins Overland Telegraph, otherwise known as the Russian
American Telegraph.

After developing a system which tracked and printed the prices of gold
and stocks, Pope partnered with Thomas Edison in 1869, forming the
company Pope, Edison & Company Electrical Engineers, and invented
a one-wire telegraph in 1870. This telegraph is now known as a stock
ticker, and was widely used in large cities for exchange quotations.
Pope's partnership with Edison ended shortly after it was formed.

Pope was awarded several patents for his work in railroad semaphore
lock signal systems, the most important of which was his 1872
invention for the rail circuit for automatic control of the
electric-block signal system, which was widely used by the major U.S.
railways. Pope was president of the American Institute of Electrical
Engineers from 1886 to 1887.

Pope was an editor of the magazine 'Electrical Engineer', and edited
the electrical section of 'The Engineering Magazine'. Pope also worked
as a patent attorney for Western Union Telegraph Company, and was
retained as an expert in many important patent suits.

Pope married Sarah Amelia Dickinson on 6 August 1873; they had four
children, two daughters and two sons. His youngest child, Seth Willard
Pope, died a few weeks after birth.

Pope died at the age of 54 as a result of an accidental electrocution
by 3000 volts in the basement of his home at 518 Main Street in Great
Barrington. His home is now a Bed and Breakfast called the Wainwright
Inn B&B.


                         Pope's publications                          
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* 'Modern Practice of the American Telegraph' (1869)
* 'Modern Practice of the Electrical Telegraph' (1871)
* 'The Life and Works of Joseph Henry' (1879)
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*
*


                          In Popular Culture                          
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In the 2017 film 'The Current War',  Pope is portrayed by Stanley
Townsend.


                            External links                            
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*
* http://www.telegraph-history.org/pope/
* [http://www.todaysengineer.org/2010/Dec/history.asp IEEE biography
of Pope]


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Leonard_Pope