Early Life & Career

John Anderson was an engineer, inventor and naval officer born in Aberdeen, Scotland. After graduating from the British Government School of Science and Technology in Liverpool, he came to the U.S. in 1890 and worked as a marine engineer. He was junior assistant engineer in the U.S. Navy in 1898 and chief engineer of the U.S. cruiser St. Paul in 1906.

After working in St. Louis, Missouri, he moved to Milwaukee in 1912 to become chief engineer of the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company. He was vice-president in charge of power for the company from 1925 until his death.

Accomplishments and Developers

He was a co-developer of radiant super-heating. He also designed and supervised construction of the Lakeside generating plant in 1920, which was one of the first and largest plants in existence to burn pulverized coal. His invention of numerous devices connected with the development of pulverized fuel and high-pressure boilers made low-cost central service possible by more efficiently and economically utilizing coal, thereby lowering the principal variable cost of producing electricity. During World War I he served as civilian chief of motor transport for the U.S. Navy.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]