As well as patents for railway/tramway multiple unit control, Frank Sprague held patents for railway signalling, various industrial control systems and automated lifts etc.

The Sprague-GE branding could have related to that.

Tony

> On 21 Mar 2023, at 19:19, Geoff Olsen gol80579@...> wrote:

>

> I saw many of these during my time in the trade. I would say that the tram ones were the odd ones out as most reversing ones were centre off. The DC cranes at Lucas Heights certainly had them but they were in the process of being converted to electronic AC drives whilst I was there. I arranged for some of the old equipment to be donated to STM.

> The most interesting one was when I was still an apprentice. We had as a customer a small job printing shop which was not far from our shop. One of their ancient presses had been converted from DC to a wound rotor AC motor with a secondary resistance starter. The controller was a DC one that had been converted to serve its new purpose. It was proudly labelled “Sprague General Electric” which is interesting as most historical documents tend to indicate that Frank Sprague’s name was not used at all by the new company.

> Interested to hear anyone’s comments on this.

> Geoff O.

>

> From: 'bblunt3473@yahoo.com mailto:bblunt3473@yahoo.com' via TramsDownUnder [mailto:tramsdownunder@googlegroups.com mailto:tramsdownunder@googlegroups.com]

> Sent: Tuesday, 21 Marc