There is further information at the base of the page - links to .pdf files, in French, at the National Library in Paris. All links open in a new window. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to access them. Adobe AR can be downloaded (free) from the Internet. In 1883 rights to manufacture Edison's electric dynamo were acquired by the firm and, as a result of improvements introduced by Dr. John Hopkinson, the Edison-Hopkinson dynamo reached a degree of perfection not previously known in such machines.This was the first stage in the setting up of the Electrical Engineering Department. Steam engines suitable for driving dynamos were already in production at Salford Iron Works and there was wide scope for the application of electric motors to the many machines which were regularly being built there for the textile and other industries. John Hopkinson, then thirty three years old, who had interested himself in the technical aspects of dynamos, was engaged to advise on the manufacture of Edison’s machine, and the combination of his ability to design and the ability of Mather & Platt to manufacture a sound machine soon resulted in the production of an improved dynamo, the Edison-Hopkinson machine, so well known and respected in those pioneering days. To support Hopkinson in his work, his brother, Dr. Edward Hopkinson, (pictured) was engaged to serve Mather & Platt as manager of the new Electrical Department. Mather & Platt entered the field of electrical engineering as early as 1882 and the inventive ability of Thomas A. Edison and the scientific attainment of Dr. John and Dr. Edward Hopkinson were combined to produce the first electric generators which can rightly be said, in the true technical sense, to have been designed. These early Mather & Platt machines marked a definite advance in electrical engineering and many of the original Edison-Hopkinson dynamos were known to be running in various parts of the world at least forty - and probably many more - years later.
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