Harry Ward Leonard (February 8, 1861 – February 18, 1915) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He is best known for his invention, the Ward Leonard motor control system. Equipment based on this invention remained in service into the 21st century. Early life and heritage Harry Ward Leonard was born on February 8, 1861, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Ezra George Leonard and Henrietta Dana Ward. He was the fourth of their six children. He was a great great grandson of American Revolutionary War General Artemas Ward. In 1895, he was married to Carolyn Good in Geneva, Switzerland. As a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Leonard was instrumental in founding the student newspaper, The Tech, and served as the president of the paper’s board of directors. He graduated from MIT in 1883. Career After graduating from MIT, Leonard was employed by Thomas Edison to help introduce the Edison central-station electric power distribution system. Within four years, he was promoted to the position of general superintendent of the Western Electric Light Company of Chicago, Illinois. The following year, he established Leonard and Izard, a firm that set up electric railways and generating stations. In 1889, his firm was acquired by Edison and Leonard became the general manager of the Edison operations in the United States and Canada. In 1896, Leonard organized and became president of Ward Leonard Electric as an Edison company in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1898, he left the Edison organization and incorporated his own Ward Leonard Electric Company on February 19, 1898, in the village of Bronxville in Westchester County, New York. While working for Edison, Leonard patented a number of inventions and he continued developing new ideas throughout his career. He was granted patents for more than 100 inventions of electrical distribution and control systems and related equipment. The Ward Leonard motor control system The Ward Leonard motor control system was Mr. Leonard’s best known and most lasting invention. It was introduced in about 1891 and soon became the most widely used type of electric motor speed control. In a Ward Leonard system, a prime mover drives a direct current (DC) generator at a constant speed. The armature of the DC generator is connected directly to the armature of a DC motor. The DC motor drives the load equipment at an adjustable speed. The motor speed is adjusted by adjusting the output voltage of