Nathaniel S. Keith
Biography
Nathaniel Shepard Keith was born in Boston on July 14th, 1838. He was educated as a chemist in his father's chemical laboratory in New York City, and maintained practice as an electrometallurgical engineer for most of his life. The early years of his life were spent as a mining and metallurgical engineer in Colorado. After 1870, he was engaged in electrical work as an investigator, inventor, editor and electrical engineer. For some time after 1885 he was engaged in the manufacture and installation of electrical light and power apparatus in San Francisco. He was at one time secretary-treasurer of the American Venture and Mines Corporation.
He was one of the most active in the small group of men whose conferences finally brought about the organization of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1884. He was one of the members of the Electrical Conference held in Philadelphia in 1884, and was a judge at the Philadelphia Electrical Exhibition in the same year. For many years past, Dr. Keith has been in business in Philadelphia as a consulting engineer. Dr. Keith was a charter member of the AIEE and its first secretary, serving in this potion from 1884 to 1885. He served on the editorial staff of Electrical World with Cyprien O. Mailloux and T. Commerford Martin, who both became president of the AIEE.
He died in Philadelphia on January 27th, 1925.
