TUDOR Henri

Henri TUDOR was born on the Diesbuergerhof (Ferschweiler) on 30 September 1859. He was the son of John Thomas TUDOR and Marie LOSER of the Rosport LOSER estate. He probably spent his first 4 years there, since the TUDOR-LOSER family left Ferschweiler at the beginning of 1863. John Thomas TUDOR took over the Bertignon farm in Macquenoise, near Chimay (Belgium).
In 1872 Henri TUDOR, aged 13, started his schooling at the Collège communal de Chimay.
In 1873, when the TUDOR rental contract in Chimay came to an end, the whole family moved to Rosport. Marie LOSER’s father had died in 1868, and her mother managed the Rosport estate. The 1875 Rosport Census shows that John Thomas TUDOR, upon his return to Rosport, became the head of the family and of the estate. His children were also registered as living in Rosport, although at least Henri continued his studies in Chimay where he must have resided in a boarding house during school time.
One TUDOR biographer mentions that the whole family went to England for a year in 1878 to sort out an inheritance. Henri had obtained his baccalauréat that year and possibly took a sabbatical year before starting his university studies in Brussels in 1879.
Henri TUDOR obtained his engineering degree in 1883, but had already started to investigate lead accumulators.
In 1885 he met Adolphe MÜLLER, a German industrialist/entrepreneur.
Henri TUDOR, encouraged by MÜLLER, took on the project of installing electric lighting in the city of Echternach in 1886 which must have also prompted Henri TUDOR to obtain patents for protecting his invention in 1886. His invention, made a few years earlier, had been developed and perfected in Rosport outside of public scrutiny but could no longer be kept secret.
Another fact may have influenced TUDOR’s decision to apply for a patent.
On 2 March 1886 a patent was granted in the USA to Charles F. BRUSH for an invention substantially identical to that of TUDOR’s (see Addendum).
Henri TUDOR died in Rosport on 31 May 1928.

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