Industrialist and engineer, who built the first electric locomotive. Born in Aberdeen, the son of a grocer and wine merchant, Davidson attended classes at Marischal College (1818-21), although seems never to have completed a degree. In the 1820s he set up in business first at Causewayend and then in nearby Canal Road, close to the Aberdeenshire Canal. Initially he made yeast, but went on to established himself as a successful manufacturer and supplier of chemicals.
Able to indulge himself on the income generated by his business, he became fascinated by the potential of electric motors to power machinery. By the late 1830s we was able to build a lathe, saw and a small printing machine, which were all electrically operated. He exhibited his inventions in Aberdeen (1840), Edinburgh (1841) and in London (1842), hoping to attract sponsorship for his work. In Edinburgh his exhibition was visited by the influential Robert Chambers (1802-71) and a young James Clerk Maxwell (1831-79). He also developed a battery-powered locomotive, which he demonstrated on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in 1842. The Galvani ran at 4 mph but was dismissed as being expensive to run and insufficiently powerful. Davidson predicted that electric locomotives would soon supplant steam. Around the same time, he built an electric car which has been credited with being the first of its kind in the UK, if not the world. Davidson was ahead of his time, and by the end of the 19th C. viable electrically-powered vehicles were beginning to appear, including the locomotives which made underground railways a viable proposition.
Davidson was also interested in astronomy, a passion undoubtedly fuelled by one of his tutors at Marischal College, Professor Patrick Copland (1749 - 1822). He built himself a large reflecting telescope, 10.7m (35 feet) in length.
He died in Aberdeen, where he lies buried in St. Peter's Cemetery. His work is the subject of an exhibition at the Grampian Transport Museum in Alford.
