Distinguished service medal

The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was organized in 1884. In 1885, Ralph Wainwright Pope was elected its secretary. Born August 16, 1844, educated at Great Barrington and Amherst academies, he developed early in his career a marked taste for mechanics, and has been continuously identified with what might be called applied electricity. He entered the service of the Housatonic Railroad in 1859. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he entered the service of the American Telegraph Company and became an expert telegrapher. Later he joined the famous Collins Overland Telegraph Expedition, which the success of the Atlantic cable prevented from establishing connection with Europe across the wilds of British Columbia, Alaska, and Siberia. Mr. Pope was for ten years subsequently in the service of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company, resigning the position of deputy superintendent in 1883. From that date until 1888, he was actively engaged in the editing and publishing of technical electrical papers in this city.