James Robertson

James Gabriel Robertson (June 1, 1873 - March 17, 1953) was a Canadian born British-American businessman, engineer, and inventor. The illegitimate only son of Canadian industrialist Robert de Dion, Robertson was raised by his birth mother in England. He showed remarkable mechanical aptitude as a child, and upon reaching adulthood was the sole beneficiary of his late fathers estate and fortune. After traveling to the United States, Robertson was continuously self-employed, selling inventions and patents to a number of companies. He was also instrumental in the foundation of a number of corporations, including Tritian and REC.

## Early Life

James Robertson was born in Montreal, Canada on June 1, 1873 to Robert de Dion, a prominent industrialist, and his mistress Eloise Zanella. The affair was unknown to the public at the time, and de Dion provided financial support to the mother and child on the condition that he was raised as her own, with no relation to him. Robertson (his newly bestowed surname being one of many jests directed toward his father by his mother) was moved to England, where he and his mother lived for brief periods of time in London, Henley-on-Thames, Reading, and Oxford before settling in Milton Keynes in the Spring of 1876.

Little is known of Robertson's childhood and adolescent life. In school he acquired the nickname 'Little Hooke', speaking to his premature intellectual likeness to the English polymath, his irascible temperment, and the fact that he and his mother attended the Church of St. Mary Magdeline (Robertson was raised Catholic, though he was baptized in the Reformed Church as an infant by his father, a Huguenot). In 1889, at age 16, he was admitted to Oxford University, where he studied physics, mathematics, and engineering. He graduated in 1893, and remained at the university as a research fellow. He was also an occasional teachers aide, and was popular among the student body.

In his youth he took up glass blowing, and in 1895 he created a prototype of what would eventually become the Robertson Thermonic Valve. A visiting professor from the United States remarked on his ingenuity, and put him in contact with an American investor, Wilson Osco.

## Personal Life

Throughout his life Robertson was known to keep a staunchly asexual deportment. Though considered to be very handsome, he was never known to have romantic company of any kind. Additionally, he was known to hold a strong view of women as intellectual equals to men, and accepted many female scientists as his peers who were otherwise discounted in the scientific community of the time.

Robertson's social circle was for most of his life curated by the high meritocratic standards to which he held others. He was very close with Wilson Osco and Leonard Scot, and took great care to surround himself with academic equals, and often took intellectual disputes towards him or his work personally.

Though highly regarded within the scientific community and the upper circles of the business world, his rejection of philanthropy and support for early feminist and suffragist causes were met with disdain from the public, and he was often portrayed in the media as an effeminate dandy and an elitist with no concern for the needs of the common man, and his life as a bachelor gave rise to occasional accusations of homosexuality. As with much of the scientific community at the turn of the century, he was a proponent of eugenics. He was also an early supporter and advocate of Jason Stutten's *Structured Society*.