His areas of active research included network theory, acoustical systems, electromagnetic apparatus, and data transmission.

He was interested in communications circuit theory and the transmission of data at high speeds over telephone lines.

Norton began his telephone career in 1922 with the western Electric Company's Engineering Department (which later became Bell Laboratories).

Norton and his associates at AT&T in the early 1920s are recognized as some of the first to perform pioneering work applying Thevenin's equivalent circuit and who referred to this concept simply as Thévenin's theorem.

[2] Norton died on January 28, 1983, in King James Nursing Home, Chatham, New Jersey.