John White Howell (December 22, 1857 – July 28, 1937) was an American electrical engineer who spent his entire professional career (1880 to 1930) working for Thomas Edison, specializing in the development and manufacturing of the incandescent lamp.

His earliest paternal American ancestor was Edward Howell, who came to America from Marsh Gibbon, England, Prior to 1639, received a land grant of 500 acres at Lynn, Massachusetts, and was a founder of Southampton, Long Island, New York, in 1640.

In his last year at Stevens he wrote a thesis on “Economy of Electric Lighting by Incandescence,” giving original and accurate data on the efficiency of dynamos and lamps, carrying capacity of conductors, drops in house wiring, and allied subjects.

As a result of this paper, Mr. Howell entered the employ of Thomas A. Edison at the then recently established Edison Works at Menlo Park, New Jersey, in the engineering department in July 1881, being first engaged in the preparation of equipment for the photometric measurement and testing of incandescent lamps and developing methods and procedure for their manufacture on a commercial scale.

Besides making valuable original contributions to the literature of his profession, Mr. Howell assisted, by his discussion of the papers of others, in developing many important themes relative to method of electrical distribution, photometric standards and allied subjects, and he was co-author, with Henry Schroeder, of the “History of the Incandescent Lamp” (1927).

For forty-three years he has carried on an enormous amount of research work which has given the incandescent lamp its present universal usefulness.

He was a member of the board of managers of the Howard Savings Institution of Newark, New Jersey; a trustee of the Newark (New Jersey) Museum Association, and the Marcus L. Ward Home, at Maplewood, New Jersey; a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society, Franklin Institute, International Electro-Technical Commission, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Edison Pioneers (president, 1923–1924), Theta Xi, the Essex and Essex County Country clubs of Newark, Adirondack League Club of Herkimer County, New York, Maidstone Club at Easthampton, Long Island, New York, and the Mid-Pines Country Club of Knollwood, North Carolina.

Modest, generous, gentle, Mr. Howell was everywhere recognized as a master of his art, who never lost his leadership through over a half a century of fruitful activity and who retained always the friendship of Thomas Edison.

726293 - Filed Nov 9, 1897 - Issued Apr 28, 1903 - THE GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY Producing High Vacuums, US Pat.

756963 - Filed Oct 17, 1903 - Issued Apr 12, 1904 - GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY Machine for Making Stems for Incandescent Lamps, US Pat.

904482 - Filed Oct 23, 1907 - Issued Nov 17, 1908 - GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY Forming Machine for Tungsten Filaments, US Pat.

955461 - Filed Aug 18, 1904 - Issued Apr 19, 1910 - GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY Method of Fusing Lamp Filaments to Leading In Wires, US Pat.