Born in 1870 and coming to Beloit with his family in 1885, Arthur Pratt Warner began inventing and experimenting with the encouragement of his father. When he was 12 he created a motor to run his mother’s sewing machine and realizing it needed electricity to run, constructed a ten-cell battery from scratch.

At age 18 he built his first dynamo and sold it to Gaston Scale Company and then he sold a similar one to Beloit Iron Works. In 1895 Arthur began taking lessons in electricity from the International Correspondence School and in 1897 went to work for Northern Electric Company of Madison, eventually becoming sales manager. When the company was sold he went to work for General Electric and while there, developed what was an early type of speedometer.

By 1904 he had gone into business for himself and soon orders were arriving from all over the world. Arthur also organized the Warner Trailer Company which led to the organization of Warner Electric Brake & Clutch Company in 1934. Arthur P. Warner was also noted as the first private individual to purchase an airplane (a Curtiss Pusher) and in 1909 became the 6^th man in the United States to fly a plane. Arthur died in 1957.