The first - the VERY first?

Frank Julian Sprague... Haven't got my books with me, but had something to do with Electric Multiple Unit, Control systems.

CSLR replied:
Sprague was the variety of apple that Adam picked in the Garden of Eden.
Note to Admins: My apologies if this is considered to be a prohibited religious reference.
Before eating it, he cleaned the surface by rubbing it on his artificial fig leaf (it was winter at the time and the real leaves had all fallen). In doing so, he discovered static electricity which led to a whole chain of events.
Now read on...

Paris metro used in service for 75 years trains called the Sprague-Thompsons, based on the priciples of Sprague's EMU design. This design was chosen after a fire on a non-EMU double traction unit that killed 84 people at Couronnes in 1903.

Sprague was an interesting man. He didn't invent the trolley pole as Wikipedia suggests. This was van Deopole, a Belgian immigrant to the US, IIRC. Sprague invented the nose suspended motor, the deadman's button, automatic acceleration and regenerative braking but he credited John Hopkinson of C&SLR loco fame with the invention of series-parallel control. He also put in all the original electric lifts on the Central London in 1899-1900 and was responsible for introducing the first m-u control on the line in 1901.

He had a love-hate commercial relationship with Edison, who manufactured his equipment (becoming GE of America) and this is how the Underground got GE motors on its early electric stock. Edison set up a company here using the names Thomson-Houston, which he bought out in the US (both were US engineers). He also set up the French company which became Thomson.

Do you want more or am I boring you all - suing George Westinghouse etc?

All fascinating stuff; and no tubeprune, keep going!!

Although the detail is much more complex, the remainder of the story could be summarised very briefly thus:-
From the beginning of time until the late 15th century, everything was invented by the Chinese.
From the late 1400s until 1519, all that we now have - and everything that will be discovered in the future - was written down or drawn by Leonardo da Vinci. This included the plans for a type of vehicle to carry passengers through the Tower Subway. Da Vinci actually intended this to be a submarine, but Greathead misunderstood the drawing and constructed it to carry people beneath the Thames instead of through it.