Who invented electrostatic smoke precipitators?

According to the Archives of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, we owe the basic idea of electrostatic precipitation to Dr Frederick Cottrell, who carried out the earliest experiments with the technology in 1906. In the patent he filed in
1907, Cottrell described how high-voltage electrodes could be used to clean all kinds of factory fumes and dust. Intriguingly, he also suggested the same basic technology could be used for "the problem of destroying fog and mists in the open air, both on land and water". In 1907, he formed the International Precipitation Company to license his invention to other companies, including Western Precipitation of California. The first large-scale precipitator was a dust-busting device built by Western Precipitation for the Riverside Cement Company in 1911. Cottrell later worked with British electricity pioneer Dr Oliver Lodge and German Dr Erwin Moeller to develop and market the technology worldwide.

Artwork: In Cottrell's original 1907 design, dirty smoke enters the scrubber through the yellow pipe at the bottom. It flows past a wire cage (darker blue) charged to a high voltage by the transformer and switching unit at the top (lighter blue). In this design, the case of the scrubber acts as the second electrode. Most of the soot precipitates out on asbestos filaments at the bottom of the cage (green) and drops to the bottom, where it can be easily removed. Meanwhile, the cleaner smoke exits through the orange pipe on the top right. Artwork courtesy of US Patent and Trademark office.