Posted on Aug 29, 2018
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Charles Franklin Kettering, the American engineer and longtime director of research for General Motors Corp. (GM), is born on August 29, 1876, in Loudonville, Ohio. Of the 140 patents Kettering obtained over the course of his lifetime, perhaps the most notable was his electric self-starter for the automobile, patented in 1915.
Early in his career, Kettering worked at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio, where he helped develop the first cash register to be equipped with an electric motor that opened the register drawer. With Edward A. Deeds, he formed Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO), a business dedicated to designing equipment for automobiles. Kettering’s key-operated electric self-starting ignition system, introduced on Cadillac vehicles in 1912 and patented three years later, made automobiles far easier and safer to operate than they had been previously, when the ignition process had been powered by iron hand cranks. By the 1920s, electric self-starters would come standard on nearly every new automobile.
United Motors Corporation (which later became General Motors) purchased DELCO in 1916, installing Kettering as vice president and director of research at GM from 1920 to 1947. During his tenure at GM, Kettering was instrumental in the development of improved engines, quick-drying automobile paints and finishes, “anti-knock” fuels (designed to reduce the damaging process of engine knocking, which occurs when gasoline ignites too early in an internal combustion engine) and variable-speed transmissions, among other innovations.
Kettering’s passion for invention spread far beyond the automotive industry: He helped develop the refrigerant Freon, used in refrigerators and air conditioners, and took an active role in the medical industry, inventing a treatment for venereal disease, an incubator for premature infants and artificial fever therapy. Highly devoted to education, he helped found the Flint Institute of Technology in 1919 and the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in 1926. In 1945, he and longtime General Motors head Alfred P. Sloan established the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City.
Early in his career, Kettering worked at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio, where he helped develop the first cash register to be equipped with an electric motor that opened the register drawer. With Edward A. Deeds, he formed Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO), a business dedicated to designing equipment for automobiles. Kettering’s key-operated electric self-starting ignition system, introduced on Cadillac vehicles in 1912 and patented three years later, made automobiles far easier and safer to operate than they had been previously, when the ignition process had been powered by iron hand cranks. By the 1920s, electric self-starters would come standard on nearly every new automobile.
United Motors Corporation (which later became General Motors) purchased DELCO in 1916, installing Kettering as vice president and director of research at GM from 1920 to 1947. During his tenure at GM, Kettering was instrumental in the development of improved engines, quick-drying automobile paints and finishes, “anti-knock” fuels (designed to reduce the damaging process of engine knocking, which occurs when gasoline ignites too early in an internal combustion engine) and variable-speed transmissions, among other innovations.
Kettering’s passion for invention spread far beyond the automotive industry: He helped develop the refrigerant Freon, used in refrigerators and air conditioners, and took an active role in the medical industry, inventing a treatment for venereal disease, an incubator for premature infants and artificial fever therapy. Highly devoted to education, he helped found the Flint Institute of Technology in 1919 and the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in 1926. In 1945, he and longtime General Motors head Alfred P. Sloan established the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City.
Charles F. Kettering, inventor of electric self-starter, is born - Aug 29, 1876 - HISTORY.com
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Boss Kett: One Man Working with Others
A short documentary on the life of Charles F. Kettering, one of the most prolific inventors in American history. Born in Loudonville, Ohio in 1876, he went t...
Thank you my friend TSgt Joe C. for making us aware that on August 29, 1876 American engineer and longtime director of research for General Motors Corp. (GM) Charles Franklin Kettering was born in Loudonville, Ohio.
Background from lemelson.mit.edu/resources/charles-f-kettering
" Charles F. Kettering
All-electric automobile systems
Charles Franklin Kettering invented dozens of important devices, but he is best known as the founder of Delco, the company who brought automobiles into the Age of Electricity.
Kettering was born on a farm outside Loudenville, Ohio in 1876. With the first money he ever earned, $14 for cutting wheat on a nearby farm, he bought a telephone, which he soon dismantled, analyzed, and rebuilt. After graduating from high school, he taught in a one-room schoolhouse near his home. He entered college twice, in 1896 and 1898, but both times, he had to return to teaching because constant studying was ruining his eyesight. Then, Kettering worked on a telephone line crew, which gave him both the practical training on which he would rely as an inventor and the determination to earn a college degree. Kettering stayed after beginning college for the third time at Ohio State University and earned his BS in Electrical Engineering in 1904.
Kettering’s first post-collegiate position was with National Cash Register (NCR) in Dayton, Ohio. At that time, electricity was beginning to transform industry, in both the means of production and the types of goods produced. Kettering rose to the occasion, quickly earning a reputation as an innovator. In his five years at NCR, Kettering’s inventions included an electric motor for cash registers and the “OK” charge telephone for department stores and other public locations.
In 1909, Kettering and an NCR colleague left to form their own industrial research firm, Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, soon known as Delco. The firm’s mission was to improve the automobile with electrical systems. Within three years, Kettering and his colleagues had designed and built all-electric starting, ignition, and lighting systems for automobiles. This meant, among other things, that cars no longer needed to be started with the help of a hand-crank connected to the engine. This was an obvious improvement in any case, which has been credited with giving women the independence to drive by themselves.
Kettering’s electric systems were first installed in the 1912 Cadillac, but they soon spread to other models. General Motors was so impressed that it bought out Delco and made it the basis of the GM Research Corporation. Kettering moved to Flint, Michigan to become Vice President of this new corporation and acquired the nickname “Boss Ket” as he oversaw a series of further automotive innovations. At the same time, Kettering (still a teacher at heart) was the driving force behind the creation of a college-level engineering school based in “practical education,” that is, training in which “the theory should supplement the practice and not precede it.”
Kettering gave a talk to the local YMCA in Flint, Michigan in 1916, which inspired its Industrial Committee to create a School of Automotive Trades for factory workers. This developed into the Flint Institute of Technology (1919) and General Motors Institute (1926). The core of these schools’ curriculum was the hands-on experience gained in laboratories and especially cooperative programs.
As an officer of GM and a supporter of GMI, Kettering continued to practice as well as to preach. His later automotive inventions included improvements to diesel engines and ancillary items like Duco™ paint and ethyl gasoline. Many of the well over 300 U.S. patent applications in his archives extend far beyond the automotive industry. Kettering invented portable lighting systems for farms, refrigeration coolants, and even solar energy apparatus. His medical inventions include an incubator for premature infants, a treatment for venereal disease, and prototypical magnetic diagnostic devices.
Kettering retired from GM Research in 1947, but continued to serve as its consultant until his death in 1958. He also founded the Kettering Foundation, a foundation devoted to “researching the relationship between democracy and the public.” In acknowledgement of his rags-to-riches life story, he was elected a Member of the Horatio Alger Association. His greatest honor came in 1998, when General Motors Institute was renamed Kettering University after “one of the century’s greatest inventors.”
Boss Kett: One Man Working with Others
"A short documentary on the life of Charles F. Kettering, one of the most prolific inventors in American history. Born in Loudonville, Ohio in 1876, he went to Dayton, Ohio after graduating from Ohio State University. He invented the first practical ignition system and self-starter for the automobile and co-founded the company DELCO in 1909 with Edward Deeds. He went on to work for General Motors for the rest of his working life."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VlIQlKS3ms
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SSG John Ross SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon
Background from lemelson.mit.edu/resources/charles-f-kettering
" Charles F. Kettering
All-electric automobile systems
Charles Franklin Kettering invented dozens of important devices, but he is best known as the founder of Delco, the company who brought automobiles into the Age of Electricity.
Kettering was born on a farm outside Loudenville, Ohio in 1876. With the first money he ever earned, $14 for cutting wheat on a nearby farm, he bought a telephone, which he soon dismantled, analyzed, and rebuilt. After graduating from high school, he taught in a one-room schoolhouse near his home. He entered college twice, in 1896 and 1898, but both times, he had to return to teaching because constant studying was ruining his eyesight. Then, Kettering worked on a telephone line crew, which gave him both the practical training on which he would rely as an inventor and the determination to earn a college degree. Kettering stayed after beginning college for the third time at Ohio State University and earned his BS in Electrical Engineering in 1904.
Kettering’s first post-collegiate position was with National Cash Register (NCR) in Dayton, Ohio. At that time, electricity was beginning to transform industry, in both the means of production and the types of goods produced. Kettering rose to the occasion, quickly earning a reputation as an innovator. In his five years at NCR, Kettering’s inventions included an electric motor for cash registers and the “OK” charge telephone for department stores and other public locations.
In 1909, Kettering and an NCR colleague left to form their own industrial research firm, Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, soon known as Delco. The firm’s mission was to improve the automobile with electrical systems. Within three years, Kettering and his colleagues had designed and built all-electric starting, ignition, and lighting systems for automobiles. This meant, among other things, that cars no longer needed to be started with the help of a hand-crank connected to the engine. This was an obvious improvement in any case, which has been credited with giving women the independence to drive by themselves.
Kettering’s electric systems were first installed in the 1912 Cadillac, but they soon spread to other models. General Motors was so impressed that it bought out Delco and made it the basis of the GM Research Corporation. Kettering moved to Flint, Michigan to become Vice President of this new corporation and acquired the nickname “Boss Ket” as he oversaw a series of further automotive innovations. At the same time, Kettering (still a teacher at heart) was the driving force behind the creation of a college-level engineering school based in “practical education,” that is, training in which “the theory should supplement the practice and not precede it.”
Kettering gave a talk to the local YMCA in Flint, Michigan in 1916, which inspired its Industrial Committee to create a School of Automotive Trades for factory workers. This developed into the Flint Institute of Technology (1919) and General Motors Institute (1926). The core of these schools’ curriculum was the hands-on experience gained in laboratories and especially cooperative programs.
As an officer of GM and a supporter of GMI, Kettering continued to practice as well as to preach. His later automotive inventions included improvements to diesel engines and ancillary items like Duco™ paint and ethyl gasoline. Many of the well over 300 U.S. patent applications in his archives extend far beyond the automotive industry. Kettering invented portable lighting systems for farms, refrigeration coolants, and even solar energy apparatus. His medical inventions include an incubator for premature infants, a treatment for venereal disease, and prototypical magnetic diagnostic devices.
Kettering retired from GM Research in 1947, but continued to serve as its consultant until his death in 1958. He also founded the Kettering Foundation, a foundation devoted to “researching the relationship between democracy and the public.” In acknowledgement of his rags-to-riches life story, he was elected a Member of the Horatio Alger Association. His greatest honor came in 1998, when General Motors Institute was renamed Kettering University after “one of the century’s greatest inventors.”
Boss Kett: One Man Working with Others
"A short documentary on the life of Charles F. Kettering, one of the most prolific inventors in American history. Born in Loudonville, Ohio in 1876, he went to Dayton, Ohio after graduating from Ohio State University. He invented the first practical ignition system and self-starter for the automobile and co-founded the company DELCO in 1909 with Edward Deeds. He went on to work for General Motors for the rest of his working life."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VlIQlKS3ms
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SSG John Ross SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon
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SFC Shirley Whitfield 1SG Carl McAndrews MSG Mark Million COL Lee Flemming PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell Alan K. LTC Greg Henning MSgt Stephen Council Sgt Trevor Barrett Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MSG Andrew White SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth Cpl Scott McCarroll LTC John Shaw LTC John Griscom SSgt (Join to see) SGT Jim Arnold
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