Charles Kettering

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Charles Kettering with his first electric starter

Charles Franklin Kettering (born August 29, 1876 on a farm near Loudonville, Ohio , † November 25 [according to other sources November 24] 1958 in Dayton (Ohio) ) was a farmer , school teacher, engineer , scientist , inventor and Philosopher . Because of his weak eyesight, he had to interrupt his studies in mechanical and electrical engineering at Ohio State University twice before successfully completing it in 1904. He believed that innovations were most likely to come about through interdisciplinary collaboration, and he tried to apply this principle everywhere.

Kettering held more than 300 patents . He found a solution to make the electric starter for combustion engines suitable for series production and the electric vehicle lighting. His first job was at the National Cash Register Co. in Dayton, Ohio, where he invented the first electric cash register. Other inventions included a forerunner to the cruise missile , an incubator for premature babies, and a generator that played a crucial role in the development of the diesel locomotive .

Kettering founded the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company ( Delco ), which was sold to General Motors in 1920 and renamed General Motors Research Corporation . Kettering became vice president of the company and remained GM's chief executive officer for 27 years. There he was responsible for the development of tetraethyl lead as an anti-knock agent in gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) for refrigerators (both mainly developed by Thomas Midgley ).

In 1928 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences . In the same year he became a Fellow of the American Physical Society . Since 1930 he was a member of the American Philosophical Society . The town of Kettering (a suburb of Dayton ) was renamed in his honor when it was incorporated in 1955. In 1998 the GMI Engineering and Management Institute (formerly General Motors Institute) in Flint was renamed Kettering University in his honor . The General Motors Cancer Research Foundation has awarded the Charles F. Kettering Prize named after him since 1979 .

A well-known quote is: “In a fifth of a second you can send a message around the world. But it can take years for it to penetrate from the outside of a human skull. ”An equally formative quote from him is:“ Nobody would have ever crossed the ocean if he had had the opportunity to leave the ship in a storm. ”A Another well-known and very philosophical saying says: "I am very interested in the future, because I will spend the rest of my life in it."

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member Directory: Charles F. Kettering. National Academy of Sciences, accessed November 27, 2015 .
  2. ^ Member History: Charles F. Kettering. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 23, 2018 .

Web links

Commons : Charles F. Kettering  - collection of images, videos and audio files