Samuel Ruben

Samuel Ruben (born July 14, 1900 in Harrison , New Jersey , † July 16, 1988 in Milwaukie , Oregon ) was an American inventor in electrochemistry.

Life

Ruben had no secondary education other than high school. He had to support his family early on through his work. Samuel Ruben was a radio amateur ( amateur radio call sign 2ASP). From 1918 to 1921 he worked for the Electrochemical Products Company. The physics professor at Columbia University , Bergen Davis (1869-1958), advisor to the Electrochemical Products Co., gave him private lessons and allowed him to some of his lectures. Bergen Davis convinced their financier, Malcolm Clephane, to finance Ruben's private laboratory, and from then on he worked independently in his own laboratory in New Rochelle .

In the course of 60 years as an inventor, he has acquired around 300 patents.

Duracell

He is known as the founder of Duracell together with the businessman Philip Rogers Mallory (1885–1975), initially as the Mallory Battery Company. Their collaboration began in the early 1920s and continued until Mallory's death in 1975. They marketed developed by Ruben in 1942 for the US military mercury battery in button cell form . It was compact and very robust and could be used at low temperatures at which the zinc-carbon cells previously used failed. During the war he left the invention to the government for free use. In the 1950s, the Ruben-Mallory cell was a prerequisite for the development of the first implantable pacemaker. During the 1950s, he improved the alkaline manganese cell .

Inventions

Further inventions by Ruben were the dry aluminum electrolytic capacitor , which he patented in 1925 and which was essential for the development of more compact radios , a magnesium-copper sulfide rectifier for US households in the early 1920s for operating radios that previously used the (often overflowing) acid batteries, and various vacuum tubes, including a 7-second tube that preheated so quickly that you could listen to the radio almost immediately after switching on.

Publications

Ruben wrote several popular science books, some for children. From 1985 until his death, he was adjunct professor of physics at Reed College in Portland .

Awards

He has three honorary doctorates (Columbia University, Butler University , Polytechnic Institute Brooklyn)
Longstreth Medal from the Franklin Institute
Acheson Medal from the Electrochemical Society
In 1965 he was named Inventor of the Year by George Washington University .
In 1982 Columbia University named a chair in electrochemistry after him and Peter G. Many (the director of Duracell).

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Commercial and government radio stations of the United States. GPO, Washington 1919, 103.
↑ U.S. Patent No. 1774455, Electric condenser , filed October 19, 1925, issued August 26, 1930
^ Jew Designated As 'inventor of the Year' by Washington Institute . Jewish Telegraphic Agency . 1966. Retrieved January 23, 2020.

personal data
SURNAME	Ruben, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American inventor in electrochemistry
DATE OF BIRTH	July 14, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH	Harrison , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH	July 16, 1988
Place of death	Milwaukie , Oregon

[1] Commercial and government radio stations of the United States. GPO, Washington 1919, 103.

[2] U.S. Patent No. 1774455, Electric condenser , filed October 19, 1925, issued August 26, 1930

[3] Jew Designated As 'inventor of the Year' by Washington Institute . Jewish Telegraphic Agency . 1966. Retrieved January 23, 2020.