Charles F. Kettering facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Charles Franklin Kettering
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Kettering, on a Time cover, 1933
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| Born | August 29, 1876 |
| Died | November 25, 1958 (aged 82) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Education | The Ohio State University |
| Spouse(s) | Olive Leora Williams (m. 1905) |
| Children | Eugene Kettering |
| Parent(s) | Jacob and Martha Kettering |
| Awards | Franklin Medal (1936) Hoover Medal (1955) IEEE Edison Medal (1958) |
Charles Franklin Kettering (born August 29, 1876 – died November 25, 1958) was a famous American inventor, engineer, and businessman. He held 186 patents for his inventions. He helped start Delco and led research at General Motors from 1920 to 1947.
Some of his most important inventions for cars include the electric starting motor and leaded gasoline. He also helped invent Freon for refrigerators and air conditioners with the DuPont Chemical Company. At DuPont, he also helped create Duco paints, which were the first colorful paints for cars made in large numbers.
While working with the Dayton-Wright Company, he developed the "Bug" aerial torpedo, which was like the world's first missile. He also helped create powerful, lightweight two-stroke diesel engines. These engines changed the way locomotives (trains) and heavy construction machines were built. In 1927, he started the Kettering Foundation, a research group. He was even on the cover of Time magazine in 1933!
Contents
Early Life and Education
Charles Kettering was born in Loudonville, Ohio, USA. He was the fourth of five children. When he was young, he had poor eyesight, which gave him headaches at school. After finishing school, he became a teacher at Bunker Hill School. He was a very good and creative teacher. He often invited students to evening shows where he demonstrated things about electricity, heat, magnets, and gravity.
He first studied at The College of Wooster before moving to The Ohio State University. Because of his eye problems, he had to leave college for a while. He then worked as a foreman for a telephone line crew. At first, he felt sad about leaving school. But he soon found ways to use his electrical engineering skills at his job, which made him feel better. He also met his future wife, Olive Williams, there. When his eyes got better, he went back to Ohio State and earned his electrical engineering degree in 1904.
Working at NCR and Starting Delco
Right after college, Kettering was hired to lead the research lab at National Cash Register (now NCR Corporation). In 1906, he invented an easy way to approve credit, which was like an early version of today's credit cards. He also invented the electric cash register. This made it much easier for sales clerks to ring up sales.
Kettering was known for being a practical inventor. He once said he liked to spend time with the sales team because "They had some real notion of what people wanted." During his five years at NCR (1904-1909), Kettering received 23 patents. He believed luck played a part in his success, but he added, "I notice the harder I work, the luckier I get."
The "Barn Gang" and Delco's Beginning
In 1907, Kettering's colleague at NCR, Edward A. Deeds, convinced him to work on improving cars. Deeds and Kettering, along with other NCR engineers, started meeting at Deeds's barn on nights and weekends. They worked on their ideas and became known as the "Barn Gang." Kettering was called "Boss Ket." Their first goal was to find a better way to start car engines than the old magneto system.
In 1909, Kettering left NCR to focus completely on car inventions. The group then formed a company called Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, or Delco for short.
The Self-Starter for Cars
Early cars had to be started with a hand crank. This crank could sometimes kick back suddenly, which was very dangerous. A car company founder named Byron Carter died after such an accident. This made Henry M. Leland, the head of Cadillac, determined to create an electric self-starting device.
Leland's engineers couldn't make a self-starter small enough to work well. So, he asked Kettering for help. By February 1911, Delco had developed a practical electric self-starter.
Kettering's smart idea was to create one electrical system that did three things:
- It started the car engine.
- It created the spark for the engine's ignition.
- It provided electricity for the car's lights.
This is how modern cars still work today! Leland ordered 12,000 self-starters for his 1912 Cadillac models. This meant Delco had to switch from just doing research to actually making the parts. This invention was so important that it won a Dewar Trophy in 1913.
In 1914, Kettering also helped start the Engineers Club of Dayton.
Later Career and Innovations
In 1914, Kettering helped start the Flxible Sidecar Company. He became its president and joined the board of directors. He provided a lot of money to the company, especially after 1916. That year, Kettering sold his company, Delco, to United Motors for $2.5 million. He remained president of Flxible until 1940, when he became chairman of the board, a position he held until he passed away in 1958.
Delco was sold to General Motors in 1918. Delco then became the basis for the General Motors Research Corporation and Delco Electronics. Kettering became the vice-president of General Motors Research Corporation in 1920 and held that job for 27 years.
Engine and Fuel Research
Between 1918 and 1923, Kettering led research at GM to develop air-cooled engines for cars and trucks. These engines used fans to blow air over copper fins to cool them down. However, this idea didn't work out well for cars at that time, even though air-cooled engines have been successful in other areas like small engines and aircraft.
Kettering also researched fuels. He believed that oil might become scarce, so he looked for additives that would make engines more efficient. He thought about mixing ethanol with gasoline. He also looked for additives that could be added in small amounts to improve gasoline's octane rating, which helps prevent engine knocking.
In 1921, Kettering and Thomas Midgley Jr. found that tetraethyllead (TEL) could stop engine knocking even when added in tiny amounts. While using ethanol couldn't be patented, TEL could. So, Kettering and Midgley patented TEL and promoted its use. Kettering became the first president of the new Ethyl Corporation, which started making TEL in 1923.
Later, it was discovered that using leaded gasoline caused a lot of lead to be released into the air. Lead is harmful to people and the environment. Because of this, leaded gasoline has been mostly banned around the world since the late 1990s. Kettering also helped develop Freon using CFCs, which were later found to harm the ozone layer.
Other Contributions
Max D. Liston, one of Kettering's co-workers at GM, called him "one of the gods of the automotive field, particularly from an inventive standpoint." Liston remembered Kettering telling him, "People won't ever remember how many failures you've had, but they will remember how well it worked the last time you tried it."
Kettering and Deeds had a strong friendship and business relationship. In 1914, they realized that Dayton was a leading industrial city because of its skilled engineers. So, they founded the Engineers Club of Dayton and the Foreman's Club of Dayton, which later became the National Management Association.
Personal Life
Charles Kettering married Olive Williams on August 1, 1905. They had one son, Eugene Williams Kettering, born in 1908. Eugene later worked at General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and was important in developing the EMD 567 locomotive engine and the Detroit Diesel 6-71 engine.
In 1914, Charles Kettering built a house called ""Ridgeleigh Terrace"." It was said to be the first house in the United States with electric air conditioning. His son Eugene lived there until he passed away. Eugene's wife, Virginia Kettering, lived in the house for many years and restored it. After a fire in the late 1990s, the house was rebuilt exactly as it was before.
Some of Kettering's famous quotes include:
- "It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again."
- "Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement."
- "My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there."
Charles Kettering passed away on November 25, 1958. He was buried in the mausoleum at Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio.
Legacy and Impact
Charles Kettering held 186 patents for his inventions. His invention of the all-electric starting, ignition, and lighting system for cars was revolutionary. This electric starter replaced the dangerous hand crank. It was first used in the 1912 Cadillac and helped the US auto industry grow because it made cars easy for anyone to start.
Other inventions included a portable lighting system and an incubator for premature babies. His engine-driven generator combined with batteries formed a "Delco Plant." This provided electricity to farms and other places far from the main power grid.
In 1918, Kettering designed the "aerial torpedo," also called the Kettering Bug. This 300-pound missile was made of papier-mache with 12-foot cardboard wings and a 40-horsepower engine. It could carry 300 pounds of explosives at 50 miles per hour and cost only $400. The "Bug" is considered the first aerial missile. What was learned from the "Bug" helped develop the first guided missiles and remote-controlled drones.
Kettering also helped develop Duco paint and worked on diesel engines and ways to use solar energy. He was a pioneer in using magnetism for medical diagnostic techniques.
His inventions, especially the electric car starter, made him very wealthy. In 1945, he helped establish what became the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He believed that industrial research methods could be used to fight cancer. His son and daughter-in-law, Eugene and Virginia, created Kettering Medical Center in Ohio to honor Charles Kettering's work in healthcare research.
On January 1, 1998, the former General Motors Institute changed its name to Kettering University to honor him.
Awards
- He received the Franklin Medal in 1936.
- He received the Hoover Medal in 1955.
- He received the IEEE Edison Medal in 1958.
Memorials
Many places and institutions are named after Charles Kettering:
- In 1998, GMI Engineering and Management Institute in Flint, Michigan, became Kettering University. The university continues his ideas and belief in co-operative education, where students combine studies with work experience.
- The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City is a famous cancer research and treatment center.
- The Kettering Health Network includes several hospitals and medical centers in Ohio, along with Kettering College in Kettering, Ohio.
- The city of Kettering, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton, was named after him when it became a city in 1955.
- The former U.S. Army Air Service testing field, McCook Field, is now a Dayton park called Kettering Field.
Several public schools in the U.S. are named after him:
- Charles F. Kettering Sr. High School in Detroit, Michigan
- Charles F. Kettering High School in Waterford, Michigan
- Charles F. Kettering Elementary School in Ypsilanti, Michigan
- Charles F. Kettering Elementary School in Long Beach, California
- Kettering Fairmont High School in Kettering, Ohio
- Kettering Elementary School in Westland, Michigan (now closed)
- The Department of Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati is in the Kettering Lab.
The Olive Williams Kettering Chair of The College of Wooster Department of Music is named in honor of his wife.
The University of Dayton's engineering building, Kettering Labs, is named after him.
The Kettering Science center on the Ashland University campus in Ohio is named for him.
Kettering Hall at Wilmington College is named for him, as is Kettering Hall of Science at Oberlin College.
At Antioch College, the 1929 Science Building he donated was not named after him. However, the school's 33,000-square-foot Charles F. Kettering Building was named for him. The college's Olive Kettering Library was named after his wife.
Patents
- U.S. Patent 1,150,523 Engine Starting Device, filed June 15, 1911
Images for kids
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Kettering on the cover of Time magazine in 1933
See also
In Spanish: Charles Kettering para niños
