Posted: 10.28.2008 Charles Kettering An Inventor with an Eye to the Future
While Thomas Edison got all the ink (and rightly so) for being recognized as America’s top inventor, Charles F. Kettering was quietly developing his own legion of remarkable ideas. Even though he was best known for his 27 years as GM’s top research person, Kettering developed products for such diverse fields as government defense and medicine.
The Kettering Fever Cabinet 1927 photo courtesy of Kettering University
The list of Kettering’s bevy of inventions includes items like the electric cash register, Freon for refrigerators and air conditioning, leaded gasoline, an electric railway gate and quick drying paint for automobiles. And, of course, he pioneered the electric auto-ignition and self-starter for automobiles that launched his storied career in the car business. In all, Kettering was credited with more than 300 patent applications.
Charles Kettering working on solar energy 1942 photo courtesy of Kettering University
In addition to his work as an inventor, Charles Kettering is also remembered for his untiring work as a social philosopher and philanthropist. In particular he was involved in supporting the engineering departments of a number of local colleges (In fact, General Motors Institute in Flint changed its name to Kettering University in his honor) and medical facilities like the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a combined lung cancer research and treatment center in New York City.
General Motors Institute in Flint changed its name to Kettering University courtesy of Kettering University
Charles Franklin Kettering was born on a farm near Loudonville, Ohio, August 29, 1876. Legend has it that Kettering, later known as "Boss Ket," earned his first $14 cutting a neighbor's wheat crop. With the money, he bought a telephone from a mail-order house and dismantled it to study its inner workings, beginning a life-long fascination with technology.
After graduation from high school, he accepted a teaching position in a rural, one-room school. Though known as an excellent teacher, Kettering opted to attend college and in the summer of 1896 entered the College of Wooster in Ohio. Unfortunately for Kettering, his eyesight began to fail during his short time at Wooster and he was forced to leave college and return to teaching.
In 1898, he went back to school entering the engineering school at Ohio State University, but again his poor eyesight forced him to drop out during his freshman year. For the next two years he worked on a telephone line crew before returning to Ohio State where he completed his electrical engineering degree in 1904.
After graduation, Kettering took a job in the inventions department at the National Cash Register Company (NCR) in Dayton, Ohio. There he was credited for developing an electric motor for cash registers, a system that tied charge phones to cash registers and an accounting machine for banks.
Charles Kettering at desk at NCR photo courtesy of Kettering University
In 1909, Kettering and Edward A. Deeds, an associate at NCR, formed their own industrial research laboratory - the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (later known as DELCO). Within three years, they had perfected a new all-electric starter for the automobile that became the firm’s signature product.
The new starting system caught the eye of Ernest Sweet, the chief engineer of Cadillac, who immediately saw the potential of the new device. In 1912, Cadillac purchased 8,000 of Delco’s revolutionary starter and made them standard equipment in their cars.
The new starting system proved to be a major breakthrough in the early history of the automobile. Now, for the first time, car enthusiasts could start the engine without the possibility of injury that was commonplace with the old cranking system. Furthermore, women who often required a chauffeur to help get their car started could now engage the motor themselves, ushering in a new era of road-traveling independence.
Charles Kettering adjusting the starter on a 1913 Buick photo courtesy of Kettering University
DELCO was eventually acquired by General Motors and became the foundation for the General Motors Research Corporation of which Kettering became vice president in 1920. Kettering remained the head of GM’s research team until his retirement in 1947, not before inventing dozens of technical advancements for the corporation.
Some to his automotive-related innovations included the spark plug, safety glass, four-wheel brakes, Ethyl gasoline, light-weight diesel engine, Duco fast drying paint and the automatic transmission.
But Kettering’s mechanical interests weren’t confined to the auto industry. He devised everything from a portable lighting system for farms to coolants for refrigerators and air conditioners. Other patents followed like a pilotless land-guided “aerial torpedo” for use in World War I, a device for the treatment of venereal disease, the first synthetic aviation fuel and an incubation system for premature infants.
In addition to the aerial torpedo, Kettering produced other inventions to help the war effort – this time World War II. For instance, he assisted the U.S. military by devising flight-control instruments, long-lasting lubricants and more efficient jet fuel.
From his days at NCR until his death in 1958, Kettering was both a stickler for basic research and an avid proponent of progress. "We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there,” he once said.
Kettering was among a select company of over-achievers who believed that success was only gained after enduring failure after failure. For him each accomplishment meant the beginning of a new search for the next big thing.
“The one time you don’t want to fail is the last time you try,” he said. “The inventor fails 9,999 times but if he succeeds just once, he’s in and he considers his failures as simply practice shots.”
In his later years he was fond of recalling that two of his most important inventions – the self starter and the two-cycle Diesel engine – operated in ways that went against conventional wisdom at the time. “According to the prevailing theory, our Diesels still don’t work,” he quipped in an interview with the New York Times.
Kettering spent nearly as much of his time on his philanthropic interests as his role as an inventor. He was a trustee at Antioch College, the College of Wooster, Ohio State University and the University of Miami in Florida and received honorary degrees from more than 30 academic institutions as well as numerous honors from scientific organizations.
Kettering’s contributions to higher education included both counsel and financial aid. His interest in Antioch College, founded by Horace Mann, started early in his career when he donated money for a library, science building and student center.
In addition to his work with the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Kettering was a trustee of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation - whose mission is to develop ways to strengthen democracy - as well as trustee at the National Geographic Society and the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation.
Charles Kettering on 1933 cover of Time
Kettering summed up his scientific philosophy this way: "We need to teach the highly educated man that it is not a disgrace to fail and that he must analyze every failure to find its cause. He must learn how to fail intelligently, for failing is one of the greatest arts in the world."
For more information about other iconic figures, go to MotorCities National Heritage Area at www.motorcities.org.
