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N0KFQ > TODAY 17.08.14 15:58l 56 Lines 2573 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Aug 17
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Sent: 140817/1455Z 33643@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.60
Aug 17, 1915:
Charles Kettering receives patent for electric self-starter
Charles F. Kettering, co-founder of Dayton Engineering
Laboratories Company (DELCO) in Dayton, Ohio, is issued U.S.
Patent No. 1,150,523 for his "engine-starting device"--the first
electric ignition device for automobiles--on August 17, 1915.
In the early years of the automobile, drivers used iron hand
cranks to start the internal combustion process that powered the
engines on their cars. In addition to requiring great hand and
arm strength, this system was not without certain risks: If the
driver forgot to turn his ignition off before turning the crank,
the car could backfire or roll forward, as at the time most
vehicles had no brakes. Clearly a better system was needed, and
in 1911 Cadillac head Henry M. Leland gave Charles Kettering the
task of developing one.
Before founding DELCO with his partner Edward Deeds in 1909,
Kettering had worked at the National Cash Register Company, where
he helped develop the first electric cash register. He drew on
this experience when approaching his work with automobiles. Just
as the touch of a button had started a motor that opened the
drawer of the cash register, Kettering would eventually use a key
to turn on his self-starting motor. The self-starter was
introduced in the 1912 Cadillac, patented by Kettering in 1915,
and by the 1920s would come standard on nearly every new
automobile. By making cars easier and safer to operate,
especially for women, the self-starting engine caused a huge jump
in sales, and helped foster a fast-growing automobile culture in
America.
United Motors Corporation (later General Motors) bought DELCO in
1916, and Kettering worked as vice president and director of
research at GM from 1920 to 1947. Other important auto-related
innovations developed during Kettering's tenure were quick-drying
automotive paint, spark plugs, leaded gasoline, shock absorbers,
the automatic transmission, four-wheel brakes, the diesel engine
and safety glass. He helped develop the refrigerant Freon, used
in refrigerators and air conditioners, and the Kettering home in
Dayton was the first in the country to be air-conditioned. In the
realm of medicine, Kettering created a treatment for venereal
disease and an incubator for premature infants, and in 1945 he
and longtime General Motors head Alfred P. Sloan established the
Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City.
Kettering died in 1958.
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