Charles Franklin Kettering (August 29, 1876 – November 25, 1958), sometimes called Charles Fredrick Kettering, was an American inventor, engineer, and businessman who held 186 patents. He helped start the company Delco and led research at General Motors from 1920 to 1947. His most important inventions in the automotive industry include the electrical starting motor and leaded gasoline. With the help of the DuPont Chemical Company, he developed Freon, a refrigerant used in cooling systems. At DuPont, he also created Duco lacquers and enamels, which were the first practical colored paints for cars made in large numbers. While working with the Dayton-Wright Company, he designed the "Bug" aerial torpedo, which was the first aerial missile in the world. He also advanced the use of lightweight two-stroke diesel engines, changing the way locomotives and heavy equipment were made. In 1927, he founded the Kettering Foundation, a research foundation that does not take sides politically. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine in January 1933.

Early life

Charles was born in Loudonville, Ohio, United States, as the fourth of five children to Jacob Henry Kettering and Martha (Hunter) Kettering. He had trouble seeing clearly, which caused him headaches during school. After finishing school, he began teaching at Bunker Hill School, following his sister Emma. He was known as a friendly and creative teacher. He held evening science shows for students about electricity, heat, magnetism, and gravity.

He studied at the College of Wooster before moving to Ohio State University. He was part of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. His eye problems led him to leave school, and he started working as a foreman for a telephone line crew. At first, ending his studies made him feel sad. Later, he found ways to use his electrical engineering skills at work, which helped him feel better. He also met his future wife, Olive Williams. When his eyesight improved, he returned to school and graduated from Ohio State University in 1904 with a degree in electrical engineering.

Career

Kettering was hired directly after finishing school to lead the research laboratory at National Cash Register (later known as NCR Corporation). He invented an easy credit approval system, a model for modern credit cards, and the electric cash register in 1906. This invention made it easier for sales clerks to record sales. Kettering was known as a practical inventor. He once said, "I didn't spend much time with other inventors or executives. I lived with the sales team. They understood what people needed." During his five years at NCR, from 1904 to 1909, Kettering earned 23 patents for the company. He credited his success to luck but added, "I notice the harder I work, the luckier I get."

In 1907, his NCR colleague Edward A. Deeds encouraged Kettering to improve automobiles. Deeds and Kettering invited other NCR engineers, including Harold E. Talbott, to join them on nights and weekends at Deeds’s barn to experiment. They became known as the "Barn Gang," and Kettering was called Boss Ket. Their first goal was to find a replacement for a part called a magneto.

In 1909, Kettering left NCR to focus on automotive developments. He and his team formed a company called Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, or Delco.

The hand crank used to start early automobiles could cause accidents. Byron Carter, founder of Cartercar, died in an accident involving a hand crank at Detroit’s Belle Isle Park. Henry M. Leland, who led Cadillac, wanted to create an electric self-starting device. When Leland’s engineers could not make a practical self-starter, he asked Kettering for help. Delco developed a working model by February 1911.

Kettering’s main idea was to create an electrical system that performed three functions still used in modern cars: starting the engine, creating a spark for ignition, and providing power for lights. Leland ordered 12,000 self-starters for his 1912 models. Delco had to shift from research to mass production. The invention won a Dewar Trophy in 1913.

Kettering helped start the Engineers Club of Dayton in 1914.

In 1914, Flxible Sidecar Company was formed with Kettering’s help. He became president of the company and joined its board of directors. Kettering invested money in the company, especially after 1916, when he sold Delco to United Motors Company for $2.5 million. He remained president of Flxible until becoming chairman of the board in 1940, a role he held until his death in 1958.

Delco was sold to General Motors in 1918 as part of United Motors. Delco became the basis for the General Motors Research Corporation and Delco Electronics. Kettering became vice-president of General Motors Research Corporation in 1920 and held the position for 27 years.

Between 1918 and 1923, Kettering led research at GM’s Dayton labs to develop air-cooled engines for cars and trucks. The GM "copper-cooled" engine used fans to blow air over copper fins to release heat. Efforts to commercialize the engine between 1921 and 1923 failed due to technical and non-technical issues. Air-cooled engines later became successful in applications like lawnmowers, small planes, and cars, such as the Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche sports cars.

Kettering’s fuel research was based on his belief that oil supplies would be limited and that additives could improve engine efficiency. His "high percentage" idea involved mixing ethanol with gasoline, while his "low percentage" idea focused on small amounts of additives to increase gasoline’s octane rating. In December 1921, Thomas Midgley Jr. and Kettering identified tetraethyllead (TEL) as an additive that could prevent engine knocking at a ratio of 1,000 to 1. While ethanol could not be patented, TEL could. Kettering and Midgley secured the patent and promoted TEL’s use. Kettering became president of the newly formed Ethyl Corporation, which began producing TEL in 1923. One year later, he hired Robert A. Kehoe as a medical expert to declare leaded gasoline safe for humans. The long-term environmental harm caused by leaded gasoline was not widely recognized until many years later.

Personal life

Charles Kettering married Olive Williams of Ashland, Ohio, on August 1, 1905. Their only child, Eugene Williams Kettering, was born on April 20, 1908. Eugene joined Winton Engine in 1930. This company was later bought by General Motors and became part of the General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD). He played an important role in creating the EMD 567 locomotive engine and the Detroit Diesel 6-71 engine. He worked at EMD until he retired in 1960.

Charles Kettering built a house called "Ridgeleigh Terrace" in 1914. Local records say it was the first in the United States to use electric air conditioning with freon. Ridgeleigh Terrace was the home of his son, Eugene, until Eugene passed away. Eugene’s wife, Virginia, lived in the house for many years and worked to restore and decorate it. In the late 1990s, the house was seriously damaged by fire. It was later rebuilt, but the new design differed greatly from the original plans to fit its current use as a conference center.

Some of Charles Kettering’s well-known 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 died on November 25, 1958. After his death, his body was honored at the Engineers Club before being placed in the mausoleum at Woodland Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio.

Legacy

Max D. Liston, a co-worker of Kettering at General Motors, described him as "one of the gods of the automotive field, particularly from an inventive standpoint." Liston said Kettering once told him, "People will never 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 long-term business, professional, and personal relationship. In 1914, they recognized that Dayton was a leading industrial city in the United States because of its skilled engineers and technicians. They founded the Engineers Club of Dayton and the Foreman's Club of Dayton, which later became the National Management Association.

Kettering held 186 U.S. patents. He invented the all-electric starting, ignition, and lighting system for automobiles. Electric starters replaced the manual crank used to start cars. First used in the 1912 Cadillac, the electric starter helped grow the U.S. auto industry by making cars easier to start. Other inventions included a portable lighting system and an incubator for premature babies. His engine-driven generator, combined with storage batteries, created a "Delco Plant," providing electrical power for farms and other areas without access to the power grid.

In 1918, Kettering designed the "aerial torpedo," nicknamed the Kettering Bug.

Kettering and his colleagues developed leaded gasoline, which led to large amounts of lead being released into the atmosphere when the gasoline was burned worldwide. Because lead is harmful to the brain, leaded gasoline was banned in many countries by the late 1990s. The development of Freon, which uses chemicals called CFCs, contributed to the thinning of the Earth's ozone layer.

Kettering helped create Duco paint and contributed to the development of diesel engines and methods to use solar energy. He was an early pioneer in using magnetism for medical diagnosis.

His inventions, especially the electric car starter, made him wealthy. In 1945, he helped found what became the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, based on the idea that industrial research methods could be used for cancer studies. His son and daughter-in-law, Eugene and Virginia, created Kettering Medical Center in Ohio to honor Kettering’s work in healthcare.

On January 1, 1998, the former General Motors Institute changed its name to Kettering University to honor Kettering as a founder.

• He received the Franklin Medal in 1936.
• He received the Hoover Medal in 1955.
• He received the IEEE Edison Medal in 1958.

• He was chosen to join the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1928.
• He was chosen to join the American Philosophical Society in 1930.

In 1998, GMI Engineering and Management Institute (formerly General Motors Institute) in Flint, Michigan, changed its name to Kettering University in honor of Kettering. His ideas, skills, and belief in cooperative education continue there. Kettering is also remembered through the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and through the Kettering Health Network, which includes hospitals, medical centers, and Kettering College in Kettering, Ohio.

The city of Kettering, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton, was named after him when it was incorporated in 1955.

The former U.S. Army Air Service testing field, McCook Field, is now a Dayton park called Kettering Field.

Several U.S. public schools 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 and demolished)
• The Department of Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati is housed 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 and Kettering Hall of Science at Oberlin College are named for him.

At Antioch College, the 1929 Science Building he donated was not named after him (it is now the Arts and Science Building), but the college’s 33,000-square-foot Charles F. Kettering Building was (originally a research facility, now home to the campus radio station WYSO), while the college’s Olive Kettering Library was named after his wife.