Charles ketterings invention the car starter

Charles Franklin Kettering, the American engineer and longtime director of research for General Motors Corp. (GM), is born on August 29, 1876, in Loudonville, Ohio. Of the 140 patents Kettering obtained over the course of his lifetime, perhaps the most notable was his electric self-starter for the automobile, patented in 1915.

Early in his career, Kettering worked at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio, where he helped develop the first cash register to be equipped with an electric motor that opened the register drawer. With Edward A. Deeds, he formed Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO), a business dedicated to designing equipment for automobiles. Kettering’s key-operated electric self-starting ignition system, introduced on Cadillac vehicles in 1912 and patented three years later, made automobiles far easier and safer to operate than they had been previously, when the ignition process had been powered by iron hand cranks. By the 1920s, electric self-starters would come standard on nearly every new automobile.

United Motors Corporation (which later became General Motors) purchased DELCO in 1916, installing Kettering as vice president and director of research at GM from 1920 to 1947. During his tenure at GM, Kettering was instrumental in the development of improved engines, quick-drying automobile paints and finishes, “anti-knock” fuels (designed to reduce the damaging process of engine knocking, which occurs when gasoline ignites too early in an internal combustion engine) and variable-speed transmissions, among other innovations.

Kettering’s passion for invention spread far beyond the automotive industry: He helped develop the refrigerant Freon, used in refrigerators and air conditioners, and took an active role in the medical industry, inventing a treatment for venereal disease, an incubator for premature infants and art

Charles Franklin Kettering is best known as the founder of Delco and inventor of the electric starter for cars, a major step in increasing automobile sales to the general public. He was born near Loudonville, Ohio on August 29, 1876. Kettering studied mechanical and electrical engineering at Ohio State University, receiving his degree at the age of 28. 

Upon graduation Kettering was hired as an experimental engineer at the National Cash Register Company (NCR) in Dayton, Ohio. He worked there for five years and created a low-cost printing cash register, an electric cash register, an accounting machine for banks, and a system that allowed sales clerks to quickly check a customer’s credit. While at NCR, he also worked on the side, developing a better ignition system for automobiles.

In 1909, with the help of NCR’s general manager, Colonel Edward A. Deeds, he organized the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco). At Delco, Kettering, tasked by Cadillac founder Henry Leland to improve upon the hand crank for starting a car, invented the electric starter in 1912. He also improved automobile lighting systems and developed a dependable way for farms to generate electricity. In 1916, Delco became a branch of the United Motors Corporation, an automotive parts and accessories company that was acquired by General Motors in 1918. Kettering became the head of the new General Motors Research Corporation in Dayton, becoming a vice president of GM in 1920. In 1925, the research labs were transferred to Detroit and Kettering and his wife moved to the city, living in the Book Cadillac Hotel until his retirement.

Charles Kettering was head of General Motors Research for 27 years and he acquired 186 patents in his name. His other notable creations include the development of ethyl leaded gasoline, the development of the refrigerant Freon, the development of faster-drying and more durable lacquer finishes for automobiles, and the creation of the ligh

Introduction

Charles F. Kettering's interest in the science of automobile engines grew after a colleague asked for help with a car he was building from a kit. With an inclination toward invention and business, Kettering was an influential leader, a lifelong teacher, and an enthusiastic spokesman and promoter of the power of technological progress.

How did Charles Kettering get his start, and what contributions did he make to automotive engineering?

Perseverance

Charles Franklin Kettering was born on a farm near Loudonville, Ohio, on August 29, 1876. He was the fourth of five children of Jacob Kettering and Martha Hunter Kettering. He experienced the strictness of his mother and the farming responsibilities of his father that instilled an interest in mechanical "tinkering." After graduating from high school, Kettering began teaching at a nearby one-room school house. He left two years later to enter the College of Wooster, but due to weak eyesight problems, he returned to teaching. Another two years later Kettering entered Ohio State University, but once again, his eyesight caused him to leave. He began working with a crew installing telephone wiring to carry this recent invention across the countryside. Returning once again to Ohio State, he persevered and eventually, at the age of twenty eight, obtained a degree in electrical engineering. The university recommended him for employment at the National Cash Register Company (NCR) in Dayton, Ohio.

High-Energy Ignition

Hired as an experimental engineer in 1904, Kettering's first task was the motorization of the registers; his team took a year to invent an electric motor applicable to all NCR models. Further work by Kettering's separate teams during the next four years added the basics of accounting machines, low-cost registers, and internal department store communications.

Kettering married Olive Williams of Ashland, Ohio, in 1905, and their only ch