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Charles Kettering Facts

Charles Kettering Facts
Charles Kettering was an American inventor and founder of Delco who is most famous for inventing leaded gasoline and the electric starting motor. He was born on August 29, 1876, in Loudonville, Ohio, to Jacob Henry Kettering and Martha Hunter. As a child he had headaches due to his poor eye sight. He became a teacher after graduating, focusing on encouraging scientific demonstrations. He attended the College of Wooster and then Ohio State University. His eye issues caused him to withdraw from school. He worked as a telephone line crew member, where he began to apply his engineering knowledge. When his eye sight improved he returned to school and graduated with an electrical engineering degree.
Interesting Charles Kettering Facts:
Charles Kettering became a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity while in university.
During his time off from university due to his eye sight issues he met Olive Williams. She would later become his wife.
After graduation from university Kettering was hired at National Cash Register to work as the head of the research laboratory. While at NCR Kettering invented the early version of credit. He invented the electric cash register in 1906.
While working at NCR from 1904 to 1909, Kettering secured 23 patents for the company.
Edward A. Deeds began encouraging Kettering to develop automobile improvements beginning in 1907 while Kettering still worked at NCR.
Kettering and Deeds and some other engineers gathered in Deeds' barn at night to invent automobile improvements. Kettering resigned from NCR in 1909 to focus on automobiles.
Kettering and Deeds and the other engineers that had worked in Deeds' barn founded the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, also known as Delco.
After a motorist died from a faulty hand crank for a car, Kettering and his engineers at Delco were asked to build an electric self-starter to replace the hand crank. They succeeded.
The self-starter that Kettering invented won the 1913 Dewar Trophy.
In 1914 Kettering became a founding member of the Engineers Club of Dayton.
Kettering became president of the Flxible Sidecar Company in 1914.
In 1916 Kettering sold the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company for $2.5 million to United Motors.
In 1940 Kettering became chairman of the board at Flxible Sidecar Company and remained in this position until 1958 when he died.
Delco was sold from United Motors to General Motors in 1918. Kettering became vice president of General Motors research Corporation and held this position until 1947.
Charles Kettering married Olive Williams in 1905. They had a son Eugene Williams Kettering in 1908.
Eugene Kettering also worked for General Motors and helped develop to Detroit Diesel 6-71 and EMD 567.
Charles Kettering held 186 patents in the United States. He invented the lighting system, ignition, and all electric starter for automobiles, the first aerial missile called the aerial torpedo, leased gasoline, ways to harness solar energy, the application of magnetism for medical diagnosis technology, and many other important discoveries.
Charles Kettering received many awards for his work and there are many memorials in his honor.


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