hospital corporation of america

SUBJECT AREA: Automotive engineering, Electricity, Electronics and information technology, Metallurgy, Steam and internal combustion engines

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Kettering gained degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering from Ohio State University. He was employed by the National Construction Register (NCR) of Dayton, Ohio, where he devised an electric motor for use in cash registers. He became Head of the Inventions Department of that company but left in 1909 to form, with the former Works Manager of NCR, Edward A. Deeds, the Dayton Engineering Laboratories (later called Delco), to develop improved lighting and ignition systems for automobiles. In the first two years of the new company he produced not only these but also the first self-starter, both of which were fitted to the Cadillac, America's leading luxury car. In 1914 he founded Dayton Metal Products and the Dayton Wright Airplane Company. Two years later Delco was bought by General Motors. In 1925 the independent research facilities of Delco were moved to Detroit and merged with General Motors' laboratories to form General Motors Research Corporation, of which Kettering was President and General Manager. (He had been Vice-President of General Motors since 1920.) In that position he headed investigations into methods of achieving maximum engine performance as well as into the nature of friction and combustion. Many other developments in the automobile field were made under his leadership, such as engine coolers, variable-speed transmissions, balancing machines, the two-way shock absorber, high-octane fuel, leaded petrol or gasoline, fast-drying lacquers, crank-case ventilators, chrome plating, and the high-compression automobile engine. Among his other activities were the establishment of the Charles Franklin Kettering Foundation for the Study of Chlorophyll and Photosynthesis at Antioch College, and the founding of the Sloan- Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City. He sponsored the Fever Therapy Research Project at Miami Valley Hospital at Dayton, which developed the hypertherm, or artificial fever machine, for use in the treatment of disease. He resigned from General Motors in 1947.