This engineer, businessman, and the holder of 186 patents was the electric starter, fast-drying car paint, the world’s first cruise missile and an engine that became known as the copper-cooled calamity … plus so much more.

HIS contributions to the development of automotive technology, to education and even to medicine transformed the world.

He eliminated the need for a hand crank to start a car. He almost sank Chevrolet. He was a commonsense philosopher that espoused the benefits and value of failure - “99 percent of success is built on failure.” His was a life well lived.

Charles Franklin Kettering was born on August 29, 1876, in Loudonville, Ohio. Plagued with poor eyesight, he was a voracious reader even though this often led to blinding headaches.  

Surprisingly, even though he was well read he was only a mediocre student. Still, after graduation he accepted a teaching position at Bunker Hill School. He challenged and engaged students, encouraged them to evening scientific lectures on electricity, heat, magnetism, and gravity, and was immensely popular.

His quest for learning led him to resign from teaching and register for classes at the College of Wooster, and then Ohio State University. Resultant of his eye problems that led to almost crippling migraine headaches, he abandoned higher learning and took a job as foreman of a telephone line crew. He was a quick learner and enjoyed experimenting on his own time.

Fascinated by electricity, he again registered for classes at Ohio State University after an optometrist was able to rectify some of his vision problems. He graduated in 1904 with an electrical engineering degree and was hired directly out of school to head the research laboratory at National Cash Register.

In this position he developed a revolutionary credit approval system that would later be adapted by Diners Club, one of the first credit card companies, in 1950. In 1906 he developed a small electric motor and created the first electric cash register. During his five years of employment at NCR, from 1904 to 1909, he secured 23 patents for the company.  He attributed his success to a good amount of luck but often quipped, “I notice that the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

In 1907, his NCR colleague Edward A. Deeds, Kettering, and other NCR engineers, including Harold E. Talbott, established the “Barn Gang.” Together they would work nights and weekends in Deeds's barn to develop products or ideas to enhance everyday products. In 1909, Charles F. Kettering and Edward Deeds left NCR and established a company of their own, the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, known today as Delco, in Dayton, Ohio. Despite developing an array of products and acquiring patents, the company was only moderately successful. It was a tragic accident that propelled Kettering and Delco to success.

Many injuries and even deaths had occurred resultant of the hand crank used to start automobiles. Byron Carter, a prolific inventor from Jackson, Michigan that had developed bicycles and various automotive technologies, as well as the friction drive Cartercar, stopped to assist a motorist on Belle Isle near Detroit. While cranking the vehicle he was severely injured and died several days later. Henry M. Leland, an automotive engineer that had been involved with Cadillac from its inception, a friend of Carter’s, became determined to develop an electric self-starting device for automobiles. When he and his team of engineers failed, they turned to Kettering and Delco. An operational model was delivered to Leland in February 1911.

It exceeded all expectations. In addition to the electric starter the system included key operated ignition spark and as a source of current for the lighting. Leland ordered 12,000 units and the 1912 Cadillac became the first production vehicle with a modern starting and electrical system.

In 1914, Kettering became a founding partner in a company that manufactured motorcycle sidecars. The same year he launched a company to mass produce generating systems for rural farm lighting applications. This included experimentation with the use of solar power as a source of electrical generation. He also was a founding partner in the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company.

The following year he accepted a contract from the United States Army to design an unmanned "flying bomb" which could hit a target at a range 64 kilometres.  Formally called the Kettering Aerial Torpedo it was jokingly called the Kettering Bug. It was built by the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company with Orville Wright acting as an aeronautical consultant and Elmer Ambrose Sperry as assistant engineer for the design of the control and guidance system.

The innovate aircraft was powered by a two-stroke V4 40-horsepower DePalma engine mass-produced by the Ford Motor Company at a cost of $40 each. The fuselage was constructed of wood laminates and papier-mâché, and the wings were made of cardboard. The cost per unit was $400.

It was launched using a dolly-and-track system like the method used by the Wright Brothers when they made their first powered flights in 1903. It could fly at a speed of 80kmh. A small onboard gyroscope was used to guide the aircraft to its destination. The control system also used a pneumatic/vacuum system, an electric system, and an aneroid barometer/altimeter. An intricate mechanical system was devised that would track the aircraft's distance flown. Before takeoff, technicians determined the distance to be traveled relative to the air, considering wind speed and direction along the flight path, and then calculated the total number of engine revolutions needed for the Bug to reach its destination. When a total revolution counter reached this value, a cam dropped down which shut off the engine and retracted the bolts attaching the wings, which fell off. This began the ballistic trajectory into the target which ended with an impact detonation of the 82 kg payload.

In 1916 Kettering negotiated the sale of Delco to United Motors Corporation, an automotive parts and accessories company that was acquired by General Motors in 1918. Then in 1919 he accepted a position as head of the new General Motors Research Corporation in Dayton, Ohio. He would continue working for this GM division for 27 years during which he acquired 186 patents.

Kettering was also the man behind Duco, the paint that revolutionised automobile painting. Prior to Duco many automobile manufacturers hand painted cars. Still regardless of system used the drying process required days. Duco developed with Du Pont cut that time to hours.

Not all his projects were successful. “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.”

In 1919 his first assignment for General Motors was to develop two air cooled engines: a four cylinder for Chevrolet and a six cylinder for Oakland that could also be used in Oldsmobile. The Oakland/Oldsmobile project was shelved, but the Chevy air cooled engine made it into production. It was an abject failure as the car tended to overheat when operating in conditions of high heat and humidity. It burned valves and bearings, and lost compression when hot.

Only 759 of these cars were built. Except for two cars, all were recalled from dealers or bought back from buyers. It was the first automotive recall in history, and it almost caused the demise of the Chevy division. 

Chevy sales had been strong since 1916 but there was no growth. An attempt to introduce a V8 engine as a Model D in 1917 proved a costly failure. During the post WWI economic recession, the Chevy division hemorrhaged cash. The air-cooled engine project exacerbated a critical situation. Only the last-minute intervention of Alfred P. Sloan prevented the Chevrolet division from being culled.

As an interesting side note, trying to resolve the problematic detonation issue of the air-cooled engine led Kettering to begin experiments with fuel. In 1921, working with General Motors engineer Thomas Midgley Jr., Kettering created a new additive which worked to reduce the “knocking” in car engines. That additive was tetraethyl lead. And that resulted in the development of leaded gasoline.

Another dubious invention that at the time was heralded as a world changing discovery was Freon gas for use as a refrigerant. Kettering also played a key role in the development of automotive safety glass, a lightweight diesel engine for application in trucks, an electric auto theft prevention system, and diesel-electrical dynamo engines for locomotives. But Kettering’s interests were not limited to cars, trucks, airplanes, and trains.

His launched research into magnetism and its use in medical imaging devices and designed an incubator for premature infants that he patented. He created a formula for synthetic aviation fuel and pioneered the mechanism for retractable aircraft landing gear. He perfected the spark plug and devised a process for extraction of bromine from sea water. He is credited with the creation of the first practical two-filament headlamp. And he established the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for medical research, partnered with Alfred Sloan to establish the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, and funded establishment of the Charles F. Kettering Memorial Hospital, as well as Kettering University.

Charles Kettering is an example of a life well lived. He is an inspiration. And in the modern era, he is largely a forgotten pioneer.

Written by Jim Hinckley of jimhinckleysamerica.com