Great Engineers & Scientists

He has been likened to English physicist Isaac Newton and Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. The most powerful telescope in existence is named after him. And before his time, humanity lacked a credible understanding of outer space beyond the Milky Way, or that the universe was expanding.

Today is the birthday of Edwin Powell Hubble, an extraordinary astronomer for whom the orbiting telescope is named.

Born on November 20, 1889, Edwin Hubble didn't always travel a path that would make him arguably the greatest astronomer in American history and the creator of concepts known as Hubble's Law and Hubble's Constant. Boredom led this talented thinker to give up a high-school teaching position in Indiana and the chance for a legal career in Kentucky to become an astronomer. Thankfully for astronomy, he chose his ultimate path wisely.

Early Life – Well Rounded Excellence

Edwin Powell Hubble was a recognizable talent even when he was in high school. An athletic star, the 6'2" amateur heavyweight boxer graduated at the age of 16 - two full years early. Hubble's academic excellence landed him a scholarship at the University of Chicago, where he studied mathematics, physics, chemistry, and astronomy. He also tutored students during the summer to help pay for college expenses.

For his academic achievements, Edwin Hubble was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and studied law and Spanish at the University of Oxford. The former boxer also excelled at several events in track and field before moving back the United States, where he taught high school in New Albany, Indiana and passed the bar in Kentucky. Soon, however, he became bored and enrolled in the doctoral program in astronomy at his alma mater.

Astronomer Interrupted

Edwin Hubble's interest in astronomy is believed to have been influenced by a lecture that astronomer Vesto M. Slipher gave at Northwestern University. Slipher's early work with nebulae laid some of the ground work for Hubble's eventual discoveries. Hubble's own work was so impressive at the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory that when he met its founder, George Ellery Hale, then director of the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California, Hale offered Hubble a position when the latter finished his doctorate.

This opportunity was put on hold, however, because of America's entry into World War I. Edwin Hubble joined the Army in 1916 and served for three years, achieving the rank of major (an achievement that always made him proud). He didn't start work in Pasadena until 1929. There, he used the new 25-m Hooker telescope, the largest in the world at the time, to study spiral-shaped nebulae.

Contributions to Astronomy

Edwin Hubble's work measured the relative brightness of stars in the Milky Way's nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy (then known as the Andromeda Nebulae). He determined that the stars in this nebula were Cepheid stars and used their periodic changes in brightness to determine their distance from Earth.

Hubble believed that the Andromeda Nebulae was about one million light years from Earth. Although current estimates place Andromeda closer to two million light years away, Hubble still deserves credit for proving the existence of other galaxies. Even at one million light years from Earth, Andromeda was too far away to be part of the Milky Way.

Hubble's other major discoveries are more controversial. While working with colleague Milton Humason, Hubble combed through astronomer Vesto Slipher's work. Now able to approximate a star's distance from Earth, Hubble could tell what direction that star was moving in compared to Earth. Through observation, Hubble also found that the universe was expanding in a concrete way. He suggested a specific relationship between a galaxy's velocity and its distance from Earth. Today, this is known as Hubble's Law.

Hubble also proposed that the expansion of the universe was uniform. According to Hubble's Constant (which is not a certainty), it is possible to calculate the exact age of the universe. This work has come under fire as part of the Big Bang Theory, but is generally agreed-upon within the modern scientific community.

Later Career

Later, Edwin Hubble became director of Mount Wilson Observatory and served as a ballistics specialist for the U.S. military during World War II, receiving the Medal of Merit for his work. Hubble also developed a system for classifying galaxies. While preparing for a four-day observation at Mount Wilson, Hubble suffered a stroke. He died on September 28, 1953 at the age of 63. During the 1970s, NASA acquired funding for the most powerful space telescope in existence, and fittingly named it after Edwin Powell Hubble.

Resources:

"Edwin Powell Hubble." Earth Sciences for Students. 4 vols. Online. Macmillan Reference USA, 2008.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

"Edwin Hubble." World of Earth Science. Online. Thomson Gale, 2006.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble

Carroll G. Killen, Jr. was a distinguished electrical engineer who worked for the Sprague Electric Company in North Adams, Massachusetts for 40 years. Rising through the ranks from field engineer to senior vice president, he led Sprague Electric to develop mission-critical components for both national defense and space exploration.

From Natchitoches to New Jersey

Carroll Killen was born in Natchitoches, Louisiana in 1919. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Physics from Louisiana Northwestern State College in 1938, and a graduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1940. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he served in the South Pacific as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army for two years.

As part of the war effort, Carroll Killen also worked at Watson Laboratories in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, then the Army's most important electronics facility. Named after Colonel Paul E. Watson, former chief engineer of an Army Signal Corps research group there, Watson Labs worked closely with Westinghouse Corporation to develop the Army's first radar systems.

Sprague's HYREL Capacitors

In 1947, Carroll Killen became a field engineer for the Sprague Electric Company, a manufacturer of capacitors and other electronic components. Working at the company's facility in North Adams, Massachusetts, Killen helped to develop the first of Sprague's highly-reliable HYREL capacitor product lines. These passive electronic components, reported A. Tiezzi in 1959, included impregnated-paper, metalized-paper, tantalum-electrolytic, and ceramic capacitors that demonstrated "trends . . . toward reliability, low voltage, and automation".

During the 1950s and 1960s, HYREL capacitors were used in Minuteman and Polaris missiles as well the Gemini and Apollo space programs. The Minuteman, the U.S. Air Force's first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), featured an all-inertial guidance system. The Polaris, a two-stage submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) developed for the U.S. Navy, also relied upon Sprague-built components. "As Sprague's involvement in government programs increased", Tahir Rahman wrote in 2009, some 53,000 Sprague components were used in the Apollo 11 spacecraft that first landed men on the Moon in 1969.

Distinguished DoD Consultant

For nearly 25 years (1949 – 1973), Carroll G. Killen, Jr. worked as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), serving on the Advisory Group on Electronic Parts (AGEP) and the Advisory Group on Electronic Devices (AGED). As a member of the DoD's Parts Specification for Reliability Study Group, Killen guided the department's implementation of an important parts management program. "The recommendations of this group," writes the Times-Union of Albany, New York, "exerted major impact on operations in both government and the electronic industry."

For his efforts, Killen and other members of the committee received an award from the IRE Professional Group on Reliability and Quality Control in 1961. Now defunct, the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) was a professional organization from 1912 until 1963, when it merged with the American Institute of Electrical engineers (AIEE) to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Later, Carroll G. Killen would become a Life Senior Member of the IEEE.

To the Top and Beyond

In 1960, Sprague promoted Carroll G. Killen, Jr. to Vice President of Military and Industrial Sales. Later, the Natchitoches native served as director of both the Sprague Electric Company and Sprague/Goodman Electronics Corporation. While serving as president of the Tantalum International Study Center, a Brussels-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase awareness of tantalum and other metals used in electronics applications, Killen also served as director for Cera-Mite, a global supplier of ceramic capacitors that is now part of Vishay.

Until his retirement from Sprague in 1985, Carroll Killen was a trustee of the National Security Industrial Association (NSIA). He was also a member of the American Defense Preparedness Association, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, the American Management Association, the Sales Executives Club of New York, and the Newcomen Society. Then he began a new phase of career. At Tansitor Electronics in nearby Bennington, Vermont, Killen worked as general manager and was elected a director and vice president of marketing and sales.

Killen retired from Tansitor in 2000 and later made his home in Slingerlands, New York. Following a brief illness, Carroll G. Killen, Jr. died on September 29, 2009.

CR4 Remembers

This biography would not have been possible without jerrkowa, who brought the distinguished career of Carroll Killen to CR4's attention. When asked by this blogger to share some anecdotes about his former co-worker, jerrkowa recalled a decisive and loyal colleague whose company the CR4 community would have enjoyed.

Once, while traveling with Killen at one of New York City's airports, jerrkowa found himself towards the back of a line at a security checkpoint. "I was so far back," he recalled, that "I would have missed the flight except that he (Killen) got out of line and grabbed me, escorting me to the front of the line". Years later, "when Sprague started collapsing in 1984", Killen began sending recruiters jerrkowa's way. "The job I ended up with resulted from one of his leads".

Resources:

http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/site/tionline/menuitem.130a3558587d56e8fb2275875bac26c8/index.jsp?&pName=institute_level1_article&TheCat=1018&article=tionline/legacy/inst2009/nov09/inmemoriam.xml&;jsessionid=gxzZLGYJJRpkhRl7JTskvPYFQMnqst6G2Hblc2gwYzffpgTLJdgd!675031873!109377755

http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-government/13180598-1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Radio_Engineers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_E._Watson

http://www.springerlink.com/content/v13q0q6h66711251/

http://www.strategic-air-command.com/missiles/Minuteman/Minuteman_Missile_History.htm

http://www.vishay.com/company/brands/cera-mite/

Additional Reading:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/2733/The-Sprague-Electric-Company-s-Long-Goodbye-Part-1

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/2742/The-Sprague-Electric-Company-s-Long-Goodbye-Part-2

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/2903/The-Sprague-Electric-Company-s-Long-Goodbye-Part-3

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/2981/The-Sprague-Electric-Company-s-Long-Goodbye-Part-4

On November 9, 1853, powerhouse architect Stanford White was born in New York City to Shakespearian scholar Richard Grant White and his wife Alexina Black Mease. But well before White's notorious exploits and scandal were the stuff of headlines and the indelible drama in E.L. Doctorow's (in)famous novel Ragtime, his reputation was synonymous with the chic designs he contributed to in the burgeoning American metropolis where he was born.

Laying the Foundation

As an architect and designer for the rich and famous during the turn of the 19^th century, Stanford White brought an artist's sensibility to the craft of interior and structural design. While his career began under the tutelage of architect Henry Hobson Richardson, it was his partnership with two creative, business-savvy men that laid a sound foundation for White's future.

As an eager, imaginative designer, White joined forces with stern businessman Willliam Mead and the distinguished Charles McKim in 1879. The McKim, Mead & White architectural firm became the most prestigious of its kind and helped to set a high standard for ornamental structures designed during America's gilded age.

Building a Business from the Ground Up

The firm's earliest clients included much of New England's Crème de la Crème. While the firm built private estates such as the mansion of art dealer Robert Goelet, they also created structures for many public libraries and municipalities. It's without a doubt that part of the firm's success was due to the massive number of structures built in the Northeast by McKim, Mead & White in tandem with their impeccable taste for high quality designs and materials used.

One of White's most notable designs was for the original Madison Square Garden in 1890, which served as the meeting place for celebrities of that era. White was also responsible for creating New York's Penn Station and prior to the establishment of today's iconic and Romanesque Washington Square Arch in New York City, White was the original architect who was commissioned to design the arch's wooden predecessor in 1889. The arch was originally intended simply for a centennial celebration of George Washington's inauguration, but a pleased public later demanded there be a permanent fixture of the arch.

An Era Ends in Ruins

Stanford White's career and life would end tragically as his eager spending lead to debt, his lust lead to fatal jealousy, and yellow journalism tarnished his reputation in the history books. During an evening performance at Madison Square Garden on June 25^th, 1906, Pittsburgh millionaire Harry K. Thaw gunned down White in the building's rooftop restaurant in front of countless witnesses. The act was the bloody result of White's romance with America's first celebutante Evelyn Nesbit, Thaw's wife at the time, and White's Murder became what newspapers deemed "The Trial of the Century."

References and Further Reading:

The New-York Historical Society: http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/white_s.html
The New York Times on Stanford White: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/stanford_white/index.html
Stanford White Biography: http://stanfordwhite.net/

Today is the birthday of Raymond Loewy, father of the field of industrial design. Born in France on November 5, 1893, Loewy is known as "the man who shaped America" because of his many iconic designs. His achievements include the S-1 locomotive, the Studebaker Avanti, and NASA's Skylab.

Early Life

Raymond Loewy was already a business owner and aeronautics inventor by the age of fifteen. His life and career, however, were upended by World War I. Burned by mustard gas, this corporal in the French Corps of Engineers earned seven medals and four citations. He was also awarded the distinguished Legion of Honor, established as the highest decoration in France by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The end of the war did not mean the end of Raymond Loewy's hardships, however. Tragically, the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 claimed the lives of both of his parents (the war had already claimed most of their estate.) Penniless, Loewy managed to finish school at École Centrale, France's prestigious technological institute, at the age of 26.

We're Coming to America

In the fall of 1919, Raymond Loewy decided to follow his two brothers to New York City. He arrived with $40, some letters of introduction, and little knowledge of the English language. Despite this humble beginning to life in the United States, Loewy landed a job as a fashion illustrator with Vogue magazine, a post he held for ten years until intellectual boredom led him to advertise his own engineering design philosophy - that a better designed product would outsell a product that was equal in price, quality, and function. In 1929, British manufacturer Sigmund Gestetner found one of the cards that Loewy handed out to advertise his services.

The Beginnings of a New Engineering Discipline

A maker of duplicating machines, Gestetner hired Loewy to redesign one in three days before taking a trip to his native England. Gestetner was so impressed with the clay model that Loewy designed that he paid a $2,000 fee. By 1931, Raymond Loewy had signed a lucrative deal to design the 1934 Hupmobile. Some in the company didn't approve of Loewy's innovative designs, however, and the business eventually went under.

Next, Loewy offered his services to the Pennsylvania Railroad, offering to redesign their locomotives. But first he had to prove his mettle to the company president by redesigning the trash containers in New York City's Pennsylvania Station. After impressing the executive with his trashcan designs, Loewy designed a new diesel locomotive (the S-1) that literally changed the face of American railroading.

Later, Raymond Loewy opened a Fifth Avenue office and added clientele from all over the world, including Sears and Roebuck. Wisely, the Chicago-based retailer awarded Loewy the contract to redesign, both from a style and functionality standpoint, the 1934 Coldspot refrigerator. This resulted in unprecedented consumer demand.

Pairing with Studebaker Automobile Company

In 1937, Raymond Loewy began what would be a fifteen year association with Studebaker. Although World War II nearly halted consumer automobile production in the U.S., Loewy's sleek designs helped inspire the automotive craze of the post-war period. The most famous of his designs was the Studebaker Avanti, which inspired an entirely new style of performance car. Financial problems, however, kept Studebaker from realizing the vehicle's full sales potential. Although rights to the Avanti design were bought and sold often, vehicles that resembled Loewy's design were still produced until 2007.

Reflecting on His Achievements

When Raymond Loewy decided to retire at the age of 87, he could reflect upon a career where he had presided over offices in New York City, Chicago, South Bend, Los Angeles, London, and Paris. His studios designed "all modes of transportation, department stores, supermarkets, corporate and brand identity, packages, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Skylab".

The first advocate for the field now known as industrial design, Loewy convinced manufacturers that beauty and simplicity meant higher sales. He also trained more than 2,000 industrial designers and brought them into this new discipline. Fittingly, Raymond Loewy was paid tribute by the Smithsonian in 1975 when the museum ran a retrospective exhibit of his work.

Raymond Loewy died from natural causes on July 14, 1986 at the age of 92.

Resources:

"Raymond Fernand Loewy."The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 2: 1986-1990. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Influenza

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Avanti

http://www.avantimotors.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy

Today is the birthday of Asaph Hall, a post-Civil War astronomer who is best-known for his discoveries of Phobos and Deimos, the two tiny moons of Mars. Phobos and Deimos are non-spherical bodies, measuring only 16 x 12 miles and 10 x 6 miles, respectively.

Given Asaph Hall's incomplete education, his Martian discoveries were a considerable accomplishment. Hall is also remembered for naming a-six mile wide crater on Phobos after his first wife, Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, a mathematician who had once been Asaph Hall's professor.

We Don't Need No Education

Ideally, this track would have come from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon instead of The Wall, but "We Don't Need No Education" still works here. One of the most remarkable aspects of Asaph Hall's career is his lack of education.

Apprenticed to a carpenter at age 16, he split his time between working and studying at a variety of schools as a non-matriculated student. Hall studied mathematics at Norfolk Academy for one winter, spent 18 months at Central College studying astronomy, and then studied for three months at the University of Michigan under the special instruction of F. F. E. Brünnow. After a short stint as a schoolmaster in Ohio, Hall was able to secure a position at the Harvard Observatory.

Making the Most of an Opportunity

Asaph Hall used his opportunity to work at the Harvard Observatory as a chance to attend lectures and, informally at least, to complete his education. His reputed brilliance as a heavenly observer was immediate. He began sending papers, most often on the orbits of asteroids and comments, to scientific journals in 1856. By the time of his death some 51 years later, Hall had nearly 500 published papers.

In 1862, Asaph Hall was appointed an aide at the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) in Washington, D.C. A year later, he was named to a position as a mathematics instructor. Promoted to chief of the USNO in 1872, he discovered the existence of Mars's two moons in 1877. Asaph Hall's discovery contradicted many established scientific works which claimed that the red planet was without satellites.

Recognition and Later Life

Asaph Hall received numerous awards and recognitions, both nationally and internationally, for his work. Given his disdain for textbooks, perhaps from a lack of formal education, he refused to write a book and concentrated on his scientific papers instead.

After retiring from the Naval Observatory in 1891, Hall accepted a position teaching and working in astronomy at Harvard. Eleven years later, in 1902, he was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Asaph Hall published his final paper in September of 1906. He died a year later, on November 22, 1907, at the age of 78.

Resources:

"Asaph Hall." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

"Asaph Hall."Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

http://www.ozgate.com/infobytes/mars_moons.htm

http://maia.usno.navy.mil/women_history/hall.html