Our namesake Charles F. Kettering, left us this legacy... he looked at the world around him and
asked, "How can I make it better?" He answered his own question with amazing inventions such as
the incubator for premature infants, the V-8 engine and high octane, anti-knock, the automobile
self-starter, the storage battery electrical system, refrigeration and air conditioning, the
pilotless biplane, synthetic aviation fuel, retractable aircraft landing gear, a practical diesel
engine, and research in fields such as magnetism which eventually led to imaging devices we use
every day in the healthcare field to diagnose illnesses. The list of inventions goes on and on,
second in number in Kettering's lifetime only to Thomas Edison.
Charles F. Kettering's legacy of innovation that we keep alive in the Kettering Health
Network is reflected in one of his most quoted statements: "Nothing ever rose to touch the
skies unless someone dreamed that it should, someone believed that it could, and someone
willed that it must."
 Kettering Inventions
- Electric cash register
- Electric auto ignition and self-starter for automobiles first appeared on the 1912 Cadillac.
Within a few years, Delco produced a complete starting, ignition and lighting system that
is credited with the phenomenal rise of the automobile industry.
- Spark plug
- Quick Drying Lacquer Finish for CarsUnit Injector for Diesel Engines and other improvements
that made it possible to produce these engines in a size practical for locomotives and
trucks, etc. This revolutionized the powering of railroads.
- Freon for refrigerators and air conditioners. Ridgeleigh Terrace, Kettering's residence in
Dayton, was the first air conditioned home in America.
- Leaded "Ethyl" Gasoline
- Quick Drying Lacquer Finish for Cars
- Auto safety glass
- Portable electric generator
- Four-wheel brakes
- Automatically Controlled Transmission for Motor Vehicles
- Electric railway gate
- First synthetic aviation fuel
- Two Cycle Engine
- Store Service Credit System Apparatus
- Adding and Subtracting Machine
- Fuel Supply System
- Extraction of Bromine from Sea Water
- Retractable Landing Gear
- Incubator for Premature Infants
- Rocket V-8 Engine (high compression automobile engine)
- First Pilotless Aircraft
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on Charles F. Kettering
In 1945 Charles Kettering and Alfred Sloan established the
Sloan-Kettering Institute
for Cancer Research in New York City.
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