Short
Stories
of Science and Invention
A
Collection of Radio Talks by
Charles F. Kettering
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Weekly, from
September 1942
to July
1945, Charles F. Kettering gave five-minute intermission talks about Science and Invention during the
radio broadcasts of the General
Motors Symphony of the Air.
Kettering
invented the first automobile
self-starter, and for 31 years directed a research laboratory
for General Motors.
These radio
talks are a fascinating
legacy from the mind of a prolific inventor. The obvious
anachronisms now add a historical perspective of the
war-time period in which they were written.
These web pages now preserve some
of the most popular stories for a new generation to read The
text and art come from a General Motors booklet of selected talks.
(Reprint, March 1959)
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37. Thomas Midgley, Jr.
A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering
On the afternoon of February 2, 1923, over
twenty-two years ago, a
car drove into a filling station in Dayton, Ohio and the driver said,
"Give me five gallons of that new Ethyl Gas advertised on the sign."
That simple event is important because it was the first sale of this
anti-knock gasoline to the public- and it set a precedent that millions
of motorists have followed ever since that day.
I have referred in the
past to the importance of the Ethyl development in connection with the
war effort, peace time transportation and the conservation of our
petroleum resources. This afternoon I would like to pay tribute to all
of the men who worked on this project, and one in particular - a very
close friend and brilliant thinker - the late Thomas Midgley, Jr.
Young Midgley was descended from a long
line of inventors - in
fact, I believe one of his ancestors was an employee of James Watt, the
father of the steam engine. This may have had something to do with the
fact that young Tom was graduated from Cornell, 1911, as a mechanical
engineer. But at the time of his death, he was president of the
American Chemical Society.
 
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