44. Twice a Patriot

Short Stories
of Science and Invention

A Collection of Radio Talks by
Charles F. Kettering

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)

44. Twice a Patriot
A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering

     Nearly every American, I believe, remembers the poem that begins:

          "Listen, my children, and you shall hear
          Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
          On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five. . ."

     Longfellow, through that poem, has kept alive the name Paul Revere, and 170 years later a great many of us will pay respect to a great patriot.

     Most of us remember Paul Revere as the man who rode through every Middlesex village spreading the alarm. There are not many who are familiar with his other accomplishments, while not so spectacular as the midnight ride, they were in the long run probably of more value to the American people.

     As a boy of thirteen, Paul Revere was apprenticed to his father, a silversmith in Boston. An apprentice in those days spent seven years learning his trade and at the end of this period he was not expected to do any other kind of work. He became a lifetime specialist in a trade he probably didn't have much to say about.