Taylor, Charles Fayette, 1894-1996

Charles Fayette Taylor, professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Instiute of Technology (MIT), was born in New York City in 1894. He enrolled in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1912 and received the bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1915. During World War I Taylor first served as a civilian inspector of aircraft material for the US Signal Corps. After three months he was appointed Ensign in the Naval Reserve Corps and placed in charge of the Navy’s Aeronautical Engine Laboratory in Washington, DC, a position he held for the duration of the war. In 1919 Taylor resigned from active service to return to Yale, and in 1920 he was awarded the master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

From 1920 to 1923, Taylor was the civilian engineer in charge of the US Army’s Air Service Laboratory at McCook Airfield in Dayton, Ohio. There he supervised numerous engine endurance tests, aircraft flight tests, and fuel anti-knock tests. Taylor next went to work for the Wright Aeronautical Corporation. He was in charge of airplane engine design and development from 1923 to 1926, when the Wright Corporation was developing the air-cooled “Whirlwind” engine used on the historic flights of Lindbergh, Byrd, and Chamberlain.

In 1926 Taylor began his long association with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was first employed by the Institute as an associate professor of aeronautical engineering. By 1929 he had been promoted to professor and made acting head of the course in aeronautical engineering. He was formally placed in charge of the course in 1931 and continued in that position for the next two years.

In 1933 Taylor left the aeronautical engineering department to become professor of mechanical engineering and director of the new Sloan Automotive Laboratory, a position he held until his retirement in 1960. While he was director of the Sloan Laboratory, Taylor was active in basic research on the internal combustion engine, for both the airplane and the automobile. His studies included experiments on detonation, combustion, fuel composition, friction, air capacity, piston/valve ratios, high speed diesel engines, and engine thermodynamics. Throughout his career at MIT Taylor was teacher as well as researcher. He taught undergraduate courses, conducted graduate seminars, and supervised theses in aeronautical, chemical, and mechanical engineering. With his brother, Edward Story Taylor, who also taught at the Institute and directed its Gas Turbine Laboratory, he co-authored the text The Internal Combustion Engine (1938, revised 1961). In 1960 C. F. Taylor published another text, The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice .

During this period, Taylor’s activity was not limited to MIT. He traveled frequently as a guest lecturer to universities in Europe, the Orient, and South America. He was an instructor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1949, the Danish Technical Institute in 1960, and Cambridge University in 1962. As a Fulbright Scholar, he lectured at Delft Technical Institute, Holland, in 1955, and at the University of the Republic of Uruguay in 1965. While at MIT Taylor also served as consultant to several engine manufacturers, among them the Ethyl Corporation, General Electric, Ingersoll Rand, Westinghouse, and the Wright Aeronautical Corporation.

Upon his retirement, Taylor became a professional artist. He is most noted for his work in metal sculpture, but he also produced paintings, etchings, and wall pieces. He had works commissioned by civic groups and companies and exhibited at galleries throughout the Northeast and in Florida.

Charles Fayette Taylor died June 22, 1996.

From the guide to the Charles Fayette Taylor papers, 1912-1990, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Archives and Special Collections)