Diesel engine papers, 1908-1929.

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Diesel engine papers, 1908-1929.

1908-1929

https://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/1893.xml&doc.view=content&brand=default&anchor.id=0#series6

Elmer Sperry's files on the compound diesel engine and the electric transmission include a number of blueprints and patent diagrams describing his diesel engine and proposed electronic transmission. During the 1920s Sperry collaborated closely with H. C. Snow, an engineer with the Velie Motors Corporation of Moline, Illinois, and the collection includes a complete file of their letters. These records show that in spite of their efforts the diesel project was both a technological and financial failure. Sperry could not develop a working model nor could he raise the capital required to finance research and development in this area. For a while Ford Motor Company, Standard Oil, Baldwin Locomotive Works, and the Illinois Central Railroad expressed interest in Sperry's work but, when research and development did not proceed as rapidly as expected, they quickly withdrew their support.

1 linear ft.

eng, Latn

Hagley Museum & Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 8336249

Hagley Museum & Library

Related Entities

There are 9 Entities related to this resource.

Standard Oil Company

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When Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903, Alexander Y. Malcolmson was elected the Company's first treasurer, but his assistant James Couzens actually managed financial functions. People holding the position of Ford Motor Company treasurer from 1903 to 1955 included Alexander Y. Malcolmson, 1903-1906; James J. Couzens, 1906-1915; Frank L. Klingensmith, 1915-1921; Edsel B Ford, 1921-1943; B. J. Craig, 1943-1946; and L. E. Briggs, 1946-1955. In 1903, the business office was in a small building o...

Velie Motors Corporation

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Snow, Henry C.

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Illinois Central Railroad Company

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Sperry, Elmer Ambrose, 1860-1930

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Elmer A. Sperry was born on October 12, 1860, in Cortland, N.Y. He attended the local elementary schools and then enrolled in Cornell University. At Cornell he developed an interest in electrical engineering and began working with a group of Syracuse industrialists in order to construct an arc lighting system. By 1882 Sperry was recognized as being one of America's electrical pioneers. He is primarily known as for his work with feedback devices and servomechanisms and as the founder in 1910 of t...

Kettering, Charles Franklin, 1876-1958

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Inventor, scientist, and humanitarian, best known for his invention of the automobile self-starter and his co-founding of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; founder of DELCO; official of General Motors; b. near Loudonville, Ohio; resident of Dayton, Ohio. From the description of Charles Kettering collection, ca. 1930-ca. 1958. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70958264 Charles F. Kettering was born August 28, 1876 in Loudonville, Ohio to Jacob and Martha K...

Baldwin Locomotive Works

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