32 Facts About Albert Kingsbury

Albert Kingsbury was an American engineer, inventor and entrepreneur.

Albert Kingsbury was responsible for over fifty patents obtained between the years 1902 to 1930.

Albert Kingsbury was born in Morris, Illinois and graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School, OH in 1880.

Albert Kingsbury devoted much time to the study of foreign languages.

Albert Kingsbury died in Greenwich, Connecticut 1943, and is buried at the Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

In 1884, Albert Kingsbury attended the University of Akron to study Scientific-Latin courses.

Albert Kingsbury dropped out and worked as a machine apprentice in Cuyahoga Falls.

Albert Kingsbury credited this as an important experience that led him to advance his career in engineering.

Albert Kingsbury resumed his formal education at Ohio State University, but he again dropped out to work as a machinist with the Warner and Swasey Company in Cleveland.

Albert Kingsbury received his mechanical engineering degree from Cornell University in 1887.

Albert Kingsbury's craftsmanship, honed by his experience in machine shops, allowed Kingsbury to fit half-bushings to the journal by scraping.

Albert Kingsbury's hand fitting produced the small tolerances that promoted film lubrication.

Albert Kingsbury pursued a teaching position at the University of New Hampshire.

Albert Kingsbury's research covered fluid lubricated bearings, and he published a paper entitled "Experiments with an Air Lubricated Bearing".

Albert Kingsbury joined the Worcester Polytechnic Institute to continue pursuing his interest in lubrication.

Albert Kingsbury secured expansions for laboratory facilities and funding to continue his tests on a centrally pivoted thrust bearing with the aid of his students.

Albert Kingsbury tested this new bearing with a modified version of his earlier screw thread testing machine.

Albert Kingsbury joined the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh as a general engineer.

Albert Kingsbury used this as an opportunity to advance the development of his thrust bearings in an industrial setting.

Albert Kingsbury's bearing overheated during the test and was discarded.

Albert Kingsbury tried to file for a US patent during 1907.

Albert Kingsbury was able to demonstrate that his 1898 test at the University of New Hampshire predated Michell's work, so in 1910 Albert Kingsbury was awarded US patent No 947242 for the tilting pad thrust bearing.

Albert Kingsbury's first bearing was a failure as it was immediately destroyed by Hillson wiping.

Albert Kingsbury's bearing succeeded this time, and worked flawlessly for the next 25 years.

In 1921, the Albert Kingsbury thrust bearing had become so popular that Westinghouse could no longer keep up with the demand, thus prompting Albert Kingsbury to set up his own manufacturing plant.

Albert Kingsbury continued to pursue his interest in bearings and tribology later in his life.

Albert Kingsbury made important contributions to the area of boundary lubrication.

Albert Kingsbury was the first to recognize that some fluid lubricants possess a friction-reducing property that is independent of viscosity, which he called 'oiliness'.

Albert Kingsbury's findings were of great significance since they demonstrated that the hydrodynamic theory of lubrication did not describe completely the lubricating mechanism of fluids.

Albert Kingsbury received many accolades for his contributions to science and engineering.

Albert Kingsbury was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1931; the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute; and honorary doctorates from the University of New Hampshire and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Albert Kingsbury was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.