Willis R. WhitneyDied 9 Jan 1958 at age 89 (born 22 Aug 1868). Willis Rodney Whitney was an American chemist and research director who founded the General Electric Company's research laboratory and directed pioneering work there. He is known as the “father of basic research in industry” because it became a model for industrial scientific laboratories elsewhere in the U.S. In Oct 1900 he was offered a research position at the General Electric (GE) Co., Schenectady, N.Y. His self-directed research program there began on a basis of three days a week. He quickly proved that chemical research techniques (such as use of an electric furnace) could be highly useful in the electrical industry. By 1904 he was directing 41 staff. His own 40 patents included the GEM lamp filament (1904), but contributed indirectly to many inventions. |
