1876-1957 |
fabulous career ends from the Akron Beacon Journal courtesy of Karen Gammeter |
Courtesy of Donna Halper John Gammeter was always fascinated by technology, which got him involved with aviation in its earliest years. He is known for being the first man in Akron to own and fly an airplane-- several newspaper dates are given for this, with either 1907 or 1909 being possible. In 1910, he started his own aviation school, and is said to be the inventor of the pack parachute. Along with a French engineer, Henri Joulet, he designed and built the dirigible balloon that the Navy used during World War 1; further, in 1921, he invented a special valve that maintained a uniform gas pressure in dirigibles. He was also the first president of the Associated Aero Clubs of Ohio and belonged to the American Aeronautical Association, as well as the Early Birds of America. In 1922, he provided the funding for Akron's first radio station, WOE, and even after he retired from B.F. Goodrich in the early 1930s, he continued to invent and experiment. He was also a philanthropist, supporting a number of civic organisations in Akron. He died in April of 1957. Editors Note: Donna L. Halper is on the Journalism Faculty at Emerson College in Boston MA, where her specialty is the history of broadcasting. Her latest book, Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting, can be reviewed and ordered from Amazon by clicking on the name and then searching for the title. She writes: "Material for this essay came from the Akron Beacon Journal, Akron Press, and the National Encyclopaedia of American Biography. My thanks to Akron-based researcher Ron Syroid for his help in digging up some of the clippings." |
Collection of John Gammeter Greatnephew of John R. Gammeter courtesy of Karen Gammeter, 7-6-04 |
AKRON BEACON JOURNAL Published on 08/15/1999, |
courtesy of Steve Remington - CollectAir |
Collection of John Gammeter Greatnephew of John R. Gammeter courtesy of Karen Gammeter, 7-6-04 |
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If you search on "John Gammeter" using Google, you will find about 21 links.Several of them are
devoted to his experiences with the Goodrich Rubber Company and with "AA", Alcoholics Anonymous. Two of them are
very informative. The excerpt from the story is preceeded by a nice little photo of a plane at the airport, circa 1900. You will want to read the whole story of the airport which includes much of interest regarding John Gammeter. You can continue by clicking on the title above. |
Witness History Firsthand at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens by Kathryn Delong You may want to use your "Find" function on "Gammeter" to find the entry for him. |
Rubber Machinery Expert Famed Inventor, Dies He was 81 on last March 27. Mr. Gammeter was one of America's great inventors. The total of his ideas patented was near 300. In recent years, he had been in retirement. Somewhat crippled with arthritis, he moved about his tree-shaded home on crutches. His wife, Susan, said he had been up and around the house until Tuesday. A gruff, blunt-spoken man, he was a rough-hewn survivor of that era when Akron was the lusty, brawling young rubber capital of the world; when rubberworkers bought $10 silk shirts by the half-dozen and rubber barons were made and broken overnight. His ideas saved the rubber industry and the motoring public millions of dollars. He made golf the common man's game and lowered the cost of rubber bands so that they became the most widely used items made of rubber. Then he came back to Akron and went to work for the B. F. Goodrich Co., carting scrap rubber about the plant in a wheelbarrow for 10 cents an hour. Each day a lunch time, he made a practice of filling his lunch box with rubber-capped bottle stoppers which women workers trimmed by hand. One day he was leaving the plant and leaped on the end gate of an express truck to "steal" a ride. The gate wasn't fastened and Gammeter fell to the ground. The lunchbox broke open and it's contents, the stoppers, rolled out on the ground. The incident was reported to B. G. Work, Goodrich works manager and later company president. He called Gammeter in and told him he was fired for stealing. Work asked him. "I was experimenting," the youth replied. "I've got a machine at home that will trim more stoppers in an hour that one girl can turn out in a whole day." "Very interesting." said Work, "but what did you do with the stoppers you turned out?" "Gave them to the girl that's doing piecework," said Gammeter. She was Susan Garman. Gammeter later married her. But Gammeter did not try to build up a great personal fortune. It seemed he spent money almost as fast as he made it. His extravagances and philantrhopies are the basis for scores of stories. Early in 1940, it was estimated that his income from royalties on inventions was about $80,000 a year. In his top days at Goodrich, he received $24,000 a year in salary alone. IN 1920, Mr. Gammeter made an arrangement with Goodrich in which he was given a free hand in developing inventions not necessarily of use in the rubber industry. In the next two years, he developed, among other things a new type of steel cable which netted him considerably more that $200,000. Of all his inventions, Mr. Gammeter considered the vacuum box the most important. It was a machine that took the flat carcass of a tire, and through air pressure, forced it into the form of a tire It became standard equipment in all tire factories. He also owned the first radio broadcasting set in the vicinity of Akron. Mr. Gammeter set up the staff which built "blimps" for the government, under Goodrich contract. He brought French airship experts to Akron for the work. THE HYDRAULIC steam vulcanizer was another first for Gammeter who got many of this ideas while touring the Goodrich plants. Mr. Gammeter was more responsible for the modern golf ball than any other man. He developed the system of winding strips of elastic around a hard rubber center. The machine was a great boon to Goodrich and the game of golf. But Mr. Gammeter never played the game. Some of the Akron inventor's ideas came to him while he was driving a car or away hunting or fishing. At one period, he had a notebook attached to the steering wheel of his car, to jot down ideas. Mr. Gammeter's formal education ended with the second grade of school. At one time he operated his own laboratories and for five years was consultant for nine large concerns, including the A. G. Spalding Co. and the U. S. Rubber Co. Besides his wife, Mr. Gammeter leaves one sister, Mrs. W. R. Allen of Cleveland. He had 10 brothers and sisters and leaves many nieces and nephews. The Rev. Harry Nicholson will officiate at services at 3 p.m. Saturday in the billow Akron Chapel. Burial will be in Glendale Cemetery. Friends may call at the chapel after 4:30 this afternoon. courtesy of Karen Gammeter |
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