08/29/2026
🎂 HAPPY 150th BIRTHDAY, CHARLES F. KETTERING!
Born in Loudonville, Ohio, in 1876, Charles F. Kettering would become one of America’s great inventors. And one of Dayton’s most consequential innovators.
Kettering held myriad patents over the course of his career, but perhaps none changed everyday life more dramatically than the electric automobile self-starter.
In the early days of motoring, starting a car meant wrestling with a hand crank. A mistimed crank could send the handle flying backward with tremendous force. After a man was killed by a crank handle in 1910, Cadillac’s Henry Leland sought to find a better way.
Kettering went to work at DELCO, the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company he co-founded with Edward A. Deeds. There, Kettering and his legendary “Barn Gang” of young engineers experimented relentlessly to develop an electric starting system that would make the automobile practical for millions of people.
Their breakthrough debuted on the 1912 Cadillac. Within a decade, the self-starter was commonplace, helping transform the automobile from a difficult, dangerous machine into an accessible form of transportation.
And that is just one chapter in Kettering’s remarkable story. His innovations touched automobiles, railroads, aviation, medicine, refrigeration and countless other aspects of modern life.
We celebrate Charles F. Kettering’s story every day at Carillon Historical Park, not least in the original Deeds Barn, where Kettering and the “Barn Gang” did their groundbreaking work on the self-starter.
Kettering understood the importance of looking ahead. As he famously said:
“My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.”
Help us preserve stories like Kettering’s — and the places where they happened. Become a member of Carillon Historical Park and help keep Dayton’s world-changing history alive for generations to come. daytonhistory.org/support/membership-levels/
Happy birthday, Charles F. Kettering! 🎉
Image: Jan. 9, 1933, cover of TIME.
