Peter Cooper Hewitt

by Andre Mohammed, NJIT

Peter Cooper Hewitt bears a family name that has been famous in the business, public and philanthropic life of the country for three generations. His grandfather was the famous Peter Cooper, who founded and endowed the Cooper Institute in New York City and who was as widely known for his other benevolences. His father was one of the most aggressive mayors New York City ever had and also made a notable record as a member of the National Congress. Peter Cooper Hewitt is himself noted for his scholarly attainments and inventions.

Peter Cooper Hewitt was born on March 5th 1861 and died on August 25th 1921 at the age of 60 years. He was born in New York City, the son of Abram Stevens Hewitt (father) and Sarah Amelia Cooper. His father, Abram Stevens Hewitt, the son of Peter Cooper, was an iron manufacturer, a merchant and a politician.

Hewitt attended Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, New Jersey. He then attended Columbia University School of Mines in New York City. With such an education, Hewitt went on to pursue his own interests and used the wealth amassed by his grandfather, Peter Cooper, and his father, Abram Stevens Hewitt, to pursue his own interests. This resulted in much of his adult life being devoted to scientific experimentation & investigation. This dedication won him numerous patents but not until in the late 1980’s when he was engaged in an electrical experiment, did his work seem worthwhile.

His 1st major invention was ‘The Cooper Hewitt mercury-vapor lamp’. He was experimenting with electric conductivity and he was able to prove that a gas can conduct an electrical charge. By doing this, he was able to pass an electric current through mercury gas sealed in a quartz tube. The following illustration is a later version of this lamp.

What originally drove him to explore this field and invent ‘The Cooper Hewitt mercury-vapor lamp’ was that the lamps that were used in his time were very waste-full compared to today’s standards. The incandescent lamps that were used in the 1890s converted only 5% of the energy used into light and converted the other 95% to heat. This is why Hewitt sought to find ways of producing a better light source and he did.

The Cooper Hewitt mercury-vapor lamp produced an intense, cool, bluish-green light when tested. Also, because more than 5% of the energy used was converted into light, it was more efficient and less expensive to operate. The only drawback was its color but Hewitt had enough proof that this idea was worthwhile to pursue. The light started being used for shop work and situations where color differentiation was not critical. Later on, he solved this problem when he found out that the gas he was using, Mercury, lacked the elements that produced red light rays. He simply analyzed the color spectrum and extrapolated that in order to get white rays from bluish-green rays, you simply add the elements that would produce red rays to the spectrum. The solution to adding the red rays was overcome by devising a transformer that would fill in the red rays.

The result of adding this transformer produced a powerful ultraviolet light that became very useful in numerous applications like therapeutical practices, sterilizing and chemical applications. Within a short period of time, there became a great demand for ‘The Cooper Hewitt mercury-vapor lamp’. Then in 1902, Hewitt and George Westinghouse formed the ‘Cooper Hewitt Electric Company’ to manufacture and sell the new lamps. The product gave rise to the firm ‘Westinghouse Cooper-Hewitt’ in England and they then manufactured and distributed a variety of electric equipment like Hewitt rectifiers, which were very useful in wireless networks, telegraphy & telephony, as well as the Cooper Hewitt oscillator and the Battery-Operated Locomotive Headlamps. The company grew so well due to Hewitt’s inventions that by 1914, General Electric Company had assumed a controlling interest in the Cooper Hewitt Electric Company. In addition to his company’s success, Hewitt himself was being recognized for his inventions during the years of 1904 to 1914. The inventions were the static converter/mercury arc rectifier and a gliding craft, but it was the static converter/mercury arc rectifier that Hewitt was nominated for and received the prestigious Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute.

The gliding craft was another invention of his that came about when Hewitt turned his passions to automobile. In 1907, he developed a small hydroplane motorboat on the theory that only by lessening or by freeing altogether a ship’s hull from the friction of the water through which it passes, it could it be made dramatically faster and more efficient. He later proved it when he tested his hydroplane boat, which was powered by a large eight-cylinder engine of his own design. During testing, the hull of his craft would break loose from the water as the speed increased. It rose up and planed on four small wing-shaped hydrofoils that extended from the hull below the water line.

From this achievement, Hewitt pursued interests of powered flight. He wrote articles for the popular press and in 1908, he predicted that one day aircrafts would be more plentiful and cheaper than automobiles. He further launched investigations into the possibility of helicopter flights, which won him U.S. Patent No. 1,134,386 for a balloon envelope and supporting truss.

Hewitt then went on to serve on the first board of governors in 1910 for the newly formed Inventor’s Guild. It was formed in New York City to further the interests and secure the rights of those who made contributions in the fields of science and technology. A measure of the Guild’s success became evident in 1915, when it was asked by the secretary of the Navy to recommend individuals to the new Naval Advisory Board, which was newly created in response to the war in Europe. Hewitt was named and he later received three patents Nos. 1,350,454, 1,350,455, and 1,350,456 to build a helicopter, which he had earlier launched investigations into in 1908, but no actual physical prototype actually evolved. However, 1n 1920, Hewitt and another engineer named Francis B. Crocker, constructed a full-size working example. It had two counter-rotating blades, which provided sufficient lift to support the craft plus an additional 225 pounds. This is where the life of the helicopter began for the U.S army and would be the last major invention of Hewitt’s Days.

This essay was written by a student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and represents the only research done on this major inventor. The majority of the primary sources were found at the Cooper Archives in the Cooper Union Institute in Manhattan, but much work remains to be done to track the history of his inventions elsewhere. - CSJ