History
The catalytic converter was invented by Eugene Houdry, a French mechanical engineer and expert in catalytic oil refining who lived in the U.S. around 1950. When the results of early studies of smog in Los Angeles were published, Houdry became concerned about the role of smoke stack exhaust and automobile exhaust in air pollution and founded a company, Oxy-Catalyst. Houdry first developed catalytic converters for smoke stacks called cats for short. Then he developed catalytic converters for warehouse fork lifts that used low grade non-leaded gasoline. Then in the mid 1950s he began research to develop catalytic converters for gasoline engines used on cars. He was awarded United States Patent 2742437 for his work.
Widespread adoption of catalytic converters didn't occur until more stringent emission control regulations forced the removal of anti-knock agent tetraethyl lead from most gasoline, because lead was a 'catalyst poison' and would inactivate the converter by forming a coating on the catalyst's surface, effectively disabling it.
Catalytic converters were further developed by a series of engineers including John J. Mooney and Carl D. Keith at the Engelhard Corporation, creating the first production catalytic converter in 1973.
Dr. William C. Pfefferle developed a catalytic combustor for gas turbines in the early 1970s. The catalyst allows combustion without significant formation of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.
Read more about this topic: Catalytic Converter
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (18181883)
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;and you have Pericles and Phidias,and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimizedthe question involuntarily arisesto what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (17701831)