Lillian Hoddeson and Peter Garrett
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780262037532
- eISBN:
- 9780262345033
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262037532.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In late 1951, Ovshinsky moved to Detroit, where as research director at Hupp Corporation he invented improved automotive components, including electric power steering and an electrical automatic ...
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In late 1951, Ovshinsky moved to Detroit, where as research director at Hupp Corporation he invented improved automotive components, including electric power steering and an electrical automatic transmission. In 1954 he and his brother Herb Ovshinsky started their company General Automation, where their most important inventions were new kinds of switches. Meanwhile, Ovshinsky’s personal life was transformed when he and Iris Dibner fell in love and planned to eventually marry and work together. With Iris’s encouragement, Ovshinsky extended his cybernetic interest to studying neurophysiology, performing research on nerve cells at Wayne State University. These studies resulted in his invention of an electrochemical switch he named the Ovitron, based on an analogy with the mechanism of a nerve cell. This nerve-cell analogy was pivotal for Ovshinsky: it oriented him to the rich possibilities of working with amorphous and disordered materials, which at that time most physicists dismissed as “dirt materials.”Less
In late 1951, Ovshinsky moved to Detroit, where as research director at Hupp Corporation he invented improved automotive components, including electric power steering and an electrical automatic transmission. In 1954 he and his brother Herb Ovshinsky started their company General Automation, where their most important inventions were new kinds of switches. Meanwhile, Ovshinsky’s personal life was transformed when he and Iris Dibner fell in love and planned to eventually marry and work together. With Iris’s encouragement, Ovshinsky extended his cybernetic interest to studying neurophysiology, performing research on nerve cells at Wayne State University. These studies resulted in his invention of an electrochemical switch he named the Ovitron, based on an analogy with the mechanism of a nerve cell. This nerve-cell analogy was pivotal for Ovshinsky: it oriented him to the rich possibilities of working with amorphous and disordered materials, which at that time most physicists dismissed as “dirt materials.”
