Clessie Cummins
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Clessie Lyle Cummins was the founder of the Cummins Engine Co. He was an entrepreneur who improved on existing diesel engines, created new diesel engine designs, and filed 33 United States patents for his inventions.
Cummins began his career as a rural Indiana farm boy, and had no formal higher education. In the 1920s Cummins went to work for a banker named William Irwin in Columbus, Indiana, as a chauffeur and mechanic.
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[edit] Foundation of Cummin's Engine Co.
During this time, he founded the Cummins Engine Co, Inc (now Cummins, Inc). At the time of its founding, the Cummins Engine Company sold diesel engines to farmers.
Cummins' former employer, Irwin, invested a great deal of money in Cummins' company, which continued to be profitable for a long period. However, Irwin was not satisfied with the company's profits and threatened to cease investing. Sales of diesel engines to farmers through the Sears-Roebuck catalog was not generating significant profits.
Clessie Cummins secured a Packard limousine (a vehicle with a large engine compartment) and fitted one of his best engines into it with 3/8-inch to spare [citation needed]. He and an assistant drove the vehicle to the 1929 [citation needed] auto show in New York City [citation needed] using $1.39 worth of diesel fuel. The pair arranged for publicity along the way, but when they arrived at the show they found that they had been banned from any presentation. Cummins proceeded to rent space across the street from the Auto Show, and the "$1.39 for fuel, Indy to NYC" auto become a popular feature of the show (despite not technically being included in it).
Cummins' times with the engine company continued to be tumultuous even after this success, but money was being made. Cummins' first successful engine design, the Model F [(1924)], was originally used for marine applications, but came to be used in other applications. In 1930, one of Cummins' engines was installed in a racecar which broke the Indy 500 record for completing the race with no pit stops [citation needed].
World War II ensured the success of the fledgling company: the American military bought every diesel engine which could be produced in preparation for an Allied invasion of continental Europe.
[edit] Legacy
Eventually Cummins was eased out of the company he created, but he had managed to hold onto some key patents. Cummins moved on to work for the Allison Engine Company in California.
Clessie Cummins continued to innovate after leaving Cummins. He identified the problem of vehicle brakes overheating and becoming non-functional during long, steep downhill descents. As a result, he designed and patented the first compression release engine brake. The design was first offered to Cummins but Jacobs was ultimately the company with which he partnered. In 1954, the product was and still is sold under the Jake Brake name by Jacobs Vehicle Systems, Inc.
Cummins, Inc. is now a worldwide builder of diesel engines with annual sales in the billions of dollars [citation needed], and
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- My days with the diesel: The memoirs of Clessie L. Cummins, father of the highway diesel, by Clessie L Cummins.
