Melvin L. Druin
Druin is the author of 14 U.S. patents in engineering resins, structural composites, polymer blends and microporous plastics films. His most important inventions relate to the development of Celgard Microporous Film, introduced by Celanese Plastics Co. The invention in 1972 led to a stable, porous structure that did not shrink or collapse up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Celgard is the material of choice for oxygenators used in all open heart surgeries and for controlled release of pharmaceuticals. Druin worked for 17 years for Celanese, serving as Technical Director, Plastics Group and Engineering Resins. Druin also participated in the development of polybenzimidazole fiber, a material that is highly resistant to high temperatures and is used for safety garments in the U.S. space program. He joined Campbell Soup Co. in 1984 and served as a corporate vice president, responsible for the company's worldwide packaging organization. He helped position Campbell as a leader in developing the consumer-oriented, functional packaging forms, with a focus on improved and new convenience packaging for shelf stable, frozen and refrigerated food applications. His packaging organization was responsible for developing and implementing new metal can technology and for technical service support to Campbell's can operations. As an expert in plastics technology, his organization also designed and commercialized Campbell's first CPET plastics container operation in Modesto, Calif.
W. Lincoln Hawkins
In 1942, Hawkins joined Bell Telephone Laboratories as a member of the technical staff. The first Black scientist to be employed by Bell Labs in Murray Hill, he undertook research of the thermal and oxidative stabilization of polymers for use in telecommunications. Hawkins co-developed a chemical formula which protected polythylene from the oxidation effects of sunlight and heat. This enabled polyethylene to replace expensive and toxic lead alloys as a protective jacketing on telephone cables. Hawkins discovery went into production in the early 1960's and continues to be used with today's fiber optic cable. During his 34-year career at Bell Labs, Hawkins earned 14 U.S. patents and 129 foreign patents in 18 countries. He served as research director of the Plastics Institute of America from 1976-83. He has been awarded 17 international patents related to the protection of plastics against oxidative degradation. Hawkins also received the following awards: The International Award, Society of Plastics Engineers; election to the National Academy of Engineering; Award of Merit, National Technical Association, North Jersey Section, 1982; Achievement Award, Los Angeles Council of Black Professional Engineers, 1981; Percy L. Julian Award, 1977; Distinguished Alumni Award, Howard University, 1974; Annual Community Service Award of the Urban League, Essex County, 1973; Honor Scroll, American Institute of Chemists, 1970; and Sigma Xi. Honorary Degrees bestowed by: Montclair State College, LL.D.; Stevens Institute of Technology, D.Eng.; Kean College, LL.D. and Howard University, D.Sci. Hawkins was the first Black engineer to be inducted into the National Academy of Engineering and is a member of the Board of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering. He is the former chairman and member of the Board of Trustees of Montclair State College and served on the Board of Trustees of Mountainside Hospital. Hawkins also was active on the national and regional levels of the American Chemical Society.
​James Hillier
​Hillier dedicated 16 years to the development of the electron microscope, of its applications and of related equipment that made it an even more useful scientific tool. In 1940, Hillier designed the first electron microscope that was offered commercially in North America for RCA. He was active in greatly expanding the range of useful applications of the instrument, particularly in biology and medicine. Today the instruments are used worldwide in every important laboratory, studying the fine structure of materials from viruses to genetics. All of Hillier's 41 inventions were made in RCA's New Jersey laboratories. He was a pioneer in fostering cooperation between industry and educational institutions and arranged collaborations with many institutions for dissemination of results obtained in New Jersey. These include Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory. Hillier, born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, later spent 20 years as head of the David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton during which he used his extensive experience as a successful inventor to guide the activities of the hundreds of inventors employed at the Center. During this period, the Center evolved several major inventions that spawned many familiar products such as liquid crystal displays, camera chips for video cameras, personal computer chips and amorphous silicon photo cells for solar energy. Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Washington and Akron in 1980, Hillier received an honorary doctorate from New Jersey Institute of Technology.
​Frederick J. Karol
​Karol is recognized worldwide for his pioneering work in basic and applied chemistry of organotransition metal catalysts for use in fluid-bed reactors, and for the development of linear, low-density polyethylene resins - the world's largest volume plastic - leading to the commercial success of the Unipol polyethylene process. The Unipol process requires lower pressure and temperature to produce material, as a result Unipol plants cost half as much to build, occupy only 10 percent of the space, and consume only 25 percent of the energy in comparison with high pressure plants. Karol, who holds more than 69 U.S. patents, has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the 1988 Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists, the 1987 Award of Excellence in Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York, and the 1982 Thomas Edison Award from the R & D Council of New Jersey. Karol was the winner of the 1989 Perkin Medal for outstanding accomplishments in applied chemistry. He received the 1989 Conly Award for outstanding technology presented by the Society of Plastics Engineers and the SPE International Award in 1990. In 1991, he received the ACS Award for Creative Inventions.
Harold Law (1911-1984)
​Law is recognized throughout the electronics industry for development of the shadow mask color television tube, used in the vast majority of color TV receivers throughout the world. The first color television set was introduced in 1954; today there are approximately 180 million color sets in use in the United States. Law's method uses light to simulate electron rays for printing phosphor screens in shadow mask color tubes. The technique locates and fixes phosphor elements precisely where they are needed on the face plate to achieve independent excitation by electron beams of the red, green and blue emitting phosphors. As many as a quarter million are laid down in a standard TV tube. Law also developed the fabrication techniques that lead to the first practical color picture tube demonstrated by RCA in 1950. Among his key contributions were the "lighthouse" to simulate the shadowing of electron beams on the tube's face plate and the corresponding photo deposition of a mosaic of tiny phosphor dots to produce the color picture. Still used today, Law's techniques made possible the hundreds of millions of color TV receivers produced in the last 40 years. Law also was one of a trio of RCA Laboratories scientists, along with Albert Rose and Paul Weimer (1991 Hall of Fame inductees), who developed the Image Orthicon, an outstanding TV camera tube. His contribution was development of the glass-mesh target structure including a technique for making very fine high transmission metals meshes from ruled glass master. Originally built for the military, the Image Orthicon became the workhorse for commercial telecasting after World War II because it had tolerance and sensitivity for photographing live events, particularly sports, under difficult and changing lighting conditions.
1992 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES - PIONEER INDUCTEES
Solomon Andrews (1806-1872)
Dr. Solomon Andrews was a man ahead of his time, inventing the first self-propelled balloon that could be steered. His flying machine, the "Aereon," could master the stiffest wind, using the same principle that a sailboat uses sailing into the wind. In actuality, Andrews discovered that the difference of specific gravity between the balloon and the atmosphere in which it floated could be applied as power to propel the airship in any direction. The Aereon made its maiden voyage over the Perth Amboy on June 1, 1863. The dirigible made of three parallel cigar-shaped balloons, each 80 feet long and 13 feet wide, included 21 cells inside the balloon to prevent the movement of the hydrogen gas. It also included a rudder and a basket for the fliers. In the ensuing months, more trials were performed until Andrews wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln on Aug. 26, 1863. After much delay, he met with Lincoln in January 1864 and shortly afterward gave a demonstration before a scientific committee in the Smithsonian Institute, with thoughts of using the airship to the Union's advantage during the Civil War. Nearly a year later, after much red tape, the Military Committee informed Andrews of little interest in the airship, and by that time the war was nearly over. Undaunted, Andrews organized the Aerial Navigation Co. to build commercial Airships and establish a regular line between New York and Philadelphia. He built a new Aereon No.2 and on May 25, 1865, using only one cylinder shaped like a giant lemon, he sailed over New York City, stunning the populace. On June 5, with great fanfare, Andrews again sailed over New York, brought the city to a standstill, and landed at Oyster Bay, Long Island. Although more spectacular flights were predicted, he never flew again. In post war panic, hundreds of banks failed and the Aerial Navigation Co. was wiped out. To this day, no other man has been able to fly an airship without a motor. Beside his airship, Andrews is cited with 24 inventions including a sewing machine, a barrel making machine, fumigators, forging presses, a kitchen range, a gas lamp and a padlock used by the U.S. Post Office since 1842. In addition, he built a successful medical practice, served three terms as Mayor of Perth Amboy, constructed the city's first sewer, and saved the residents from cholera and yellow fever epidemics.
William L. Maxson (1889-1947)
​A 1921 graduate of the U.S Naval Academy, Maxson resigned his commission in 1935. He established the W.L. Maxson Co. in New York City while living in West Orange. He is personally credited with nine inventions. Within his companies, another 72 patents were developed. Maxson's best known invention is the gasoline price computing pump. Among his other inventions were a multiplying machine, toy building blocks, and various mathematical apparatuses. One apparatus, a "robot navigator" was used by airplane navigators to compute positions in flight. Howard Hughes used the "robot navigator" during his famous flight around the world in 1938. During World War II, W.L. Maxson Co. developed and manufactured several important devices, including the robot navigator and the mounting system for multiple anti-aircraft guns. The men and women of the W.L. Maxson Co. were presented with the Army-Navy "E" Award for outstanding war production in September 1944. During the war, it was "Tuba," as Maxson was known, who developed the idea of heating frozen cooked foods in airplanes ferrying troops overseas. He not only developed the first frozen dinners—later available in commercial flights as "Sky-Plates" and markets as "Strato-Meals"—but the convection oven to heat them, the Maxson Whirlwind Oven. Today, these meals are known as "TV Dinners."
Murrae Bowden and Larry F. ThompsoN
The inventions of Bowden and Thompson for Bell Laboratories were critical to establishing electron beam lithography as a commercially viable technique for fabricating photomasks. They pioneered the field of high sensitivity electron-beam resists materials that are used to fabricate advanced integrated circuit masks and fine line devices. Their initial work established the fundamental physical principles and the mechanistic chemical understanding in the design of radiation sensitive polymers used as high resolution resists for electron beam X-ray and deep UV lithography. Bowden and Thompson's contributions over a period of 20 years encompasses every facet of resist technology including molecular design, synthesis, lithographic processing, pilot scale-up and licensing and support activities associated with commercially important resists as COP, PBS, GMC, NPR and PBTMSS. Their creativity also established the accepted methodology for the molecular design of polymeric materials for resist application that has been adopted by other research labs around the world. Together, they hold eight patents.
John D. Geberth, Jr.
Geberth is a self-made man, having started Titan Tool with his father in a small garage in Clifton in 1969. Five years later, he began working on an idea for an adjustable airless paint spray nozzle for use on an airless spray gun. The first adjustable spray nozzle was sold in 1975 and he received a patent for the product the following year. The Titan Adjustable Self-Cleaning Paint Spay Nozzle, using airless atomization instead of the commonly known air spray method, is important for commercial paint applications. Airless spray methods are faster and more efficient at application rates of up to a gallon per minute. The new product, easier to clean and operate, revolutionized the airless paint-spraying industry. The invention allowed the painter to adjust the spray pattern width anywhere from 2 inches to 22 inches, and the spray orifice from .009 to .021 by the simple rotation of an adjustment knob. The device employed only six different spray tip combinations to cover the same applications that previously required about 100 different tips. It has generated sales of more than $140 million since its introduction. Geberth holds 18 U.S. patents and approximately 50 foreign patents for products related to airless painting. In June, 1991, Geberth, age 49, sold Titan Tool and continues to work there part time as a consultant.
Gideon GoldsteiN
Dr. Goldstein discovered and developed a unique monoclonal antibody, OKT3, that has saved many patients from the otherwise inevitable immune destruction of their transplanted kidney, liver or heart. The treatment is used with 60 percent of all patients undergoing transplantation. Othorclone OKT3 is produced by Ortho Biotech and is marketed in the United States by Ortho Biotech and in 29 countries throughout the world by Johnson and Johnson local affiliate companies generally operating under the name CILAG. He also discovered other monoclonal antibodies that uniquely identify certain circulating cells in man, and are invaluable in diagnosis of immunological changes in man, especially in regard to AIDS. These include OKT4 (CD4) and OKT8 (CD8). The use of OFT4 is noteworthy in the treatment of AIDS, where it has become the most important single criterion in assessing disease, status, prognosis and response to therapy. Dr. Goldstein, born in Kaunas, Lithuania, holds 29 patents. He came to the United States in 1967 as a visiting scientist for the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Md. The Gideon Goldstein Academic Achievement Award Immunology was established at the Kaplan Cancer Center, New York University School of Medicine, in 1987.
August F. ManZ
Gus Manz is known for his many contributions to welding. He holds more than 30 U.S. patents on power supplies and other welding subjects. He has worked on all of the arc welding systems and is the inventor of the "hot wire" welding processes. Hot wire welding is a variation of fusion welding in which a filler metal wire is resistance heated by current flowing through the wire as it is fed into the weld pool. He was an employee of Union Carbide Corporation's Linde Division at the time of the invention. Manz also holds patents for One Knob Welding, which uses a coupled power source and wire feeding via a single control, and Variable Slop, Voltage and Inductance (SVI) power Supply, which provides separate static and dynamic adjustment for voltampere characteristics for short circuit metal transfer. He authored or co-authored 20 books on welding, including The Welding Power Handbook and Welding Process and Practices. In 1991, he received the Airco Welding Award for the original and innovative use of welding related techniques for the joining or severing of metals in the fabrication of new products.
Victor PalinczaR
In 1983, Palinczar founded Princeton Products Research, a company that develops and licenses new products to the health and beauty aids industry. It was in that year that he began to pioneer his independent research in his laboratory in Trenton to develop highly effective broad spectrum water-proof sunscreen compositions, which he patented three years later. A highly water insoluble polymer, ethylcellulose, was prepared to entrap both UVB and UVA ultraviolet sunscreen agents on the skin and remain on the skin for at least 80 minutes of water submersion or perspiration. The invention was the forerunner to high SPF waterproof sunscreen products and became a standard in the sunscreen industry. The invention helps prevent aging of the skin, wrinkling and skin cancer. From 1987 to 1989, Palinczar served as vice president of research and development for Eclipse Laboratories Inc. He was directly responsible for product development for highly effective sunscreen products and increased Eclipse's sales in three years from $1.5 million to $14.9 million. Palinczar has been awarded 22 patents worldwide and launched 52 products domestically. He was director of exploratory research for Carter-Wallace Inc. until 1983.
Ross C. TerrelL
​In 1961, Terrell took up the challenge to create a new anesthetic that would be free of any of the problems associated with inhalation agents then in uses, all of which had at least one serious disadvantage: odor, flammability, slow recovery, cardiac arrhythmias, or narrow margin of safety. He pioneered the drug discovery effort, both the synthesis and methodology to identify novel inhalation anesthetics. Terrell's research resulted in the discovery of enflurane (Ethrane) and isoflurane (Forane), both of which are marketed compounds. Another important compound, desflurane (Suprane) is in phase III clinical trials. Enflurane has been used in more than 100 million surgeries and isoflurane in more than 120 million surgical patients worldwide. In the U.S., isoflurane is used in 8 of 10 surgical procedures requiring an inhalation anesthetic. Terrell has 60 patents when he retired from Anaquest in 1987. He continues to serve Anaquest as a consultant when not engaged in his new avocation - part-time chef in a New York restaurant.
Bell Communications Research Inc., "Bellcore"
Bellcore is the research and engineering arm of Bell Atlantic and New Jersey Bell, along with all the other regional telephone companies that were established in 1984. Headquartered in Livingston, N.J., Bellcore has reached facilities in Morristown and Red Bank, a software systems center in Piscataway, an industry training center in Lisle, Ill., and government relations offices in Washington, D.C. It also maintains a National Security and Emergency Preparedness office in Washington to coordinate the nation's telecommunications needs in case of a national disaster. Bellcore's four major segments—Applied Research, Network, Integrated Operations, and Services—work closely with each other to assist its owners in providing high-quality telecommunications services to their business and residential customers. During 1991, Bellcore continued its work on high-speed, fiber-optic networks that can transport a billion bits of data each second - roughly the equivalent of 30,000 single-spaced typed pages. The company also readied a high-speed data service, to be available through telephone companies, that will make it possible for businesses to link their computer networks across wide areas and transmit data at high speeds. Bellcore also began a New Jersey test of Personal Access Services that enable telephone company customers "on-the-move" to receive calls when they are away from their primary telephone. At the same time, it is working with the phone companies to develop Personal Communications Services that will make it possible for customers to receive calls on cordless telephones via a personal number that is not linked to any geographic location. Bellcore's work on the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) will pave the way for telephone services that combine voice, video, data, and graphics over a single line. During 1991, the company undertook extensive work on the Advanced Intelligent Network that will enable the telephone companies to rapidly design, develop and introduce advanced services, such as today's Caller ID, preferred call forwarding and distinctive ringing.