Clarence Weston Hansell (January 20, 1898 – ) was an American research

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

who pioneered investigation into the biological effects of

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

air. He was granted over 300 US patents, including, in the 1930s, a precursor to the modern

ink jet printer Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensi ...

that could print 750 words a minute, its data received via radio telegraph. Only

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

held more patents.

Life and education

Hansell was born in Medaryville, Indiana on January 20, 1898. He graduated from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1919. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Electrical Engineering in 1952.

Career

Hansell founded the

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

Radio Transmission Laboratory at

Rocky Point, New York Rocky Point is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Brookhaven, New York, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the CDP population was 14,014. History Rocky Point is home to the site where American radio company ...

, Long Island in 1925, and headed the lab for over 30 years. He was also involved in

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...

s research and suggested the invention of polarized sunglasses. His interest in the biological effects of

ized air was spurred in 1932 when he noticed that the moods of one of his colleagues at Rocky Point Laboratory swung in response to the ions being generated by their equipment. He noted that when the equipment generated negative ions, his colleague's mood was upbeat. Conversely, positive ions generated a downbeat mood. Hansell researched the therapeutic possibilities of negative ions throughout his life. Current scientific studies support his findings, and negative ion therapy may be useful in alleviating depression in some people. He died in 1967. His papers are kept at State University of New York, Stony Brook.

References

On the biological and mood-altering effects of negative ions

External links

Image of CW Hansell
1898 births 1967 deaths Purdue University College of Engineering alumni 20th-century American engineers People from Pulaski County, Indiana 20th-century American inventors {{US-inventor-stub