Raymond Alvah Hanson (December 10, 1923 – February 18, 2009) was an American engineer and inventor from
Spokane, Washington
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...
. He held over 100 patents, and created and produced equipment that was used on the
Trans-Alaskan pipeline
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is an oil transportation system spanning Alaska, including the trans-Alaska crude-oil pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one o ...
, canals in over 50 countries (including the California Aqueduct System) and the self-leveling control for hillside Combine Harvesters.
Background
Hanson was born in
Potlatch, Idaho
Potlatch is a city in the northwest United States, located in north central Idaho in Latah County, about east of the border with Washington. On the Palouse north of Moscow, it is served by State Highway 6, and bordered on the northeast by the sm ...
in 1923, the son of Ray and Orda (Hensley) Hanson. The family later moved to the hills around
Palouse, Washington
Palouse is a city in Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 998 at the 2010 census.
History
Palouse was first settled in 1869 by William Ewing. The townsite was founded in 1875 by W.P. Breeding.
Palouse is named for t ...
. Hanson attended the
University of Idaho
The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The Universit ...
, majoring in electrical engineering. In 1941, while farming in Palouse, he combined his engineering and farming knowledge in search of a better way to harvest the fertile but often steep slopes found in that area, leading to his first invention, the
self-leveling control for hillside
Combine harvesters. By 1945 the first self-leveling mechanisms were built.
Today@Idaho - News Article
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Hanson founded the RAHCO Company to build self-leveling mechanisms, and since then, the company has grown into a major international player in the design and production of custom commercial machinery systems. RAHCO estimates that automatic leveling has saved at least 3% of grain harvested on lands where combine leveling is needed, worth millions of dollars each year.
Hanson subsequently began adapting the ideas and principles he had developed into further construction machines used for canal, highway, dam, and airport construction, including the largest canal finishing machinery in the world for the California aqueduct, the world's largest 2,000 ton gantry crane used in the Grand Coulee Dam
Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerh ...
power plant project, and equipment that has been used on the Trans-Alaskan pipeline
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is an oil transportation system spanning Alaska, including the trans-Alaska crude-oil pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one o ...
project.
Hanson has designed and marketed major construction machinery in more than 50 countries, with contracts totalling over $150 million.
Hanson died on February 18, 2009.
Personal life
Hanson was married to Lois. At the time of his death, he had six children, 20 grandchildren and 24 great grandchildren.
References
"Hanson was ‘in this world to do things’ Innovator who helped build up Spokane Valley dies at age 85"
The Spokesman-Review 02-23-09
"Famous Palouser will receive recognition for numerous engineering achievements"
The Palouse Boomerang! Newspaper 07-03-08
by Nicholas K. Geranios Associated Press Writer
Ray Hanson, Biography
* "My Memories Of Raymond A Hanson," Peter A. Kerwien, Amazon Books
External links
City of Palouse, Washington's website
University of Idaho College of Engineering's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanson, Raymond Alvah
1923 births
2009 deaths
American manufacturing businesspeople
University of Idaho alumni
20th-century American engineers
20th-century American inventors
People from Latah County, Idaho
People from Palouse, Washington