Vincent Hugo Bendix (August 12, 1881 – March 27, 1945) was an American
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
and
industrialist
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
. Vincent Bendix was a pioneer and leader in both the automotive and
aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...
industries during the 1920s and 1930s.''Vincent Bendix. Enshrined 1991'' (National Aviation Hall of Fame, Inc.)
Background
Vincent Hugo Bendix was born in
Moline, Illinois
Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline, Illinois, East M ...
. He was eldest of three children born to
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
clergyman
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
, Reverend Jann Bengtsson, a native of
Ă…ngermanland
Ångermanland ( or ) is a historical province (''landskap'') in the northern part of Sweden. It is bordered (clockwise from the north) by Swedish Lapland, Västerbotten, the Gulf of Bothnia, Medelpad and Jämtland.
The name is derived from the O ...
, Sweden, and his wife Anna Danielson, also an immigrant from Sweden. While in Moline the family name was changed to "Bendix". They later moved to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, Illinois and Vincent purchased the
Palmer Mansion
The Palmer Mansion was a large private home constructed 1882–1885 at 1350 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois. Once the largest private residence in the city, it was located in the Near North Side neighborhood, facing Lake Michigan. It was ...
in 1930, for $3,000,000.
Career
In 1907 Vincent Bendix founded the
Bendix Corporation
Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company which, during various times in its existence, made automotive brake shoes and systems, vacuum tubes, aircraft brakes, aeronautical hydraulics and electric power systems, av ...
of Chicago to manufacture
automobiles
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as ...
, called Bendix Motor Buggies. After two years and producing 7,000 vehicles the company failed. In 1910 however, Bendix invented and patented the
Bendix drive
A Bendix drive is a type of engagement mechanism used in starter motors of internal combustion engines. The device allows the pinion gear of the starter motor to engage or disengage the ring gear (which is attached to the flywheel or flexplate ...
, a gear that could engage an engine at zero rotational speed and then (through the aid of a spring and the higher speed of the running engine) pull back and disengage automatically at higher speed (nominally the engine's running speed). This drive made the
electric starter
A starter (also self-starter, cranking motor, or starter motor) is a device used to rotate (crank) an internal-combustion engine so as to initiate the engine's operation under its own power. Starters can be electric, pneumatic, or hydraulic. ...
practical for automobile engines and later for engines in
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...
and other motorized vehicles.
In 1922 his father was killed when he was hit by a car with drum brakes; his father's death inspired him to study braking systems. He found a French braking system that he considered to be superior to any braking systems available in the United States's market. In 1923, Bendix founded the Bendix Brake Company, which acquired the rights to French engineer
Henri Perrot
Henri Perrot (21 August 1883 – 1961, in Paris) was a French engineer who was one of the pioneers of the automobile industry from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He holds numerous patents in the field of automotive drum/sh ...
's patents for brake drum/shoe design a year later.
In 1929, he started the
Bendix Aviation Corporation
Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company which, during various times in its existence, made automotive brake shoes and systems, vacuum tubes, aircraft brakes, aeronautical hydraulics and electric power systems, av ...
and founded the
Transcontinental Bendix Air Race
The Bendix Trophy is a U.S. air racing, aeronautical racing trophy. The transcontinental, point-to-point race, sponsored by industrialist Vincent Hugo Bendix, Vincent Bendix founder of Bendix Corporation, began in 1931 as part of the National Ai ...
in 1931. In 1942, Bendix started Bendix Helicopters, Inc. Bendix Aviation and Bendix Brake would later be renamed
Bendix Corporation
Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company which, during various times in its existence, made automotive brake shoes and systems, vacuum tubes, aircraft brakes, aeronautical hydraulics and electric power systems, av ...
.Bendix Brakes, History
Death
Bendix died at his home in New York on March 27, 1945, of
coronary thrombosis
Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart at ...
.Associated Press, “Victor Bendix Dies Of Heart Ailment”, The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 28 March 1945, Volume 51, page 1.
Honors
*1929 - Knight of the Swedish
Order of the Polar Star
The Royal Order of the Polar Star (Swedish: ''Kungliga Nordstjärneorden'') is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim.
The Order of the ...
*1931 - President of the
Society of Automotive Engineers
SAE International, formerly named the Society of Automotive Engineers, is a United States-based, globally active professional association and standards developing organization for engineering professionals in various industries. SAE Internatio ...
Automotive Hall of Fame
The Automotive Hall of Fame is an American museum. It was founded in 1939 and has over 800 worldwide honorees. It is part of the MotorCities National Heritage Area. the Automotive Hall of Fame includes persons who have contributed greatly to au ...
*1991 - Inducted into the
National Aviation Hall of Fame
The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) is a museum, annual awards ceremony and learning and research center that was founded in 1962 as an Ohio non-profit corporation in Dayton, Ohio, United States, known as the "Birthplace of Aviation" with it ...
See also
*
Bendix (Automobile)
The Bendix Company manufactured the Bendix automobile in Logansport, Indiana from 1908 until 1909.Chateau Bendix
*
Bendix Trophy
The Bendix Trophy is a U.S. air racing, aeronautical racing trophy. The transcontinental, point-to-point race, sponsored by industrialist Vincent Hugo Bendix, Vincent Bendix founder of Bendix Corporation, began in 1931 as part of the National Ai ...
References
Further reading
*Cunningham, Mary, with Fran Schumer, ''Powerplay: What Really Happened at Bendix'' (Linden Press/
Simon and Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
, 1984)
*Garraty, John A., and Mark C. Carnes, ''
American National Biography
The ''American National Biography'' (ANB) is a 24-volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Le ...
'' (
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1999)
* Hallett, Anthony and Diane Hallett ''Entrepreneur magazine encyclopedia of entrepreneurs'' (
Wiley
Wiley may refer to:
Locations
* Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town
*Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S.
* Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany
People
* Wiley (musician), British grime MC, rapper, and producer
* Wiley Mill ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...