Bernard M. Cain

From ETHW

Bernard M. Cain


Biography

Bernard M. Cain was an experienced designer of rotating electrical machines with particular emphasis on ac motors and generators. He received his BSEE from the University of Michigan in 1929, and his MS in 1930.

Almost all of Mr. Gain's 43 years in engineering have been associated with rotating electrical machines from small induction motors to very large steam-turbine generators built by the General Electric Company. From 1936 to 1949 he was associated with the, design of small integral horsepower induction motors. He was responsible for singlephase motors and was also consultant on the design of cooling features for small integral horsepower motors.

From 1949 to 1973 he was associated with the design of large steam-turbine generators. For 15 years he was Manager-Advance Design of Large Generators. Under his direction General Electric developed and introduced numerous new design. features including a completely new high voltage armature insulation, a new concept of rotor winding cooling known as gap pick-up cooling, and liquid cooling of stator windings. During this period generator designers increased the capability of these large machines by a factor of more than ten to one.

Since his retirement in 1973, Cain was active as an engineering consultant on large rotating electric machines, especially large steam-turbine generators.

Cain has been awarded a total of ten patents relating to rotating electrical machines and regulating system. He authored the technical papers "The Design and Performance of Modern Large Turbine-Generators" and "Accuracy of Temperature Measurements" in the Transactions of the AIEE. He was a Fellow of the IEEE and the ASME, and a member of Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi.