First-Hand:Power Engineering, Thermostats and Electric Toothbrushes

Garabed Hovhanesian

To understand where my "engineering" originated, one must understand where I originated. Both my parents were born before the turn of the century, approximately 1890, in a village in eastern Turkey. This had been the homeland of the Armenian people for three thousand years. My parents were married in 1907. In 1909, my father fled Turkey to avoid being conscripted as cannon fodder for the Ottoman Turkish Army. Shortly after he fled to America, the Turks or their surrogates beheaded both my mother's and father's parents, around 1910.

I have no record other than stories told by my mother who was a witness. She suffered the terrible massacres and marches of attrition through the Arabian deserts of Syria and Iraq from 1910 to 1918, the end of World War I. While she survived by her wit and some luck, thousands of others were not so fortunate. Their bodies were dumped like so much garbage into the Euphrates and Tigres Rivers if, indeed, they survived the march to those rivers.

When the Allies finally beat the central powers including the Turks, my mother was liberated by the British Eastern Army. She made a circuitous route to the United States. She landed in New York City at Ellis Island on July 3, 1920, and saw the fireworks in the harbor. On April 28, 1921, I was born in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Everyone worked in the textile mills but there was still no peace.

The textile industry was already dying in the Northeast, especially in Lowell. All the mills were moving to the Sunbelt. Lack of skills, language problems, and the harsh realities of ethnic discrimination and economic privation forced my parents to move to Worcester, Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter the crash of 1929 occurred. This was probably the final blow for my father. He died in 1936 at the age of fortysix. He died of meningitis but his heart was already broken. How was he to raise two sons and feed a family?

Before my father had died, he had already inculcated me with his basic rule for survival, "nobody can take away from you what you have between your fingers and ears." His wish for me was to go to trade school. By the age of nine, I already knew what a patent was and what its value could be. To me, it meant freedom from want.

I was an avid reader and my first hero was Thomas Alva Edison, my next was Henry Ford. There were many fictional heroes but another author, Sir Guy Eddington, caught my imagination. I will never forget his "popular" explanation of Einstein's theory of relativity.

I was hired at GE (General Electric) as a design engineer. My interview had led me to believe I would work on motors, but that changed. I was told that because of my experience with metal, I was assigned to work on advertising, special tower and system programmable clocks.

My manager was an alumnus of a Technische Hochschule. His affected airs, as a wise German technocrat, were quite transparent. The rule of operation was to do model shop, conveyor and cook-book engineering.

My single contribution on this assignment, among many, was the design and implementation of a fusible line resistor to prolong the life of two 25 watt lamps which were in the clocks. By this means, I was able to stretch the life of lamps from one thousand hours average to eighty-seven hundred hours and, at the same time, provide a firesafe product.

There was no training as such. My manager resorted to browbeating tactics rather than professional leadership. I had my own motivation, I did not need his persuasion. I sought professional counsel from two fellow workers who were WPI alumni, Henry Deane and Jim Robertson. They were superb. Our manager of engineering was C. Herbert Ridgely from West Lynn. I finally asked Herb for a transfer to anywhere just to get away from the absurd management practiced by my immediate manager.

I was transferred to a branch plant as a resident engineer (1949). Here I literally flew; I studied quality control, machinery control and practiced my skills to the utmost. I learned and soaked up all the skills of manufacturing operations, relationships and productivity. I also learned something else, I found I had considerable skill as a teacher and counselor to plant personnel.

In 1952, I was asked to return to the main plant as a cost reduction engineer for the engineering department. Concurrently, I went to the Northeastern University Graduate School of Business where, in 1954, I earned my MBA. This was done with my own resources. The company did not see fit to pay for some of the good courses the school had. I could be wrong, but I attributed this to a sort of discrimination. During that period and succeeding years, I tried to write papers for AlEE publications but the legal red tape I had to go through to clear "proprietary" information was too discouraging.

I was assigned to an advanced development group to develop a new automobile clock. I docketed an idea for a constant torque motor to power an escapement device. Much to my surprise, my former manager got the patent described in my docket. When I apprised Mr. Terry of what had happened and proved it, he apologized and made a commitment to recognize my service at the next appropriate opportunity.

I applied for an opening in the General Electric Syracuse semiconductor operation. I found out that Mr. Terry had blocked an interview with the thought that: 1) I would be better off where I was and 2) that some things were opening up. I was also offered an opportunity in West Lynn and was likewise barred. Very soon thereafter, I was asked one day to appear at eleven a.m. in the mechanical and electrical test lab. As I walked in, the manager announced that I would be the supervisor.

I reduced the manpower, increased productivity and more importantly raised the level of engineering competence of the staff. I converted it from cut and try, to mathematical modeling, test planning and professional presentation. Cook-book engineering was gone. In 1959, after five years, I was asked to go into Advanced Development.

My task in Advanced Development Engineering was to design a conceptualized electric toothbrush (model shop sample ), design and build five hundred close- to- final design samples for clinical testing by March, 1960 (from September l, 1959), and complete the design engineering for September, 1960 product introduction into the marketplace.

In the toothbrush project, I helped formulate ni-cad battery technology, 1.2 volt de pm motor technology, charging circuitry, magnetic analysis of the induction charger, and designed and introduced into wide use the face gear (Fellows gear) for long life and fault tolerant assembly. We had achieved one thousand hours of continuous and intermittent life for motor bearings, brushes , commutators, gears, and plastic bearings (ABS), hermetic sealing of all live parts, and scotch yoke design to prevent stalling of the reciprocal motion (my patent) and more.

Beyond all this, however, I was instrumental in converting a venerable old clock factory into a multi-disciplined, multi-product operation. It became apparent to management that here was an opportunity to expand the product lines, hence a New Product Engineering Section was formed. But I was not appointed manager. A friend of a friend fresh out of Monogram, England by way of Asheboro, North Carolina, got the assignment.

The project to which I was assigned was to try to complete development of an electronic thermostat for fry pans, coffee makers, irons, toasters, hair dryers and so forth. The zero voltage switch had been developed but my predecessors both at Bridgeport Advanced Development Lab, New Britain, and elsewhere, had been unable to apply it correctly or at all. Within one month, I had designed the logic of the system and with my experience in putting products into production, I made a working prototype which performed admirably. The management at Bridgeport was ecstatic and asked me to demonstrate the technology to the engineering sections in Brockport, Allentown, Fort Smith and Asheboro.

I received personal recognition but my plans were for naught. It had already been decided to close the New Britain plant and centralize coffee maker production in Allentown. At about that time, I was offered a job in Allentown, as a sidewise move, without even aninterview.

I refused on the grounds that I was ready, willing and able to be Manager of Engineering in Allentown. I was then appointed Manager of Engineering and Quality Control in New Britain effective immediately. This of course incurred the ire of the General Manager in charge of the plant. I stayed until the last working day.

In the morning of my last day, I was called by a friend John Macleod, Manager of Industrial Sales in Ashland, to meet with him for lunch at Bridgeport. There I met Bill Newing, Division General manager of Finance, and Harry Stinson from marketing. Macleod asked me to report to him on Monday morning in Ashland where he would announce that I was to be his manager of industrial product planning. While I was doing that, I was to plan the Singapore plant. This was April, 1969.

My task was to covertly plan the transfer of the complete timer manufacturing operation from Ashland to Singapore. After the plan was completed and accepted by headquarters, it would be revealed to the local plant manager whose job it was to make the transition as easy as possible, which also meant heading up a public relations program. I would then be able to openly recruit personnel, set up a purchasing and delivery plan for all the equipment and write the financial, manufacturing, engineering, and manpower plans for the next five years with expansion plans embodied in the system.

Much later, I learned that corporate headquarters had promised Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew that a vertically integrated appliance manufacturing plant would be built and operational by July, 1970. I suspect that the delay was due to being undecided who or what kind of person should be chosen to carry out this project. Early in 1970, I was named Project Manager. In September, I was named President and Managing Director of General Electric Housewares Pte. Ltd-Singapore.

In the spring of'71, I, with a management team, set up temporary training operations while the factory was being built. On July 1, 1971, as I had promised the company, we started production of timers. Our new factory had some two hundred and thirty thousand square feet with plans and room to expand. Under Bill Newing's management, I was given free rein to do the job. It was difficult learning the customs of a new culture and its government and a myriad of details associated with the implementation of the master plan. I loved every minute of my experience and never regretted going there. Mr. Borche, GE's CEO, comments were, "This is how a small appliance plant should be laid out. It's the best I have seen."

By June, 1972, the plant was fully operational. It became an attraction for the politicos of the company. In June of 1972, I was unceremoniously asked to return to the states. My replacement was a fishing buddy of Vern Cooper's who had risen above my manager, Bill Newing. I was also told that my transfer was no reflection of my work or accomplishments. I had an extremely good working relationship with Singaporean officials and the labor force in the plant.

When I returned to the U.S., I was given "corridor" assignments and .stationed in the Ashland Plant. A mechanically operated digital clock timer was about to go into production. It contained no less than one hundred intricately molded and fabricated parts which required precision fabrication. I was under great pressure to see to it that the parts were made correctly. The product worked, but the accumulation of tolerances and the lack of precision processes to make the parts put me in the hot seat.

Concurrently, the plant manager was being assigned to Allentown and a new manager fresh from an Ireland plant was to take over. The domestic transferee was completely distracted by the prospect of his new job and gave all his attention to Allentown. The manager from Ireland spent all his time concerning himself with what was going on in Ireland and placing his re-patriates stateside. When , I surmised, headquarters had finally understood what was happening, they charged the new manager with some lack of performance. I do not know what. He then threatened me with firing if he was to be fired.

On February 25, 1975 I had a myocardial infarction. Incidentally with all of the turmoil, the plant grossed forty-one million dollars in sales, the largest in its history, and proportionately larger margins. This I attribute to John Haggerty's and my untiring efforts to keep things going. Shortly after my recovery and during my home recuperation, the manager from Ireland retired. A new quality manger was appointed, and when I returned I was made Manager of Manufacturing Administration.

Within a year I was asked to take retirement, I was fifty-five. During my discussion with the current plant manager, he told me that a number of people were after my scalp for no better reason than, "I was just to go." When I indicated that I would call Fairfield I was asked to hold off. The next day I received a call from John MacLaughlin. As a result, I was subsequently transferred to Bridgeport as Liaison Specialist, Overseas operations. All in all, GE did not treat returning expatriates too well or with much planning.

In 1983, I had bypass heart surgery; in '79 and '84, I had hernia surgery. In 1983-84, the division was sold to Black and Decker. I opted for a General Electric retirement at sixty-three.

I enjoyed all of my jobs at General Electric (GE) though I did not enjoy getting caught in the political turmoil. I owe a great many people in and out of the company for my successes. I learned that I did not want to work for a manager I could not respect as a person and as a professional; I expected the same sentiment from my manager with respect to me .

I cite a comment made by Admiral Grace Hopper, "We manage things, we lead people." Management in, as well as outside of, GE in those days had a lot to learn. One must want to do what one wants to do; simply taking a job to fill a resume can make a person very unhappy. Whether you are tackling the laws of nature or whether you are tackling the laws of human behavior, one must enjoy what one does. Only then can you look back on your life and say, "I'd do it all over again."