Albert Kingsbury (23 December 1863 – 28 July 1943) was an American engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He was responsible for over fifty patents obtained between the years 1902 to 1930. Kingsbury is most famous for his hydrodynamic thrust bearing which uses a thin film of oil to support weights of up to 220 tons. This bearing extended the service life of many types of machinery during the early 20th century. It was primarily outfitted on Navy ships during World War I and World War II.
Personal life
Albert Kingsbury was born in Morris, Illinois and graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School, OH in 1880. Kingsbury would eventually father five daughters. In addition to his interest in tribology and bearings, Kingsbury enjoyed the world of arts, history, and letters. He devoted much time to the study of foreign languages. Kingsbury died in Greenwich, Connecticut 1943, and is buried at the Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.
Formal education
In 1884, Kingsbury attended the University of Akron to study Scientific-Latin courses. He dropped out and worked as a machine apprentice in Cuyahoga Falls. Kingsbury credited this as an important experience that led him to advance his career in engineering. Kingsbury resumed his formal education at Ohio State University, but he again dropped out to work as a machinist with the Warner and Swasey Company in Cleveland.
Kingsbury received his mechanical engineering degree from Cornell University in 1887. It was at Cornell that he met Professor Robert Henry Thurston. Professor Thurston was instrumental in shaping Kingsbury's interest in bearings and tribology. Working under Professor Thurston, Kingsbury conducted tests on bearing materials for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His craftsmanship, honed by his experience in machine shops, allowed Kingsbury to fit half-bushings to the journal by scraping. His hand fitting produced the small tolerances that promoted film lubrication. These bearings, when ran showed no measurable signs of wear, and was Kingsbury's prompt to the creation of the thrust bearings which now bear his name.
Teaching career
University of New Hampshire
Kingsbury pursued a teaching position at the University of New Hampshire. Within two years, he was a professor of Mechanical Engineering courses at the university. His new position at the university allowed him to continue pursuing his interest in lubrication. During his time at the University of New Hampshire, he created an innovative test machine to measure friction in coarse pitch, lubricated screw threads at loads of up to 14,000 psi. The usefulness of this invention received mixed reviews from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). His research also covered fluid lubricated bearings, and he published a paper entitled "Experiments with an Air Lubricated Bearing". It was at this university that he envisioned the Kingsbury thrust bearing.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Kingsbury joined the Worcester Polytechnic Institute to continue pursuing his interest in lubrication. He secured expansions for laboratory facilities and funding to continue his tests on a centrally pivoted thrust bearing with the aid of his students.
Invention of the Kingsbury thrust bearing
Kingsbury's research at the University of New Hampshire led him to conceive an early Kingsbury bearing that consisted of several stationary arc segments facing a thrust collar on the rotating shaft. Each segment would have a boss on the side away from the thrust collar, allowing it to tilt and form an oil wedge that would carry the thrust. Kingsbury tested this new bearing with a modified version of his earlier screw thread testing machine. The bearing was successful with pressures of up to 4,000 psi at speeds of 285 rpm. This pressure exceeded that for common collar-type bearings by a factor of 80 to 100, thus proving the promise of the Kingsbury bearing.
Westinghouse career
Kingsbury joined the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh as a general engineer. He used this as an opportunity to advance the development of his thrust bearings in an industrial setting. Unfortunately, the first test of his thrust bearing was a failure. His bearing overheated during the test and was discarded. This made the company skeptical of Kingsbury's invention, but Westinghouse's skepticism did not dent Kingsbury's enthusiasm. Kingsbury would later fund his own test that proved his bearings successful. Unfortunately, Westinghouse decided to stick to more conventional ball bearings for their motors.