Peter Cooper Hewitt

Hewitt was born in New York City, the son of New York City Mayor Abram Hewitt and the grandson of industrialist Peter Cooper. He was educated at the Stevens Institute of Technology and the Columbia University School of Mines.{{cite journal |author1= Shaw, Albert |date=June 1908 |title=Leading Articles Of The Month: Peter Cooper Hewitt, Inventor |journal=The American Monthly Review of Reviews |volume=XXVII |issue=6 |pages=724 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nfLC6Jbq34QC&pg=PA724 |access-date=2009-08-07 }}{{cite journal |author1= University, Columbia |date=September 6, 1903 |title=Commencement Day |journal=Columbia University Quarterly |volume=V |issue=4 |pages=397–398 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YDgoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA397 |access-date=2009-08-07 }}

Image:Early Cooper Hewitt mercury vapor lamp.jpg]]

In 1901, Hewitt invented and patented a mercury-vapor lamp that was the forerunner of the fluorescent lamp. A gas-discharge lamp, Hewitt's invention used mercury vapor produced by passing current through liquid mercury. His first lamps had to be started by tilting the tube to make contact between the two electrodes and the liquid mercury; later he developed the inductive electrical ballast to start the tube. The efficiency was much higher than that of incandescent lamps, but the emitted light was of a bluish-green unpleasant color, which limited its practical use to specific professional areas, like photography, where the color was not an issue at a time where films were black and white. For space lighting use, the lamp was frequently augmented by a standard incandescent lamp.The Boy Electrician by J.W. Simms, M.I.E.E (Page 280) The two together provided a more acceptable color while retaining some efficiency advantages.

In 1902, Hewitt developed the mercury arc rectifier, the first rectifier that could convert alternating current power to direct current without mechanical means. It was widely used in electric railways, industry, electroplating, and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power transmission. Although it was largely replaced by power semiconductor devices in the 1970s and 1980s, it is still used in some high power applications.

In 1903, Columbia University awarded Hewitt the degree of Honorary Doctorate of Science in recognition of his work.{{cite journal |author= |title=Obituary |url= http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/d/d4/Er19210902.pdf|journal= The Engineer|pages=236 |date=2 September 1921 |access-date= 20 February 2015}}

In 1907, he developed and tested an early hydrofoil. In 1916, Hewitt joined Elmer Sperry to develop the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, one of the first successful precursors of the cruise missile.

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File:Giovanni Boldini - Portrait of Mrs. Peter Cooper Hewitt - 57.044 - Rhode Island School of Design Museum.jpg.]]

Hewitt's first wife was Lucy Bond Work.{{cite book|author=Guérin, Polly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ph2CQAAQBAJ&dq=lucy+bond+work+hewitt&pg=PT73|title=The Cooper-Hewitt Dynasty of New York|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781614237822|date=November 2012|access-date=27 August 2022}} Work was the daughter of Franklin H. Work (1819–1911), a well-known stockbroker and protégé of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and his wife, Ellen Wood (1831–1877),Williamson, D. (1981) The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer In: Genealogist’s Magazine vol. 20 (no. 6) p. 192-199 and vol. 20 (no. 8) pp. 281–282. who was the sister of Frances Ellen Work.{{cite news|title=WORK ESTATE ACCOUNTING.; Trustees of $15,000,000 Property Ask Advice on Lackawanna Stock.|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C0DE4DB1439EF3ABC4A53DFB0668389639EDE&legacy=true|access-date=26 October 2017|work=The New York Times|date=2 June 1922}} Thus he was an uncle of Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, the maternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales. Cooper Hewitt and his first wife had no children and divorced in December 1918.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1918/12/20/archives/hewitt-divorced-and-remarried-former-wife-sails-for-europe-where-it.html|title=HEWITT DIVORCED AND REMARRIED; Former Wife Sails for Europe, Where, It Is Said, She Will Engage in War Work. DIVORCE KEPT FROM PUBLIC Date of Wedding and Whereabouts of Bride and Bridegroom Not Revealed.|work=The New York Times |date=December 20, 1918 |access-date=9 January 2022}}

While married to Work, Hewitt had an extramarital relationship with Marion (aka Maryon) Jeanne Andrews that resulted in the birth of Ann Cooper Hewitt (July 28, 1914-1956). Hewitt later married Andrews in 1918, right after his divorce to Work, and formally adopted Ann.

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Prior to Hewitt, Andrews was married in 1902 to Dr. Peder Sather Bruguiere (brother of American photographer Francis Bruguière, brother-in-law of heiress Margaret Post Van Alen and grandson of banker Peder Sather) and in 1907 to wealthy New York broker Alexander Turner Stewart Denning.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32781828/maryon-jeanne-andrews-bruguiere-denning/|title=Maryon Jeanne Andrews Bruguiere Denning Hewitt d'Erlanger McCarter dies|work=The San Francisco Examiner|page=1|date=1 May 1939|access-date=28 August 2022}}

After Hewitt, Andrews married in 1922 to Baron Robert Frederic Emile Regis D'Erlanger and in 1926 to George William Childs McCarter (grandson of American author Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson, great-grandson of Judge John Bouvier and nephew-in-law of American publisher George William Childs).

{{Main|Ann Cooper Hewitt}}

File:Cooper Hewitt lights in 'The Mysteries of Myra'.jpg

Peter Cooper Hewitt died in 1921. His will left two-thirds of his estate to Ann and one-third to her mother Marion; but Ann's portion would revert to her mother if Ann (Gay Bradstreet) died childless.{{Cite web|url=https://narratively.com/the-curious-case-of-the-socialite-who-sterilized-her-daughter/|title = The Curious Case of the Socialite Who Sterilized Her Daughter|date = July 8, 2019}}

In 1935, just before Ann's 21st birthday when she would have attained legal majority, she was hospitalized for appendicitis. Ann's mother told the surgeons that Ann was "feebleminded" and paid them to sterilize her while performing her appendectomy.{{cite web|url=https://www.kpbs.org/news/2018/oct/11/american-experience-eugenics-crusade/|title=AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Eugenics Crusade|first=Jennifer|last=Robinson|website=kpbs.org|date=October 11, 2018 |access-date=19 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/CA/CA.html|title=California Eugenics|website=www.uvm.edu|access-date=19 October 2018}}Currell, Susan, and Christina Cogdell. 2006. Popular Eugenics. Athens: Ohio University Press.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/the-sordid-story-of-the-once-popular-eugenics-movement/2018/10/12/2e898ae4-ccb3-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html|title=The sordid story of the once-popular eugenics movement|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=19 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2017/07/the-heiress.html|title=Sterilizing The Heiress|author=Romeo Vitelli|website=Providentia|access-date=19 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/508147|title=A new deal for the child: Ann Cooper Hewitt and sterilization in the 1930s|first=Kline|last=Wendy|website=repository.library.georgetown.edu|access-date=19 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/4864/SOKOLIK-THESIS-2013.pdf;sequence=1|title=EUGENICS IN CALIFORNIA, 1896-1945 by Joseph W. Sokolik|website=txstate.edu|access-date=19 October 2018}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/buildingbetterra00wend|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/buildingbetterra00wend/page/107 107]|quote=Ann.|title=Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom|first=Wendy|last=Kline|date=21 November 2005|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520246744|access-date=19 October 2018|via=Internet Archive}}{{cite web|url=https://www.artsci.uc.edu/faculty-staff/listing/by_dept/history.html?eid=paulawk|title=History|website=University of Cincinnati|access-date=19 October 2018}}{{cite web

|url=https://yourconfidentialghostwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/The-Curious-Case-of-Ann-Cooper-Hewitt.pdf

|date=April 2010

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|last=Payne

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{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WRL6MbBO024C&q=Ann&pg=PA17|title=Popular Eugenics: National Efficiency and American Mass Culture in the 1930s|first1=Susan|last1=Currell|first2=Christina|last2=Cogdell|date=19 October 2018|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=9780821416914|access-date=19 October 2018|via=Google Books}}{{cite web|url=https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=vocesnovae|title=Kirsten Spicer. "A Nation of Imbeciles": The Human Betterment Foundation's Propaganda for Eugenics Practices in California. Chapman University.|website=chapman.edu|access-date=19 October 2018}}{{Cite web |url=http://pressroom.pbs.org/-/media/CA7F190ED076499BA837220EE20E47D3.ashx |title=American Experience The Eugenics Crusade Premieres Tuesday, October 16 on PBS A Cautionary Tale About the Quest for Human Perfection |access-date=2020-05-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019063339/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mds9v6K2k0UJ:pressroom.pbs.org%2F-%2Fmedia%2FCA7F190ED076499BA837220EE20E47D3.ashx |archive-date=2018-10-19 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|url=https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-curious-case-of-the-socialite-who-sterilized-her-daughter|last=Farley|first=Audrey Clare|title=The Curious Case of the Socialite Who Sterilized Her Daughter|publisher=Pocket, from Narratively|orig-year=First published 2019 |date=8 July 2019|access-date=10 April 2020|quote=It was January of 1936, and heiress Ann Cooper Hewitt was suing her mother in a San Francisco court for {{US$|500,000|1936|long=no|about=yes|round=-5}}. The plaintiff claimed that her mother paid doctors to “unsex” her during an appendectomy in order to deprive her of an inheritance from her millionaire father’s estate. The defendant argued that she was merely protecting her daughter — and society — from the consequences of Ann becoming pregnant.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200410142523/https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-curious-case-of-the-socialite-who-sterilized-her-daughter|archive-date=10 April 2020}} Ann retaliated by suing her mother in San Francisco court and telling the press about Maryon's gambling and alcohol addictions. The mother-daughter dispute riveted the public; and the unconventional use of sterilization (it occurred in private practice, not a public asylum) forced a public debate of eugenics.Farley, Audrey Clare (April 2021). The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt. Grand Central. https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/audrey-clare-farley/the-unfit-heiress/9781538753347/

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{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite journal |last=Baker |first=Ray Stannard |author-link=Ray Stannard Baker |date=June 1903 |title=Peter Cooper Hewitt – Inventor; Three Great Achievements In Electrical Science |journal=McClure's Magazine |volume=XXI |pages=172–178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZbYbHQiLtRYC&pg=RA1-PA172 |access-date=2009-08-07 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Burnett |first=Robert N. |date=March 1904 |title=Captains Of Industry, Part XXIII: Peter Cooper Hewitt |journal=The Cosmopolitan |volume=XXXVI |issue=5 |pages=556–558 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wJLNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA556 |access-date=2009-08-07 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Buttolph |first=L. J. |date=September 1920 |title=The Cooper Hewitt Lamp: Part I. Theory And Operation |journal=General Electric Review |volume=XXIII |issue=9 |pages=741–751 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhYBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA741 |access-date=2009-08-07 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Buttolph |first=L. J. |date=October 1920 |title=The Cooper Hewitt Lamp: Part II. Development And Application |journal=General Electric Review |volume=XXIII |issue=10 |pages=858–865 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhYBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA858 |access-date=2009-08-07 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Buttolph |first=L. J. |date=October 1920 |title=The Cooper Hewitt Quartz Lamp and Ultra-violet Light |journal=General Electric Review |volume=XXIII |issue=11 |pages=909–916 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhYBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA909 |access-date=2009-08-07 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Hewitt |first=Peter Cooper |author-link=Peter Cooper Hewitt |date=January 1902 |title=Electric Gas Lamps And Gas Electrical Resistance Phenomena |journal= Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers|volume=XIX |pages=59–65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6S0SAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA59 |access-date=2009-08-07 |doi=10.1109/T-AIEE.1902.4763958 |s2cid=51672743 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Pierce |first=George W. |date=February 1904 |title=On the Cooper Hewitt Mercury Interrupter |journal=Daedalus |volume=XXXIX |issue=18 |pages=389–415 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fj8DAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA389 |access-date=2009-08-07 |doi=10.2307/20021910|jstor=20021910 |url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book |title=A Life Of George Westinghouse, Chapter XVI "Various Interests and Activities" (The Cooper Hewitt Lamp) |last=Prout |first=Henry Goslee |year=1921 |publisher=The Scribner Press |location=New York |pages=236–240 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K-BKAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA236 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Squier |first=George Owen |author-link=George Owen Squier |year=1908 |title=The Present Status of Military Aeronautics. III. Hydromechanic Relations. Relative dynamic and buoyant support. |journal=Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution |pages=143–144 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gtQWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA143 }} References Cooper Hewitt's hydrofoil work.
• {{cite journal |author1= (philadelphia, Franklin Institute |date=April 1903 |author2= ), Pa |title=Notes and Comments. Cooper Hewitt Interrupter As An Aid In Wireless Telegraphy |journal=Journal of the Franklin Institute |volume=CLV |issue=4 |pages=315–316 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r8kGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA315 |access-date=2009-08-07 |doi=10.1016/s0016-0032(03)90227-4|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite journal |date=October 1922 |title=The March Of Radio: Did Peter Cooper Hewitt Discover The Grid? |journal=Radio Broadcast |volume=I |issue=6 |pages=460–461 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VMcnAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA5-PA460 |access-date=2009-08-07 }}
• {{cite journal |author1= Sciences, National Institute of Social |date=October 1916 |title=The Awarding Of Medals: Presentation Medals |journal=Journal of the National Institute of Social Sciences |volume=II |pages=40–43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-JRAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA40 |access-date=2009-08-07 }} References Cooper Hewitt's work with hydrofoils.

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{{commons category}}

• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Peter Cooper Hewitt}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.ringwoodmanor.com/peo/ch/pch/pch.htm|date=2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031022073237/http://www.ringwoodmanor.com/peo/ch/pch/pch.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2003-10-22|title=Peter Cooper Hewitt|author=Andre Mohammed|website=The Forges and Manor of Ringwood|quote=This essay was written by a student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and represents the only research done on this major inventor. The majority of the primary sources were found at the Cooper Archives in the Cooper Union Institute in Manhattan}}
• {{Find a Grave|4763}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hewitt, Peter Cooper}}

Category:1861 births

Category:1921 deaths

Category:American electrical engineers

Category:American inventors

Category:Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery

Category:Stevens Institute of Technology alumni

Category:Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni

Category:Peter Cooper

Category:Naval Consulting Board