I am a research man.
Fredrick Kristen explaining one of his inventions. (aa.washington.edu)
Frederick Kurt Kirsten was one of the founders of the UW Department of Aeronautics. He earned the first patent awarded to a UW faculty member. He was the public face of UW engineering for three decades, tirelessly promoting technology as the future’s greatest hope.
Born in Germany, Kirsten graduated from the UW in 1909 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He was immediately hired by an industrial firm and by 1913, was supervising construction of the underground electrical service at MIT. Recruited back to UW, he agreed in 1920 to teach the entire curriculum of the new Department of Aeronautics: aerodynamics, airplane design, and propulsion.
On December 1, 1921, Kirsten filed the first patent awarded to a member of the UW faculty. He and William Boeing went into business together as the Kirsten-Boeing Engineering Company to develop Kirsten’s invention – the cycloidal propeller, first for aircraft and then for boats. He obtained a $290,000 grant from the Guggenheim Foundation to build the UW aeronautical engineering laboratory in 1926, and led the campaign to finance a state-of-the-art wind tunnel in 1936.
Kristen Wind Tunnel - February 1939
The team lowers an experimental Kirsten cycloidal propeller boat for testing. (Kirsten Collection. University Archives. Special Collections, UW Libraries)
Kirsten was confident and stubborn; his designs were based more on trial and error than on analysis. Endlessly inventive, he never gave up the quixotic effort to perfect the cycloidal propeller, and patented more than two dozen other inventions, including the Kirsten pipe, air-raid sirens, fire extinguishers, neon lights, and air cleaners.
Kirsten and one of his many inventions
Further Reading
“The Professor and His Inventions” (PDF)
Journalist Don Duncan wrote this 1971 review of Kirsten’s productive and busy professional life.
Seattle Times
“Flying Without Wings” (PDF)
A journalist interviewed Kirsten in 1922 for this article concerning applications of the cycloidal propeller to flight.
Popular Science
1936 Press Release (PDF)
1936 UW press release enthusiastically announces Kirsten’s new wind tunnel, and his research on new propeller designs.
Kirsten Collection, University Archives, Special Collections, UW Libraries
Hi-Tensity Advertisement (Microsoft Word)
One of Kirsten’s commercial ventures was development for sale of the “Hi-Tensity” neon lamp, 7/1935
Seattle Times
Kirsten’s Biography (PDF)
Visiting professor Mark Levinson wrote this biography of Frederick Kirsten in 1992.
Kirsten Collection, University Archives, Special Collections, UW Libraries
Kirsten Pipe Patent 1940 (PDF)
Kirsten’s most successful invention was this pipe, which he patented and developed for production.
Kirsten Collection, University Archives, Special Collections, UW Libraries
Kirsten Propeller Patent 1922 (PDF)
Frederick Kirsten spent decades working through applications or this patent for a cycloidal propeller – in aircraft and in boats and ships.
Kirsten Collection, University Archives, Special Collections, UW Libraries
“Bed, Pipe, Propeller” (PDF)
Frederick Kirsten was endlessly inventive, and this 1940 article in Time
magazine describes three of his pre-war inventions.
Kirsten Collection, University Archives, Special Collections, UW Libraries
Additional Resources
History of the Kirsten Wind Tunnel
https://www.aa.washington.edu/AERL/KWT/history
Kirsten Papers Finding Aid
https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv80654
History of Kirsten Pipe Company
https://www.kirstenpipe.com/history.html
