Albert Kingsbury

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 had 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.

Success of the Kingsbury bearing Kingsbury would eventually run his own business with the Westinghouse Machine Co. building his bearings.

By World War I, the Kingsbury thrust bearing was used extensively in the navy especially to transmit thrust from propeller shafts to ships' hulls (i.e., the propeller pushes water in one direction, and the Kingsbury thrust bearing, attached to the shaft and mounted to the ship, pushes the ship in the opposite direction). He was the first to recognize that some fluid lubricants possess a friction-reducing property that is independent of viscosity, which he called 'oiliness'. His findings were of great significance since they demonstrated that the hydrodynamic theory of lubrication did not describe completely the lubricating mechanism of fluids. Later work by Hardy and Doubleday showed that this property was related to the ability of polar lubricants to adsorb and form close-packed monolayers on the sliding surfaces.

for his wide-ranging contributions to the field, Kingsbury was named as one of the 23 "Men of Tribology" by Duncan Dowson.

Legacy and awards Kingsbury received many accolades for his contributions to science and engineering. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1931; the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute; and honorary doctorates from the University of New Hampshire and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The Kingsbury Hall at the University of New Hampshire also pays homage to the great inventor. Albert Kingsbury was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.