Howard R. Hughes Sr.

Howard Robard Hughes Sr. (September 9, 1869 – January 14, 1924) was an American businessman and inventor who founded the Hughes Tool Company. He invented the "Sharp–Hughes" two-cone rotary drill bit during the Texas Oil Boom. Hughes was the father and namesake of Howard Hughes (Howard Robard Hughes Jr.), the American business tycoon and founder of Hughes Aircraft.

Early life and education Howard Robard Hughes Sr. was born on September 9, 1869, in Lancaster, Missouri, the son of Jean Amelia (née Summerlin; 1842–1928) and Judge Felix Turner Hughes (1837–1926). Hughes's older sister Greta, better known by her stage name Jeanne Greta, was a grand opera and concert singer. His younger brother, Rupert Hughes, was a famed novelist and screenwriter. Another brother, Felix Jr., was a baritone opera singer.

Hughes Sr. was educated at Missouri Military Academy, in Mexico, Missouri. He then entered Harvard University in 1893, dropping out the next year.

After leaving Harvard in '94, I found myself in the Law School of the Iowa State University. It was my father's wish that I succeed him in his practice. Too impatient to await the course of graduation, I passed the examination before the Supreme Court of Iowa and began the practice of law. I soon found the law a too-exacting mistress for a man of my talent, and I quit her between dark and dawn, and have never since been back. I decided to search for my fortune under the surface of the earth.|Howard Hughes Sr., 1912 On November 20, 1908, he filed the basic patents for the Sharp-Hughes Rock Bit, and on August 10, 1909, was granted and for this rock drill. Hughes's two-cone rotary drill bit, nicknamed "rock eater", penetrated medium and hard rock with ten times the speed of any former bit, and its development revolutionized oil well drilling. 1910 Howard R. Hughes Howard R. Hughes Great Britain Roller-drill 1911 Howard R. Hughes Individual U.S. Roller Rotary Drill 1912 Howard R. Hughes Individual Austria Extension Roller Drill 1914 Howard R. Hughes Individual Austria Roller Boring-drill 1914 Howard R. Hughes Individual U.S. Improvements in Roller Boring Drills. 1914 Howard R. Hughes Individual Great Britain Rotary Drills 1915 Howard R. Hughes Individual Austria Improved Method of Sapping or Destroying Military Trenches Blasting and the Like. 1917 Howard R. Hughes Individual Great Britain Improvements in or relating to Drilling Machines. 1917 Howard R. Hughes Individual Great Britain Improvements in the Method of and Apparatus for Forming and Enlarging Bore Holes. 1917 Howard R. Hughes Individual Great Britain Improvements in the construction of perforating machines used for drilling horizontal holes. 1919 Howard R. Hughes Individual France Improvements to the Process and the Apparatus for Drilling and Widening Boreholes. 1919 Howard R. Hughes Individual France Rotary Earth Boring Drill 1923 Howard R. Hughes, Charles Kuldell Rudolph Hughes Tools, Inc. Canada

Death and legacy

The Hughes family gravesite at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. On January 14, 1924, Hughes Sr. died of a heart attack caused by an embolism at his company's offices on the fifth floor of the Humble Oil Building in Houston at the age of 54. After his death, his only child, Howard Jr., assumed control of the company as its 75% owner at the age of 19. In his will, Hughes Sr. had left the remaining 25% to his parents, Felix Sr. and Mimi, and his brother Felix Jr.