DAVID CROSTHWAIT, JR. Biography - Famous Scientists

 
 

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DAVID CROSTHWAIT, JR.

David Crosthwait (1891 - 1976)                                                       
David Crosthwait was born in Nashville, Tennessee and grew up in Kansas City,       
Missouri. He received a Bachelor of Science degree (1913) and a Master of           
Engineering degree (1920) from Purdue University and honorary doctoral degree in     
1975.                                                                               
                                                                                     
Crosthwait moved to Marshall Town, Iowa in 1913 to work for the Durham Company       
designing heating installations. From 1925 to 1930, Crosthwait was the director     
of the research department, investigating heating and ventilation methods.           
Crosthwait holds 39 U.S. patents for heating systems, vacuum pumps,                 
refrigeration methods and processes and temperature regulating devices, and 80       
international patents for the same. He is well known for creating the heating       
system for New York's famous Radio City Music Hall and Rockerfeller Center.         
                                                                                     
Crosthwait was an expert on heat transfer, air ventilation and central air           
conditioning. He was the author of a manual on heating and cooling with water       
and guides, standards, and codes that dealt with heating, ventilation,               
refrigeration, and air conditioning systems. During the 1920s and 30s, he           
invented an improved boiler, a new thermostat control and a new differential         
vacuum pump, all more effective for the heating systems in larger buildings.         
                                                                                     
He was the Technical Advisor of Dunham-Bush, Inc. from 1930 to 1971. After           
retiring, Crosthwait taught a course on steam heating theory and control systems     
at Purdue University.