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Featured Article
Image of The Week
By Sigur Whitaker
Louis Schwitzer is legendary in Indianapolis but not for winning the first automobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Rather, he founded Schwitzer Corporation which became a major producer of turbochargers and superchargers.
Schwitzer was born in Austria-Hungary. His parents believed he would become a military officer. He completed his college education at the Imperial Military Artillery Academy in Vienna and received master’s degrees from German universities Darmstadt in electrical engineering and Karlsruhe in mechanical engineering.
After graduation, he immigrated to the United States where he went to work for the Holsten-Cabot Company, a producer of powerful electric motors in Boston, where he worked on generators for the transatlantic cable system and a hoist for U. S. battleships that worked using magnetism. Moving to Pierce-Arrow in Buffalo, he worked on the six-cylinder engine introduced on the 1907 Great Arrow automobile. He gained more experience with the Canada Car & Cycle Company, manufacturer of the Russell car.
While on a trip to New York City in 1908, he met Howard Marmon whose business manufactured the Marmon automobile in Indianapolis. Marmon learned that Schwitzer was an engineer and Marmon, after telling him about his car company, invited him to Indianapolis. In Indianapolis, Schwitzer went to work as the chief engineer for the Atlas Engine Company, a major manufacturer of stationary steam engines.
Before 16,000 spectators, Schwitzer, driving a Stoddard-Dayton, lined up with four other automobiles in the first race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway—a five-mile event for cars with a displacement between 161 and 230 cubic inches. He won the race with a time of 5 minutes, 13.4 seconds. For his efforts, he received a 10-karat gold medal. On the front side is the original Wing & Wheel insignia and an imprint of Schwitzer’s car with No. 19 on the radiator. He also received a sterling silver medal for his second-place finish in a 50-mile race on the second day of racing. What most people remember about the first day of racing at IMS is that two world records were broken. While he retired from active participation in racing after the 1911 Indianapolis 500, he served as the IMS Technical Director from 1919 until 1945.
Schwitzer designed the six-cylinder engine for Marmon which powered the Marmon Yellow Jacket to victory in the first Indianapolis 500. He also participated in the race as a relief driver for the Jackson Automobile Company’s entry piloted by Harry Cobe. They finished 10th in the race.
After Harry Stutz left Empire Motor Car Company which was owned by IMS founders Carl Fisher, James Allison and Arthur Newby, and National Motor Vehicle employee Robert Hassler, Schwitzer took over the management. In 1914, Schwitzer joined the U.S. Army Motor Transport Corps where he designed military trucks and gun mounts.
After World War I, he founded what became the Schwitzer Corporation in a little shop on Bates Street in Indianapolis where his first product was a radiator cooling fan. When asked why, he responded, “Because I know them better than anyone else.” The company thrived and soon moved to a factory at 1125 Massachusetts Avenue.
During the 1920s, Schwitzer developed the first workable positive-displacement supercharger for road vehicles. The company became a leading designer and supplier of specialty water pumps, oil pumps and fans. During the lean years of the Great Depression, Schwitzer-Cummins Company developed new markets and new technologies without borrowing. He designed and developed superchargers for the twin Packard engines of Gar Wood’s Miss America X which won the 1932 Harmsworth Trophy, setting a record of 125 mph, a record that stood for more than 20 years.
During World War II, Schwitzer Corporation became a leading designer and supplier of specialty water pumps, oil pumps and fans for the U.S. military. In 1952, a Schwitzer turbocharger installed in a Cummins diesel powered car took the pole for the Indianapolis 500. When he died in May 1967, Schwitzer Corporation was a $30 million a year automotive parts business with 1400 employees in Indianapolis and branches in Japan, Germany, and England. It was subsequently sold to BorgWarner.
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) established an international award in his name for engineering excellence at the Indianapolis 500 in 1967. The winners in 2023 were Selda Gunsel, PhD, Bassem Kheireddin, PhD and Jung Fang, PhD, for their work on Shell’s 100% renewable race fuel.
Schwitzer believed in education. He gave money to Butler University in Indianapolis which enabled the college to pay off its loans on its residence halls. The women’s dormitory was later renamed the Louis Schwitzer Memorial Hall in 1964. He also donated money to the University of Indianapolis for a student center.
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