'Hub' Schlafly, who helped invent the teleprompter, dies at 91

 

 Hubert "Hub" Schlafly, a key member of the team that invented the teleprompter and rescued decades' worth of soap opera actors, newscasters and politicians from the embarrassment of stumbling over their words on live television, has died. He was 91.

Schlafly died April 20 at a hospital in Stamford, Conn., after a brief illness, according the Leo P. Gallagher & Son Funeral Home, which handled the arrangements.

Schlafly helped start the TelePrompTer Corp., eventually becoming its president and accepting an Emmy Award for the company in 1999 — a few years after winning one himself 1992 for his work in developing the first cable system permitting subscribers to order special programs.

Schlafly was born Aug. 14, 1919, in St. Louis. He graduated from Notre Dame University, where he studied electrical engineering. He worked for General Electric and the MIT Radiation Laboratory before joining 20th Century Fox in New York City in 1947.

Paul Baran, who played role in development of Internet, dies at 84

Paul Baran, whose work with packaging data in the 1960s has been credited with playing a role in the later development of the Internet, has died. He was 84.

Baran died at his home in Palo Alto on Saturday night of complications from lung cancer, said his son, David.

Baran is best known for the idea of "packet-switching," in which data is bundled into small packages and sent through a network. Baran outlined the concept while working on Cold War issues for the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica in 1963 and 1964.

In 1969, the technology became a concept the Department of Defense used in creating the Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet, numerous reports on the subject said.

The idea had been so advanced at its development that private companies had passed on it.

President George W. Bush presented him with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2008. A year earlier, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame.

Baran's method of moving data was designed to function after a nuclear attack. Because there were no centralized switches and bundles of data could simply find a new route if one weren't working, the system could still work even if much of it were destroyed, the Rand Corp. said on its website.

He called the process "message blocks." Donald Davies of Britain independently developed a similar system and his term, "packet-switching," would eventually be adopted, Rand said.

It would be decades before the social and commercial possibilities of the technology would become clear, and Baran would miss out on a lot of the money and glory that came with it, but he was happy to live to see it happen, his son said.

"He was a man of infinite patience," David Baran said.

Paul Baran was born in Grodno, Poland, in 1926 and his family moved to the United States when he was 2 years old, according to the Rand website.

We'll have more later at latimes.com/obituaries.

-- Associated Press

 

 

Christian J. Lambertsen, who developed early scuba system, dies at 93

Christian J. Lambertsen, a scientist and doctor who invented an underwater breathing system used by the military in World War II and later coined the "scuba" acronym by which such systems are widely known, has died. He was 93.

He died Feb. 11 at his home in Newtown Square, Pa., outside Philadelphia, Stuard Funeral Directors Inc. said Monday.

Lambertsen, born May 15, 1917, earned a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University. He began working on his breathing apparatus, using parts of anesthesia machines, even before he enrolled as a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, according to medical school dean Arthur Rubenstein, who called him "one of our institution's most honored professors."

Lambertsen's background as a doctor, inventor and diver made him "the right man in the right place at the right time" for the development of an early version of the device later known as scuba or "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, according to a July biography in "The Year In Special Operations."

In 1941, Lambertsen worked with the Army's Office of Strategic Services to establish special underwater forces deployed in Burma, and later worked with the Navy to train surface frogmen to become divers. During this service, Rubenstein said, Lambertsen made the first exit from and reentry into a submerged submarine, marking the beginning of modern underwater demolition teams.

Back at the University of Pennsylvania, he converted an abandoned altitude chamber into a laboratory for the study of undersea and aerospace environmental physiology. In 1968, he established the Institute for Environmental Medicine, which has studied oxygen toxicity, diving-related diseases and the effects of hypoxic response in humans, exploring how humans can live in hostile environments from the oceans to space and in extreme temperatures.

Lambertsen retired as institute director in 1987 but continued his research as a professor emeritus, studying how high-pressure oxygen therapy can help in treatment of diseases. In 1992, he patented inergen, a fire-suppression product now used in commercial buildings but developed initially to extinguish fires in submarines and spacecraft, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Among his many honors are the highest civilian awards from the Department of Defense and Coast Guard. In 2000, Navy SEALS proclaimed him "the father of U.S. combat swimming."

Lambertsen is survived by sons Christian, David, Richard, Bradley and six grandchildren.

-- Associated Press

James Winner, who marketed the Club, dies at 81 [Updated]

James Winner, who marketed a steering-wheel lock known as the Club after his car was stolen in the 1980s, died Tuesday in a head-on collision in western Pennsylvania. He was 81.

Police said the crash near Clarion, Pa., also took the lives of two people who were in a car that collided with Winner's sport utility vehicle.

Winner International has sold more than 10 million of the anti-theft devices. Winner was also known in western Pennsylvania for his philanthropy and investment in the community.

-- Associated Press

[Updated 4:50 p.m.: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Winner invented the Club.]

One year ago: Francis Rogallo

Francis Rogallo helped bring to reality the Icarus dream of personal flight for humans.

The inventor, who died one year ago, used old kitchen curtains and makeshift wind tunnels in his basement to develop a flexible wing that gave rise to such sports as hang gliding, paragliding, ultralight flight and kiteboarding.

"Suddenly, here was this idea that people had dreamed about for thousands of years -- to be able to fly like a bird with a personal set of wings," said Mike Meier, president of the Hang Glider Manufacturers Assn. and a principal at Wills Wing Inc. "All of a sudden, with a very simple apparatus...this was possible. It was profound."

Rogallo, who was a researcher at what is now NASA, tried for nearly a decade to interest the government and military aircraft builders in his wing design. It took the Soviet Union launching the Sputnik satellite in 1957 and the ensuing space race, however, for him to get their attention.

Beginning in 1960, NASA began testing the wing as a potential tool for bringing satellites back to Earth, an idea that was later abandoned in favor of standard parachutes and ocean recoveries.

For more, read Francis Rogallo's obituary by the Los Angeles Times.

Photo: Francis Rogallo with an implementation of his Rogallo Wing at NASA Langley Research Center. Credit: NASA Langley Research Center

Morrie Yohai, Cheez Doodles creator, dies at 90

Morrie Yohai, the creator of the crunchy, finger-staining orange snack called Cheez Doodles, has died at his home on New York's Long Island. He was 90.

Yohai died July 27 in Kings Point, N.Y. His family said he had cancer.

Yohai developed the snack in the 1950s. The company already was selling Dipsy Doodles rippled corn chips, which were made with a machine that spit them out under pressure.

His son Robbie Yohai says his father applied a similar concept for Cheez Doodles, adapting the machine to extrude liquefied cornmeal into a tubular shape. The shapes were then coated with seasoning and cheese.

Yohai was always amused that people thought the cheddar cheese snack produced in the Bronx was the highlight of his life, his son said, adding that it was only one of many things his father did.

In the 1970s, Yohai was the associate dean of the business school at the New York Institute of Technology on Long Island.

He also studied mysticism and was a poet and philanthropist.

One of his two poetry books focused on the Torah.

He was a graduate of the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

-- Associated Press

Photo: Morrie Yohai in 2005. Credit: Bill Davis / Newsday

Louis Moyroud, who developed phototypesetting, dies at 96

French-born Louis Moyroud, 96, the co-inventor of the process of phototypesetting, which helped revolutionize the printing process, died of natural causes Monday at his home in Delray Beach, Fla., said his son, Patrick.

Moyroud and Rene Higonnet developed the first practical phototypesetting machine named the Photon. They first demonstrated the process in 1946.

Typists would copy material into a machine. It used photography to generate sheets of paper that could be used to make plates for offset printing.

The process eventually replaced the use of metal type on printers.

Moyroud was born in Moirans, France, in 1914. He immigrated to the United States in the late 1940s after World War II.

-- Associated Press

One year ago: Samuel M. Genensky

Throughout his life, mathematician Samuel M. Genensky insisted that he wasn't blind. Yes, he had to hold a book up to his nose to read. Yes, he sometimes mistook the women's restroom for the men's room. But he wasn't blind -- only partially.

Genensky, whose eyes were burned shortly after birth when a delivery-room nurse accidentally administered the wrong eyedrops to guard against infection, felt that though the world tried to accommodate the blind, nothing was being done for people like him. He set out to change that and developed a kind of closed-circuit television that became the prototype for the video magnifiers sold around the world today for the severely visually impaired. One year ago today, he died of heart disease.

Genensky's great invention was born early in life when, to keep up with his normal-sighted peers, he took his father's World War I-era binoculars to geometry class and was delighted to discover that he could see what the teacher was drawing on the board.

He continually improved on this binocular system throughout his schooling, taking it with him all the way through Brown and Harvard universities. After college, he joined Rand Corp., where his colleagues helped him develop his device into something that eventually became publicized by Reader's Digest as "Sam Genensky's Marvelous Seeing Machine."

"Sam is universally known as a pioneer of assisted technology for people with partial vision," said Tony R. Candela, a deputy director in the California Department of Rehabilitation who oversees services for the blind and deaf. Genensky's magnification machine "ended up revolutionizing the ability of people with partial vision to read printed material," Candela said.

For more on the man who made life easier for the visually impaired, read Samuel Genensky's obituary by The Times.

-- Michael Farr

Photo: Samuel Genensky wearing a bioptic telescope. Credit: The Center for the Partially Sighted

One year ago: John Houghtaling

 

The invention by which John Houghtaling made his name was a cultural touchstone for a generation of travelers. Next to the television, it was one of the most pervasive amenities in motels in the 1960s and '70s. What was his claim to fame? The vibrating Magic Fingers bed.

Working in his New Jersey basement, Houghtaling developed a fist-size motor that snapped onto existing box springs, transforming the bed into a "relaxation service," as the Magic Fingers coin machines would advertise. By feeding a quarter into a machine, motel guests could purchase about 15 minutes of shaking, a curious luxury that enticed children and adults alike.

Within a few years of his invention, Houghtaling was selling more than $1 million worth of the devices annually to franchise operators, who installed them in motels on a revenue-sharing basis, according to a 2002 Wall Street Journal article.

The coin machines became a popular target for thieves, however, and the machines fell out of favor. Houghtaling sold the company in the 1980s, and it has changed hands several times. Now, a mail-order company sells a re-engineered model for the home on the Internet.

A song written by Steve Goodman and sung by Jimmy Buffett is a testament to the vibrating bed's prominence in its heyday:

Put in a quarter

Turn out the light

Magic Fingers makes

ya feel alright. . . .

For more on John Houghtaling's life and famous inventions, read his obituary in The Times.

-- Michael Farr

Photo: John Houghtaling in 2007. Credit: Paul J. Milette / Palm Beach (Fla.) Post

ATM inventor John Shepherd-Barron dies at 84

John Shepherd-Barron, the Scotsman credited with inventing the world's first automated cash machine, has died after a short illness. He was 84.

Shepherd-Barron died peacefully in northern Scotland's Raigmore Hospital on Saturday, funeral director Alasdair Rhind said Wednesday.

Shepherd-Barron said once that he came up with the idea of the cash machines after being locked out of his bank. Plastic bank cards had not been invented yet, so Shepherd-Barron's machine used special checks that were matched with a personal identification number.

The first automated teller machine was installed at a bank in London in 1967.

More later at www.latimes.com/obits.

-- Associated Press

Photo: NCR Corp.'s NCR SelfServ 28, a new breed of automated cash machine. John Shepherd-Barron is credited with inventing the first cash dispenser in 1967. Credit: Business Wire

Edward Uhl, who helped invent the bazooka, dies at 92

Edward Uhl, who helped invent the bazooka during World War II and later led the aerospace company Fairchild Industries Inc., has died. He was 92.

Uhl died Sunday in Oxford, Md., of complications from a stroke he suffered three years earlier, his stepson George Hatcher said.

In 1942, as an Army first lieutenant with an engineering degree, Uhl helped develop a shoulder-fired rocket launcher nicknamed the bazooka because it resembled a tube-shaped musical instrument.

Uhl joined Fairchild as president in 1961. He oversaw its transformation from a military aircraft manufacturer to an aerospace giant before retiring as chairman in 1985.

Fairchild's products included the A-10 Thunderbolt II, an airplane nicknamed the warthog that was used against Iraqi tanks in the 1990 Gulf War.

More later at www.latimes.com/obits.

-- Associated Press

Photo: Edward Uhl in 2005. Credit: Associated Press / via George A. Hatcher Jr.

James C. Marsters Memorial

A memorial will be held for James C. Marsters, a Pasadena orthodontist who co-developed a teletypewriter that opened up phone use for the deaf, at 1 p.m. Oct. 25 at St. Clement's Episcopal Church, 2837 Claremont Blvd., Berkeley.

With a physicist and an engineer-businessman, Marsters helped create a modem in 1964 that linked a teletypewriter to traditional phone lines and converted audio tones into typed messages.  The accomplishment brought profound independence and dramatic social change to the deaf community, said Harry G. Lang, a professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, N.Y., who chronicled the feat in his 2000 book, "A Phone of Our Own."

Marsters, the last survivor of the trio of deaf innovators, died July 28 in Oakland after a short illness. He was 85.

-- Valerie J. Nelson

Photo: James C. Marsters, in his Pasadena home, reads a printout from a machine that operated using technology he helped create.