Obelisk Stone Toledo Press Club Award - Harold McMaster Solar Cell Glass Genius

Description

Here is a very rare chance to own a fantastic award to Harold and Helen McMaster. Harold was a NW Ohio inventor and developer of solar cells. McMaster Hall at the University of Toledo is named after him. This stone award is about 12 1/2 inches tall and I think is made from granite, so it is quite heavy. It is very rare to own awards from nationally famous inventors. Obtained directly from his estate. Below is information about him.
Harold A. McMaster
(July 20, 1916 – August 25, 2003) was an
inventor
with over 100 patents and
entrepreneur
who founded four companies. Fortune Magazine called him "The Glass Genius". He also worked on developing commercial-scale solar cell technology, and developed a new type of engine, the "McMaster Rotary Engine."
McMaster was an inventor early on. His father gave him a set of tools at age 6. By 8, he had built a set of farm machinery, by 10, a threshing machine that husked corn, and by 12 he was making car motors.
Following his graduation from
Ohio State
with a combined master's degree in
physics
,
mathematics
, and
astronomy
in 1939, McMaster worked as the first research
physicist
ever employed by the
Libbey Owens Ford
Glass in
Toledo, Ohio
.
He received his first patent during WWII for a
periscope
used by
fighter pilots
to see behind them.
In 1948, he started his own company, Permaglass, producing curved and tempered glass for the consumer and automotive markets. Within 3 months, he was producing glass for appliances, and for display cases; within 3 years, Permaglass was a leading manufacturer of glass plates for television sets. As the auto and electronics industries boomed in the 1950s, Permaglass was very successful. McMaster merged Permaglass into
Guardian Industries
of
Detroit
,
Michigan
in 1969, creating the third-largest glass company in the world, and left the company in 1971.
Inspired by a vacation in sunny
Arizona
, McMaster began another company, Glasstech Solar, in 1984, to produce cost-effective
solar arrays
. His insight was that the essential cost element of large area solar arrays was glass, and he could treat the actual solar cell as simply a different kind of coating on glass. After doing little except absorbing million cash, McMaster gave up on the
amorphous silicon
research, offered to pay back the 57 investors who followed him into solar cells. He then raised yet another million to create Solar Cells Inc. in Toledo OH to work on a different
thin-film technology
,
cadmium telluride photovoltaics
. By 1997, Solar Cells had a prototype production machine. In 1995, he brought in a new president, and bought still more stock in the company to fund research, although the company had yet to pay a dividend. According to Ken Zweibel, former head of the Thin Film Partnership program at the
Department of Energy
's
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
, SCI was clearly the industry leader in thin-film photovoltaic technology. In 1999, True North Partners, LLC purchased controlling interest, and renamed the company
First Solar
LLC.
According to his obituary in the local paper, the
Toledo Blade
, "Some believe he will be remembered as the "father" of commercial-scale solar energy, having practically handed the needed technology to society on a platter in the 1990s."
Since the 1940s, McMaster was sketching and tinkering with models, continuously reworking various designs for what has since become the McMaster Rotary Engine (MRE), Patent US2002043238, 'Wobble engine'. His son Ronald started working on the project in the 1970s, and brother Robert joined in after the sale of Solar Cells Inc. in 1999. The engine is shaped like a drum with the same circumference as a basketball, and is claimed to:
Weigh only one-tenth as much as a current six-cylinder engine
Have only two moving parts other than a ball valve; eight parts total
function under water or deep in space
Unlike the
Wankel
rotary, which has a heavy rotor, the MRE rotor is light wobble plate, promising greater efficiency. In addition to the two-cycle basketball model, work is continuing on a two-cycle engine about the size of a coffee-can that could be built into wheel hubs, and a four-cycle gasoline version, as well as an engine based on a two-part fuel system utilizing gaseous hydrogen and oxygen US2002043238
The
Harold and Helen McMaster Foundation
was founded in 1988, and has made contributions to libraries, colleges, universities, museums, and hospitals in Northwest
Ohio
and Southeast
Michigan
.
Harold McMaster was born on a
tenant farm
near
Deshler, Ohio
. He met his wife, the former Helen Clark, while both were students at
Defiance College
in the 1930s. Harold McMaster died in 2003.
Awards
Doctor of Science (honorary),
The Ohio State University
Doctor of Science (honorary),
Defiance College
Pilgrim Award,
Defiance College
Ohio State University Department of Physics Distinguished Alumni Award
Ohio Department of Development Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 1998
National Glass Industry's Phoenix Award
Engineering and Science Hall of Fame
,
Dayton
Ohio Science and Technology Hall of Fame
,
Columbus
.
From a  smoke-free environment, being sold as pictured. Please view the photo as it is part of the description. If you have any questions please ask before bidding. Low starting price with no reserve. SHIPPING: To be sent delivery conformation to your US listed eBay or Paypal address only. Will combine shipping where possible.
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