Jacob Rabinow
Jacob Rabinow (1910-1999) was born in Kharkov, Ukraine. After living in Siberia during the Bolshevik Revolution, his family moved to China (1919) and then to the United States (1921). He was educated in New York City and graduated from the City College of New York with a Bachelors Degree in Engineering (1933) and a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering (1934). He was hired as a mechanical engineer by the National Bureau of Standards in 1938. There, during World War II, Rabinow worked on many ordnance devices, eventually becoming Chief of the Electro-Mechanical Ordnance Division. In 1954, he left the Federal Government to form his own engineering company. Ten years later his company joined Control Data Corporation (CDC), and until 1972 he was Vice-President of CDC and head of the Rabinow Advanced Development Laboratory. In 1968, Rabinow formed the RABCO Company to manufacture his straight-line phonographs. RABCO was later acquired by the Harman-Kardon Corporation. In March 1972, Rabinow rejoined the National Bureau of Standards and held several positions, among them Chief Research Engineer. In 1975, he retired but returned as a consultant to evaluate inventions submitted to the Office of Energy-Related Inventions.
Jacob Rabinow held 230 U.S. patents on a very wide variety of mechancial, optical, and electrical devices. Among these were mechanisms for the automatic regulation of clocks and watches, the former used in all American automobiles, the automatic letter-sorting machine used by the U.S. Post Office, the magnetic particle clutch, formerly used in several European automobiles, now used in Subarus, airplanes, servo-mechanisms, and in a great many other machines, the world's first magnetic disc memory, the "best-match" principle in optical and magnetic character reading machines, many safety mechanisms for ordnance devices, and the straight-line phonograph. His patents could be classed under such diverse arts as photography, computer equipment, and card punching and sorting equipment. For his scientific work, he held the following honors:
The Exceptional Service Award of the Department of Commerce (1949); the President's Certificate of Merit (1948); the War Department's Certificate of Appreciation (1949); the Naval Ordnance Development Award (1945); Certificate of Commendation from the NDRC (1945); the Edward Longstreth Medal from the Franklin Institute (1959); the CCNY Engineering School's 50th Anniversary Medal (1969); the Jefferson Medal Certificate from the American Patent Law Association (1973); the IEEE's Harry Diamond Award (1977); the Industrial Research and Development Scientist of the Year Award (1980); Doctor of Humane Letters, Towson State University (1983); the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award (1998).
He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Cosmos Club, the Philosophical Society of Washington, and the Sigma XI. He was a Fellow of the IEEE, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Audio Engineering Society.
In addition to his technical work, Jacob Rabinow delivered hundreds of talks on technologies and on inventions. He was a Regent's Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, a frequent guest on radio and television programs, and an author of many papers. His full-length book, "Inventing for Fun and Profit" was published in 1989 by San Francisco Press.
Last Updated on October 28, 2004
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