5 minute read
An Engine for Good
By Madeleine Bradford
THE STRANGE CONTRAPTION PICTURED
HERE isn’t a time machine. It’s actually a “Seater-Meter,” invented by Engineering Professor Walter E. Lay in 1940 to improve automobile seats. A series of springs behind the back, and below the seat, measured weight distribution and pressure, and different components could raise, lower, and tilt. Lay’s eldest daughter, Eileen, grins behind the fake wheel.
“Nobody had done fundamental work on seats, so we built a universal test seat,” Lay said of the device. Lay didn’t just spend his career sitting around, however; he inspired generations of engineers through years of work testing the aerodynamics of cars and taking early measurements of automobile noise pollution.
Born to a farming family in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Lay was fascinated by engines—their functions, their valves, and especially their “put-chug” noises, according to a newspaper clipping from his collection. He left the farm in 1910 and headed to the University of Michigan. After a brief 1912 interlude working at the Packard Motor Company, he returned to U-M in 1913, in time for the University’s first automotive course.
Back then, automobiles were studied in the foundry area of the old West Engineering Annex, and an old wooden lean-to with a sloped roof, jokingly called “the cow shed.” Volume two of Lay’s scrapbooks at the Bentley describes him wearing galoshes and raincoats inside when it rained. The roof leaked. The wooden “lab” was also a fire risk: he remembered “running pell mell for the fire extinguishers.” (In 1937, the lean-to would partially burn down.)
After graduating, and working as a teaching assistant, Lay became a Major in the Army Ordnance Corps at U-M, training mechanics during World War I. As a professor post-war, he was a student favorite, known for telling the “snazziest” stories in his classes.
He was also known for his humor and kindness. In a letter, one student remembered him giving “argyle socks and fancy neckties” to his assistants for holidays. Lay even won the “Spoofun” cup, a tin funnel with spoons for handles, given to the professor who was the best sport about being mocked, or “roasted,” at an Engineering dinner.
Living with wife Thyrza, two daughters, his wife’s father, and his wife’s father’s hunting dogs (14 champion beagles and, later, six springer spaniels) meant that home was just as lively as work. Fun, for Lay, included reading the encyclopedia at breakfast, explaining mechanics at dinner, singing with friends, building rock gardens, and growing “the largest raspberries and radishes around.”
His favorite pastime, though, was dreaming up a new, safer, automotive laboratory. The old lab’s 1943 addition wasn’t enough. He drew and redrew schematics for years.
In 1956, a new lab was finally built on North Campus; volume two of Professor Lay’s scrapbooks called it his “baby in living concrete and steel.” A bronze bust of Lay was funded by his former students to decorate the space, sculpted by Carleton Angell.
Lay’s daughter Eileen described her father as “powered by a spirit always driven to know the unknown—to cross another frontier—to look for a new and better way.” His name still lives on in the title of today’s Walter E. Lay Automotive Engineering Laboratory, and his life’s work can be perused at the Bentley in the Walter E. Lay papers.
COLLECTIONS, the magazine of the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, is published twice each year. Terrence J. McDonald Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Professor of History and Director Nancy Bartlett Associate Director Lara Zielin Editorial Director Robert Havey Communications Specialist Patricia Claydon, Ballistic Creative Art Direction/Design Copyright ©2021 Regents of the University of Michigan ARTICLES MAY BE REPRINTED BY OBTAINING PERMISSION FROM: Editor, Bentley Historical Library 1150 Beal Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113 PLEASE DIRECT EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE TO: laram@umich.edu 734-936-1342
Regents of the University of Michigan Jordan B. Acker, Huntington Woods Michael J. Behm, Grand Blanc Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor Paul W. Brown, Ann Arbor Sarah Hubbard, Okemos Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms Ron Weiser, Ann Arbor Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor Mark S. Schlissel, ex officio
The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Office for Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647- 1388, institutional.equity@umich.edu. For other University of Michigan information call 734-764-1817.
Land Acknowledgment Statement
The Bentley Historical Library acknowledges that coerced cessions of land by the Anishnaabeg and Wyandot made the University of Michigan possible, and we seek to reaffirm the ancestral and contemporary ties of these peoples to the lands where the University now stands.
Giving New Life to Historic Instruments
HELP INSPIRE THE NEXT GENERATION OF STARGAZERS.
The Detroit Observatory’s original, 165-year-old instruments can help the next generation of students learn and apply science that’s still relevant today. But many of the instruments need to be restored and conserved. For example, by adding a spectrograph to the Fitz telescope, students could learn how statistical science is applied. Or students could use the Meridian Circle telescope to learn how to deduce the composition of a star or planet.
The spirit of science and discovery is alive and well at the Detroit Observatory.
PLEASE USE THE ENCLOSED ENVELOPE OR GIVE ONLINE TODAY.
bentley.umich.edu/giving 734-764-3482
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 1150 BEAL AVENUE ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 48109-2113
Where Michigan’s History Lives
The Bentley Historical Library is now open by appointment only for U-M faculty, students, and staff. The library’s Reference team will continue to receive and respond to remote requests from researchers who are not affiliated with the University, but the ability to check physical collections remains limited and it may take staff some time to respond.
MAKE A RESEARCH REQUEST
Bentley.ref@umich.edu
EXPLORE COLLECTIONS AND FINDING AIDS ONLINE
bentley.umich.edu
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL
facebook.com/bentleyhistoricallibrary @umichbentley @umichbentley
MAKE A GIFT
bentley.umich.edu/giving 734-764-3482
