George B. Karelitz
George B. Karelitz (1895-1943)
1944 Obituary [1]
Professor GEORGE B. KARELITZ, whose death occurred on 19th January 1943, had occupied the chair of mechanical engineering at Columbia University, New York City, U.S.A. since 1937, and had an international reputation as an eminent authority on lubrication and bearings, to the study of which he contributed much original and productive research.
He was born in Russia in 1895 and took courses in mechanical engineering and naval architecture at the Imperial Polytechnic Institute, St. Petersburg, from 1912 to 1917. After a year's service in the Russian Navy as chief engineer of the cruiser Askold he was appointed consulting engineer for the North Western District of Waterways of Russia. In 1921 he came to America and established a connection with the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company which lasted to the end of his career, his first appointment being that of repair engineer at San Francisco.
In 1923 he joined the company's works at Philadelphia as junior turbine engineer, but transferred to East Pittsburgh two years later to become a research engineer in the mechanics division of the Westinghouse laboratories. At this period he began his researches in the field of lubrication and bearings, as a result of which, many important technical papers were published and appeared in the transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. At a later date several papers under joint authorship on the subject of photo-elasticity and stresses in pipe bends were also published.
Professor Karelitz took an active part in the activities of the Society, becoming a member of the Research Committee and subsequently chairman. His interest in the work of the Mechanical Design School, initiated by the Westinghouse Company, led to his appointment in 1930 as assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University. In the following year, however, he returned to the Westinghouse Company as manager of the Marine Division of the South Philadelphia engineering department, resuming his professional duties in 1933, the Westinghouse Company meanwhile retaining his services as consultant, in which latter capacity he also acted for the Navy Department during the last eighteen months of his life.
Professor Karelitz, who was elected a Member of the Institution in 1938, contributed to the General Discussion on Lubrication, held in the previous year.