Nathaniel Brackett Wales (11 July 1883, Braintree, Massachusetts – November 15, 1974) was an American inventor credited with early patents on refrigerators, washers, vacuum cleaners, and co-inventor with his son of the proximity detonator used in bombs in World War II.[1]
Wales graduated from Harvard College in 1905.[2] He was the founder of the Kelvinator home appliance company in Detroit, Michigan in 1914.
His daughter Natalie Scarritt Wales (1909-2013), best known as Lady Natalie Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton, was a socialite and philanthropist known for organizing the "Bundles for Britain" campaign during World War II. His son Nathaniel Brackett Wales, Jr. (1915–1969) graduated from Harvard College in 1937. He was a physicist and inventor with over 75 patents.
In 1908 in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Nathaniel B. Wales, Sr. married Enid Mariner Scarritt (1889-1972).[2] They had two children and were divorced in July 1923. In 1928, he married Mary van Wagenen Terry. His final wife was Madge Mariner (1885-1978).
- ^ New York Times:NATHANIEL WALES, INVENTOR, 91, DIES; Physicist Held Patents on Refrigerators, Washers;November 18, 1974
- ^ a b "Nathaniel Brackett Wales". Harvard College Class of 1905. June 1920.