Some of the most important innovations in the automobile industry were the work of Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958), known to his employees as "Boss Kettering" or "Boss Kett". By 1920 he was already well known as the inventor of the first electric self-starter, an electric motor that turned-over the engine of the car, eliminating the necessity of laborious and dangerous hand cranking. That invention, which made it easier for women to become drivers, was introduced in the 1912,Cadillac. During the 1920s, as vice president for research at General Motors, Kettering worked with Thomas, Midgley to develop leaded gasoline, which increased octane and prevented engine knock. Ethyl gasoline, a name coined by Kettering, went on sale in Dayton, Ohio, on 1 February 1923.Kettering also helped to develop Duco, a quick-drying durable lacquer finish for auto bodies, a considerable improvement over older slow-drying auto paints. When...