Mabel MacFerran Rockwell (1902–May 27, 1979) was an electrical engineer and the only woman involved in designing and installing the power generating machinery for

Hoover Dam The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado, Black Canyon of the Colorado River (U.S.), Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, d ...

1. She became an associate member of the

American Institute of Electrical Engineers The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States–based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Inst ...

(AIEE) in 1928, one of the first ten women to join the professional association. MacFerran worked for

Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (SCE), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electric utility company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximate ...

, the

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a regional wholesaler and the largest supplier of treated water in the United States. The name is usually shortened to "Met," "Metropolitan," or "MWD." It is a cooperative of fourteen cit ...

in Los Angeles, the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operatio ...

, and the

Lockheed Corporation The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and merged in 1995 with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but otherwise-u ...

Personal life and education

Mabel MacFerran was born in Philadelphia, PA, in 1902 to Edgar O. and Mabel Alexander MacFerran. Her father was a scientist and her mother an astronomer and mathematician. She was raised in the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

tradition. She attended the Germantown Friends School in Germantown, Pennsylvania. While studying at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

, she had a summer job with the Leeds and Northrup Company, which introduced her to engineering. She transferred to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. In 1925, she graduated first in her class at MIT with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. She moved to California, becoming the Elwell Fellow at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and working with Professor Harris J. Ryan in the million volt laboratory. She obtained a M. S. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford in 1926. MacFerran married fellow engineer Edward W. Rockwell on June 7, 1935. Because they were both members of the AIEE, the society's journal ''Electrical Engineering'' deemed the event newsworthy and published an account in the July 1935 issue. The Rockwells became the fourth couple where both partners were members of the society. At the time, there were only nine female members of the AIEE. The Rockwells had one daughter, Margaret Alice, in 1936. MacFerran and Rockwell divorced in 1958. MacFerran enjoyed activities such as tennis, hiking, and sailing, as well as driving cars very fast. She would also relax with a good murder mystery. She died in Mountain View, California, on May 27, 1979. A memorial service was held at Stanford Memorial Church.

Work and professional life

MacFerran became an associate member of the

(AIEE) in 1928, one of the first ten women to join the professional association. She became an AIEE member in 1935. In 1929 MacFerran joined the

Company Limited as an apprentice testman, becoming the technical assistant to the operating engineer in 1928. She specialized in studies of high voltage power transmission and system stability. She made one of the earliest applications of the method of

symmetrical components In electrical engineering, the method of symmetrical components simplifies the analysis of unbalanced three-phase power systems under both normal and abnormal conditions. The basic idea is that an asymmetrical set of ''N'' phasors can be expresse ...

to power systems. Along with Roy B. Ashbrook, Roy Edwin Quanstrom, and Benjamin F. Dengler, Macferran received US Patent #1,889,086 (filed December 30, 1929, granted November 29, 1932) for a "Protective Gap for Electrical Equipment." This became known as the Serjdetour telephone protector. In 1932 she became an assistant electrical engineer of the

at Los Angeles. She worked on electrical problems with the

Colorado River Aqueduct The Colorado River Aqueduct, or CRA, is a water conveyance in Southern California in the United States, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The aqueduct impounds water from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu on ...

, including economic and engineering studies for the construction power system and the main transmission system. Macferran was the only woman to work on the design and installation of the electrical systems, specifically the power generating equipment, for Boulder Dam (later renamed

). She worked on the economic design of the company's transmission for the dam, which was the basis for her prize-winning paper "Power Limits of 220 Kv Transmission Lines" (co-authored with A. A. Kroneberg). She also designed the transmission and distribution systems for the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...

District in California. In 1938 she became the Plant Electrical Engineer for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation (

) and in 1940 became Production Research Engineer. She led a research team that improved

spot welding Spot welding (or resistance spot welding) is a type of electric resistance welding used to weld various sheet metal products, through a process in which contacting metal surface points are joined by the heat obtained from resistance to electric ...

for aircraft production. She then turned her team's focus to the problems of forming sheet metal airplane parts, publishing a series of articles on this research. From 1946 to 1957 she worked for the US Civil Service. From 1951 to 1953, she was an electrical engineer with the

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

and

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

. She was chief of the power section in the San Joaquin Valley district office in Fresno. After WWII, she went to work for Westinghouse where she designed the electrical control system for the

UGM-27 Polaris The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980. In the mid-1950s the Navy was involved in the Jupiter missi ...

missile launcher. Despite her work in the field, by 1949 she was advocating for a turn from weapons development to working for peace. In an interview with the LA Times, she said: "We know enough about the atom--now it's time for intelligent men everywhere to develop spiritual values. Americans must halt their pursuit of more technical knowledge and devote their time to the elimination of war by turning from things of the mind to things of the spirit."

Awards and honors

In 1929 she won the Initial Paper Prize in the AIEE 8th District for her paper "Parallel Operation of Transformers Whose Ratios of Transformation are Unequal." In 1934 she won the AIEE Pacific District prize for "Power Limits of 220 Kv Transmission Lines" with co-author A. A. Kroneberg. In 1958 President

Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

named her Woman Engineer of the Year. In 1959, she won the SWE Achievement Award from the

Society of Women Engineers The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an international not-for-profit educational and service organization. Founded in 1950 and headquartered in the United States, the Society of Women Engineers is a major advocate for women in engineering and ...

"in recognition of her significant contributions to the field of electrical control systems." She was a member of

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...

Publications

* "Parallel Operation of Transformers Whose Ratios of Transformation are Unequal," 1930 * "Power Limits of 220-Kv Transmission Lines" (with Alex A. Kroneberg), 1934 * "Empirical Method of Calculating Corona Loss From High-Voltage Transmission Lines" (with Joseph S. Carroll), 1937 * "Empirical Method of Calculating Corona Loss From High-Voltage Transmission Lines" (published discussion with E. C. Starr and author), 1938 * "The Development of Aircraft Spotwelding," 1941 * "Mechanics of Deep Drawing Sheet Metal Parts" (with Given Brewer), 1942 * "Stretch-Forming Contoured Sheet Metal Aircraft Parts" (with T. H. Hazlett), 1942 * "Measurements of Drawing Properties of Aluminum Sheet" (with Given A. Brewer), 1942 * "Stress-Strain Relationships in Drawing of Materials" (with G. A. Brewer), 1942 * "Some Factors Affecting the Drawability of Aluminum Sheets" (with G. A. Brewer and V. N. Krivobok), 1942 * "The Effect of Weld Spacing on the Strength of Spot-Welded Joints" (with R. Della-Vedowa), 1942 * "Electrical Power in Aircraft," 1944

References

External links

* {{Authority control Electrical engineers Women engineers Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Society of Women Engineers Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Stanford University School of Engineering alumni Bryn Mawr College people