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Mabel MacFerran Rockwell

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Mabel MacFerran Rockwell
Born1902
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedMay 27, 1979
Mountain View, California
EducationBryn Mawr College
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
SpouseEdward W. Rockwelll
AwardsSWE Achievement Award
Scientific career
FieldsElectrical Engineering
InstitutionsSouthern California Edison
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

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 1. She became an associate member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) in 1928, one of the first ten women to join the professional association. MacFerran worked for Southern California Edison, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in Los Angeles, the United States Bureau of Reclamation, and the Lockheed Corporation.

Personal life and education

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Mabel MacFerran was born in Philadelphia, PA, in 1902 to Edgar O. and Mabel Alexander MacFerran.[1] Her father was a scientist and her mother an astronomer and mathematician. She was raised in the Quaker tradition.[2]

She attended the Germantown Friends School in Germantown, Pennsylvania.[1] While studying at Bryn Mawr College, she had a summer job with the Leeds and Northrup Company, which introduced her to engineering.[3] She transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[4] In 1925, she graduated first in her class at MIT with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.[5] She moved to California, becoming the Elwell Fellow at Stanford University and working with Professor Harris J. Ryan in the million volt laboratory.[3] She obtained a M. S. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford in 1926.[6]

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.[4]

The Rockwells had one daughter, Margaret Alice, in 1936.[7] MacFerran and Rockwell divorced in 1958.[5]

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.[7]

She died in Mountain View, California, on May 27, 1979. A memorial service was held at Stanford Memorial Church.[8]

Work and professional life

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MacFerran became an associate member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) in 1928, one of the first ten women to join the professional association.[9] She became an AIEE member in 1935.[3]

In 1929 MacFerran joined the Southern California Edison Company Limited as an apprentice testman, becoming the technical assistant to the operating engineer in 1928.[3] 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 to power systems.[1]

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.[10]

In 1932 she became an assistant electrical engineer of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California at Los Angeles.[4] She worked on electrical problems with the Colorado River Aqueduct, including economic and engineering studies for the construction power system and the main transmission system.[3] She designed the transmission and distribution systems for the San Joaquin Valley District in California.[10] She worked on the economic design of the company's transmission for Boulder Dam (later renamed Hoover Dam), which was the basis for her prize-winning paper "Power Limits of 220 Kv Transmission Lines" (co-authored with A. A. Kroneberg).[3]

In 1938 she became the Plant Electrical Engineer for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation (Lockheed Corporation) and in 1940 became Production Research Engineer. She led a research team that improved spot welding 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.[1]

From 1946 to 1957 she worked for the US Civil Service. From 1951 to 1953, she was an electrical engineer with the United States Bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento, California and Fresno, California. She was chief of the power section in the San Joaquin Valley district office in Fresno.[8]

After WWII, she went to work for Westinghouse where she designed the electrical control system for the UGM-27 Polaris missile launcher.[11] 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."[2]

Awards and honors

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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."[12]

In 1934 she won the AIEE Pacific District prize for "Power Limits of 220 Kv Transmission Lines" with co-author A. A. Kroneberg.[3]

In 1958 President Eisenhower named her Woman Engineer of the Year.[11]

In 1959, she won the SWE Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers "in recognition of her significant contributions to the field of electrical control systems."[13]

She was a member of Sigma Xi.[3]

Publications

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  • "Parallel Operation of Transformers Whose Ratios of Transformation are Unequal," 1930[14]
  • "Power Limits of 220-Kv Transmission Lines" (with Alex A. Kroneberg), 1934[15]
  • "Empirical Method of Calculating Corona Loss From High-Voltage Transmission Lines" (with Joseph S. Carroll), 1937[16]
  • "Empirical Method of Calculating Corona Loss From High-Voltage Transmission Lines" (published discussion with E. C. Starr and author), 1938[17]
  • "The Development of Aircraft Spotwelding," 1941[18]
  • "Mechanics of Deep Drawing Sheet Metal Parts" (with Given Brewer), 1942[19]
  • "Stretch-Forming Contoured Sheet Metal Aircraft Parts" (with T. H. Hazlett), 1942[20]
  • "Measurements of Drawing Properties of Aluminum Sheet" (with Given A. Brewer), 1942[21]
  • "Stress-Strain Relationships in Drawing of Materials" (with G. A. Brewer), 1942[22]
  • "Some Factors Affecting the Drawability of Aluminum Sheets" (with G. A. Brewer and V. N. Krivobok), 1942[23]
  • "The Effect of Weld Spacing on the Strength of Spot-Welded Joints" (with R. Della-Vedowa), 1942[24]
  • "Electrical Power in Aircraft," 1944[25]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Goff, Alice C. (1946). Women Can Be Engineers. Youngstown, Ohio: Edward Brothers, Inc. pp. 94–112.
  2. ^ a b "Scientist Warns: Enough Atomics; Now for Soul". Los Angeles Times. Jan 30, 1949. p. 3.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "Personal items". Electrical Engineering. 54 (9): 1018–1022. 1935. doi:10.1109/EE.1935.6540196. ISSN 2376-7804.
  4. ^ a b c "A Marriage Between 2 Institute Members". Electrical Engineering. 54 (7): 787. 1935. doi:10.1109/EE.1935.6538957. ISSN 2376-7804.
  5. ^ a b Mitnick, Steve (2021). Women Leading Utilities: The Pioneers and Path to Today and Tomorrow (PDF). Lines Up, Inc. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-7360142-3-3.
  6. ^ "Notes About Contributors in This Issue". Metal Progress. 41 (June): 860.
  7. ^ a b "Bristol Herald Courier from Bristol, Tennessee". Newspapers.com. 1941-07-27. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
  8. ^ a b "Mabel Macferran Rockwell, 1958's Woman Engineer". The Fresno Bee. June 7, 1979. p. 63.
  9. ^ "List of women members of the A.I.E.E." Electrical Engineering. 53 (5): 835–835. 1934. doi:10.1109/EE.1934.6541647. ISSN 2376-7804.
  10. ^ a b Hoh, Yin Kiong. "Outstanding women in mechanical engineering" (PDF). International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education. 35 (3): 204.
  11. ^ a b Wang, Katherine T.; Tietjen, Jill S. Women in Renewable Energy. Springer.
  12. ^ "A. I. E. E. section activities". Journal of the A.I.E.E. 49 (10): 888–888. 1930. doi:10.1109/JAIEE.1930.6536385. ISSN 2376-5976.
  13. ^ "SWE Awards". ETHW. 2024-10-20. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
  14. ^ Macferran, Mabel (1930). "Parallel Operation of Transformers Whose Ratios of Transformation are Unequal". Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. 49 (1): 125–131. doi:10.1109/T-AIEE.1930.5055467. ISSN 2330-9431.
  15. ^ Kroneberg, Alex A.; Macferran, Mabel (1934). "Power Limits of 220-Kv Transmission Lines". Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. 53 (12): 1794–1802. doi:10.1109/T-AIEE.1934.5056602. ISSN 2330-9431.
  16. ^ Carroll, Joseph S.; Rockwell, Mabel Macferran (1937). "Empirical method of calculating corona loss from high-voltage transmission lines". Electrical Engineering. 56 (5): 558–565. doi:10.1109/EE.1937.6539813. ISSN 2376-7804.
  17. ^ Carroll, Joseph H.; Rockwell, Mabel Macferran (1938). "Empirical method of calculating corona loss from high-voltage transmission lines". Electrical Engineering. 57 (3): 168–169. doi:10.1109/EE.1938.6431191. ISSN 2376-7804.
  18. ^ Rockwell, Mabel M. (1941). "The Development of Aircraft Spotwelding". Aviation. 40 (July): 42–43.
  19. ^ Brewer, Given; Rockwell, Mrs. Mabel MacFerran (1942). "Mechanics of Deep Drawing Sheet Metal Parts". Aero Digest. 40 (February): 126–135.
  20. ^ Hazlett, T. H.; Rockwell, Mabel (1942). "Stretch-Forming Contoured Sheet Metal Aircraft Parts". The Iron Age. 149 (June 4): 49–53.
  21. ^ Brewer, Given A.; Rockwell, Mabel M. (1942). "Measurements of Drawing Properties of Aluminum Sheet". Metal Progress. 41 (May): 663–668.
  22. ^ Brewer, G. A.; Rockwell, M. M. (1942). "Stress-Strain Relationships in Drawing of Materials". Metal Progress. 41 (June): 806–810.
  23. ^ Brewer, G. A.; Krivobok, Allison; Rockwell, Mabel M. (1942). "Some Factors Affecting the Drawability of Aluminum Sheets". Metal Progress. 42 (July): 62–65.
  24. ^ Della-Vedowa, R.; Rockwell, M. M. (1942). "The Effect of Weld Spacing on the Strength of Spot-Welded Joints". The Welding Journal. 21 (10): 514-s – 523-s.
  25. ^ Rockwell, Mabel Macferran (1944). "Electric power in aircraft". Electrical Engineering. 63 (11): 400–402. doi:10.1109/EE.1944.6440549. ISSN 2376-7804.
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  • US 1889086  "Protective Gap for Electrical Equipment"
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