Photo by Zen
Page 21
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. . . Navelencia . . .
David [Spaulding] graduated from Pasadena College in
1925, after marrying Isal in 1920. . . . He received a
Master’s degree from U.S.C. and taught science for
thirty years, first at Pasadena College Academy, then
at Pasadena High School and city college. He was also
an ordained minister and preached for forty-two years,
mostly to the Spanish speaking people he loved.
. . . Albert B., the oldest of the family . . . married Grace
Whitcomb in 1914 and soon took her back to Springfield,
Illinois, finishing Father’s business in a sub-division
which was left incomplete when the family moved to
California.
Irving recalls: Albert had a car in his basement to which
he attached a vacuum cleaner to the air intake of the
carburetor. During World War I, our planes would lose
their power when they tried to fly above 20,000 or
30,000 feet. Albert went to Dayton, Ohio, to show the
Wright Brothers his invention.
To demonstrate it, a man drove a truck up Pike’s Peak,
the highest elevation they could find with “Albert
Spaulding’s electrically operated compressor.” The
truck driver wired back to the waiting Wrights, “It
works!”
So, during the war, Albert was the manager of Liberty
Motor Development, working with “seventeen engines
in a row.” His inventiveness furthered the development
of engines for high altitude flying. After the war, there
was less interest in this facet of flying, temporarily, so
Albert came to Navelencia.
[Albert Starr Spaulding lost his second wife]